My jeans and all “modest” tops were packed into my suitcase while shorts, tank tops and any outfit that happened to show off my hard-earned summer tan were relegated to the back of my closet to be used next year. I was traveling to India for the latter half of the summer after spending the first half in Austin, and a change of wardrobe was necessary. Both Austin and India had similar climates, but completely different approaches towards what was appropriate dress for the summer.

There are several events that are contributing to a distinct trend in India. As we get inundated with supermalls and Western brands, Indian society is going through a backlash to such rapid “Westoxification” albeit through relatively peaceful means. The Mangalore pub incident (an incident in which men and women in a bar in the South Indian city of Mangalore were attacked by members of the Sri Ram Sena in January 2009, because they were behaving in an obscene manner)¹, numerous stray comments by police officials on the topic of women behaving “modestly” and the recent rule² banning dancing in Bangalore are examples of this trend. In my personal experience, I have had female friends rounded up in bars in Chennai, taken to the police station and lectured for being “immoral”. They were not allowed to leave until their parents came to the police station to get them. Some of these women were in their mid-to late twenties. It is puzzling that the land of the Kama Sutra and Khajuraho now more closely resembles Victorian England than England itself.

There is an unwritten rule that governs life in India: women need to always be mindful of the fact that they are going to be ogled at should they wear anything the slightest bit revealing. The stares intensify when a woman wears revealing and Western clothes together and she usually gets subjected to unflattering propositions from the worthies on the street. The proof is there for anyone to see in any Bollywood movie. The vamp always wears revealing western clothes, while the good girl who ends up with the guy always wears a sari.

This attitude towards revealing clothes in particular is rather puzzling, because it certainly wasn’t always the case. In my grandparents’ house stands a bronze statue of a style of sculpture dating from the Chola period. It is of a topless woman holding a garland, and it stands in the middle of my grandparents’ living room. Fisherwomen in Chennai remained topless right up to fifteen years ago. It was the same in Travancore state in Kerala until Independence. They did not wear a blouse underneath their saris. It was customary for women on the street to take off the upper part of their sari as a sign of respect when the King of Travancore passed them on the streets. Today, if a woman decided to go topless in Travancore, she would possibly be imprisoned for indecent exposure, but not before facing serious damage to her physical person from a mob of sexually repressed Indian men.

I’ve always wondered when the great change happened. Many people point to the Muslim period of Indian history as the time when the purdah  became common and women were required to dress more modestly. However, there is proof that in South India, women did not have to cover up until very recently as can be seen from accounts of fisherwomen in Chennai plying their trade while topless all the way till the middle of the twentieth century. The recent repeal of the law against gay sex in India is an example of an archaic Victorian law that remained in India decades after it became irrelevant in England. So perhaps Indian society has been fundamentally altered by contact with Victorian England, to a much greater extent than is generally accepted.

This trend has serious consequences for women’s empowerment and protection from sexual abuse. I remember reading an article many years ago about the Police Commissioner of Mumbai making a comment about women being raped in nightclubs. His response was that if women dressed more decently, this wouldn’t happen. In short, he was implying that by dressing provocatively, women were asking to be raped and deserved their fate. Women going to pubs and wearing jeans, or wearing revealing clothes has been associated with undesirable “Westernization” and hence to a loss or a dilution of culture, although in the case of the revealing clothes there is enough proof to show that women revealing skin is not a uniquely Western phenomenon. Our ancients certainly did it, for the simple reason that the climate dictated it. The most disturbing aspect of this entire attitude, in my opinion, is the implication that women are responsible for mens’ inability to control themselves and hence must take steps to protect themselves by dressing modestly.

What I find ironic is that when I go to a club or bar in India, women tend to wear skimpier clothes than I ordinarily would even in Austin. While it is unacceptable to wear those clothes in most situations, in the context of going clubbing or partying, anything goes. In my opinion, the best context to wear skimpy clothes is outdoors, in the heat, but that is in fact the least appropriate situation. It seems rather counter-intuitive. In a way, revealing clothes or Western clothes are a statement about rebelling from the status quo. This in turns feeds a (sometimes) violent reaction to it in the form of moral policing. It is strange to me that something our ancients found so natural and in tune with climactic conditions is now a deeply politicized issue.