« India now outsourcing to Mexico. Culprit: The Rupee Vs. The Dollar. :+: Brokering the happily ever after… »

Culture

Is Chennai’s cricket club bastardizing the veshti?

By: Santosh :+: Under: Culture, Desi Ishtyle, It Happens Only in India
On: ⋅ June 8, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
Discuss in our off-topic forums

Looks like you are new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Chennai’s “prestigious” Cricket Club thinks that veshtis are the devil.

Dhotis and veshtis not allowed
img: via IBN

A Narayanan was denied entry into a lecture at the Cricket Club because he showed up in traditional Tamil attire - a veshti.

I’ve always struggled with the fine balance dress code enforcement brings. The entire dress code topic is so subjective - what is appropriate for person A maybe inappropriate for person B. Living in a diverse society like India, its hard to enforce dress code considering the wide variety of clothing and traditions. This rule most likely stems from a colonial hangover - probably cooked up by English gentlemen wearing trousers and sipping on tea (with a spot of milk).

It should be pointed out that the club is a private entity and was well within its rights to deny Narayanan entry based on a dress code. But there are two problems with that rule: lack of standard enforcement across the board and the rule itself is selectively discriminatory.

I really doubt whether that enforcement is uniform across the board. Like the article points out, if Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi showed up in a veshti, the dress code police would conveniently look the other way. So then it becomes a matter of who you are versus what you wear.

Also the rule is selectively discriminatory. What about headgear and burqas? If banning a headgear or a burqa is wrong, and I think it is, banning a veshti is also wrong for the exact same reasons.

So, while the Chennai cricket club was probably within its rights, its probably time for an overhaul, or, even better, abolition of its dress code laws.

« India now outsourcing to Mexico. Culprit: The Rupee Vs. The Dollar. :+: Brokering the happily ever after… »
Discuss in our off-topic forums