This is the time for shopping. It is perhaps also the time to realise that a pocket revolution is by no means pocket-sized. Women are becoming increasingly vocal about the lack of pockets in their clothing with the #WeWantPockets hashtag trending on social media. The lack of pockets in women’s garments is not only felt to be inconvenient but also a mark of gender inequality in clothing, a sign of patriarchal control. But women’s demand for pockets is not recent. Suffragettes demanded them; the pocket was a symbol of equality and freedom. Amazingly, women are still fighting for it. The history of women’s pockets is long and convoluted. That they have always needed it is clear from the fact that in the 16th and the 17th centuries, women had tie-on pockets underneath their skirts in which they kept keys and money, snuffboxes and other valuables. Even this was hidden from the eye. But this too changed with Regency fashions when form-fitting dresses came in; evidently, women were to be dressed as pretty objects rather than autonomous beings who could carry whatever they liked on their own persons. Fashion dictated that in the rare design which had pockets for women, they would be narrow and shallow or just fake. Women designers who tried to introduce deep pockets for women in the 20th century were quite defeated by famous male designers in the pockets war.

There were apparently times when women were rumoured to be witches if they had pockets, for they were supposed to be holding secret potions and herbs. Or women were supposed to be hiding love notes. That is, anything men could not see was a harmful secret. That was, of course, years ago. Now it appears things may have started changing in the West. But there is a huge handbag industry offering pushback. After all, a designer handbag, like shoes, is a mark of status, sophistication and wealth. The poor pocket cannot compete with it in elegance. But designer or not, the handbag means a further limitation on women’s freedom of movement, just as society and fashion like it.

How will the pocket revolution affect women’s clothes closer home? It is difficult still to conceive of a sari with pockets, even though it would be most convenient around this time, the Puja season. The long queues before payment counters grow longer as each woman fiddles in her handbag for her purse. But kameezes and salwars are beginning to have deep pockets; there are women who order that at the tailor’s. Some salwars are being manufactured in that way. Maybe the pocket revolution has already come home, without fuss or aggression, maybe women here are just getting the job done. Fashions change, so this too might be a moment in a cycle in the West, or it might be perpetuated as women take over the right to express their identity and needs in the clothes they wear. After all, what is cooler or more confident than a stance with one hand in a pocket?