It is interesting how certain issues dominate public attention at certain times. In India, in particular, where hidebound conventions have ruled the minds of people for centuries, there appears to be a major incursion of Western mores and modern technology nowadays, shaking our socio-cultural fabric. The media has grown powerful, the electronic version in particular. Nothing escapes public attention now.

The media, the CCTV cameras, and the little spying bugs are everywhere, reducing privacy into a matter of the past. For some time now, rape has held public attention in thrall and important persons, who want to be in the limelight for various reasons, have been airing their views on this subject.

Some of them said that there would be no cases of rape if women did not wear modern revealing dresses in imitation of the West and wore traditional dresses in conformity with the cultural norms of our country.

The sari or the churidar-pyjama complete with the veil, or the burqa, according to them, does not attract the rapist by rousing lustful thoughts in his mind. Some have countered this argument saying that little children or minor girls, who have been victim of this heinous crime, cannot be clothed in saris or burqas, and that Western dresses such as shirts, jeans, and trousers, worn by many women are not revealing at all.

Recently, an extraordinary controversy has captured the attention of people when a Tamilian judge was denied entry into an exclusive club, where he was invited as an honoured guest, but where, unfortunately, a dress code was in place.

He was clad in shirt and dhoti, but was required to put on a suit to set foot in that club. The judge refused to wear a suit on the ground that the dhoti was his national dress and ministers and MPs entered the parliament and assemblies in dhotis.

This kicked up a storm and even the chief minister of Tamil Nadu came out with a statement condemning the club and threatening to derecognise it.

The turban of the Sikh soldier created problems in the Western armies in the past, and I wonder what would happen if somebody insisted on wearing a dhoti in the battlefield or the sports arena. Don’t we see the dhoti-clad south Indian movie heroes fighting grim battles with groups of hooligans and vanquishing them? It would be fascinating to fantasise troops of the Indian army or the navy or the air force in dhotis worn in the south Indian or north Indian styles. I still remember how voices were raised in protest when a woman tennis player professing a certain religion, in which women were required to wear burqas, appeared in shorts in the tennis court. I wonder if a burqa-clad woman can play tennis.

It was a long, long journey from the animal hides of the Arctic region or the Russian Steppes or Central Asia, from where the Aryans are said to have come to India seven or eight thousand years ago, to the soft, smooth garments into which they changed in this warm country.

I wonder who thought of a dress code for the first time in those ancient times. Think of the ancient Greeks in their long, loose robes in peace time, coat of mail and helmet in war, and almost naked in the sports arena. Think of the Haj in Mecca, where the devout circumambulate the Kaba, looking so much like Hindu or Buddhist or Jain monks.

The British were sticklers for dress codes and they used to change even at dinnertime. The American influence has changed all that and the British are not as rigid about the dress code today as in the past.

In this context, I do not understand why some private bodies such as clubs, which are not statutory organisations, insist on dress codes. The powers that be in these bodies should be flexible in their attitudes and make exceptions now and then to avoid unnecessary controversies. The visitors to these clubs also should be flexible and make an exception where necessary by respecting the prevalent dress code. After all, nobody is born dressed in a suit or a dhoti. If the managers of the club in question had informed the invited guest about their dress code beforehand, this embarrassment might have been avoided. Most controversies in our country are avoidable and take up a lot of time and energy, which could be used fruitfully otherwise.

(The author taught English literature at Utkal University)