142044 UE South Asian Cloth Culture in a Global Context (2023S)

Commenting on the clothing behavior of Indians in 10th century, famous Persian-Muslim scholar and traveler, Alberuni told us: “They use turbans for trousers. Those who want little dress are content to dress in a rag of two fingers’ breadth, which they bind over their loins with two cords; but those who like much dress, wear trousers lined with so much cotton as would suffice to make a number of counterpanes and saddle-rugs. These trousers have no (visible) openings, and they are so huge that the feet are not visible. The string by which the trousers are fastened is at the back.”
But, if we look at the present-day South Asia, we are faced with a staggering number of vestiary varieties and an amazingly rich repertoire of styles to dress oneself. Did all these subtle sartorial nuances result from the foreign forces that came to the region and ruled there for centuries? The course will trace the history of Indian/South Asian costumes along with the Indian textile from the ancient times to the present day and its confluence with Muslim and European cloth culture(s) that made South Asian repertoire even more versatile and richer. The following topics, though not limited to these issues, will be discussed at length: Sociology of body, South Asian history of costumes, Dress and religious identity (Muslim skullcap, and Sikh’s Turban), Dress and ethnic identity, Politics and/of dress (Gandhi; Khadi/Lion cloth/Spinning Wheel, role of Fez hat in the Khilafat Movement etc.), Erotics of Clothes (Case of Bollywood), Dress and Gender, Cross-dressing etc. Furthermore, we will discuss dresses in terms of different pieces of clothes – Sarees, Shalwar Kameez, Pajama, etc. to deepen our study and to understand more closely the significance, symbolism and semiotics of south Asian cloth culture in the region and beyond.
In order to locate the subject in its global context, we will be tracing foreign influences on south Asian cloth culture, especially those of the Muslim and British legacies. Similarly, the presence of South Asian cloth culture in diaspora will be another aspect of the global dimension.
The course will be multidisciplinary in nature: it will draw insight from history, sociology, fashion studies, women/men/gender studies, Postcolonial theory, Religious Studies and Political Science and, further, in order to elucidate the scholarly discussion, we may take examples from literature, film and paintings as well.