I. Tarlo and "The Problem of What to Wear"

A. Clothing Matters: the "problem of what to wear" in India, 19th-20th c.
B. Three processes of dress

1. Classification: group membership, fitting in, distinguishing oneself
2. Identification: clothes express allegiance to group(s)
3. Communication: messages can be ambiguous, confusing, open to multiple interpretations

C. British colonialism disrupted classification, identification, and communication

 

II. The Great Transformation: The Consumer Revolution in England (McCracken)

A. Elizabethan England (last quarter of the 16th century)

1. Queen Elizabeth I: lavish court expenditures and displays
2. Nobles compete in conspicuous consumption

B. 18th century

1. Consumerism spreads to rest of population
2. Number and availability of goods increases
3. Fashion

C. 19th century

1. Consumer revolution is entrenched
2. Department stores: get goods, learn about consumption possibilities
3. Consumption as self-expression

 

III. British Colonialism, Industrialization, and Consumption

A. McCracken doesn't tell us where goods come from and why affordable: colonialism and industrialization
B. Colonialism (c. 1500 - 1970s): Three stages

1. Exploration (late 15th-mid 17th centuries)

a. Outposts in America, Africa, and Asia
b. Late 1400s: Portuguese explore southern Africa toward India
c. Spanish conquistadors in North and South America
d. French in Canada in 17th century
e. English in North America
f. Tensions between Spain and Britain during Queen Elizabeth I's reign

i. Spanish blockade West Indies
ii. British ships smuggle African slaves to West Indies
iii. British pirates plunder Spanish ships, share booty with Queen Elizabeth
iv. 1588: Spanish armada attacks Britain, loses
v. Britain becomes major seafaring and commercial power

2. Mercantilism (17th century and 18th centuries)

a. Theory

i. National wealth is measured by gold and silver
ii. Colonies exist to benefit the mother country, help achieve profit
iii. Mother country gets raw materials, sells colonies finished products
iv. Monopolistic trade

b. British East India Company

i. Joint stock company formed in 1600
ii. Arrives in Surat, India in 1608:

iii. Establishes trading posts: Gujarat (1612), Chennai (Madras) (1640), Mumbai (Bombay) (1668), Calcutta (1690)

c. French establish presence in India

3. Imperialism (late 18th-mid 20th century)

a. Adam Smith's laissez-faire philosophy: free trade better than monopolies
b. Industrial Revolution starts in England in 1760s
c. Industrial nations want to expand markets for manufactured goods
d. Colonies supply industrial raw materials and food
e. Imperialist economic policies

i. Land-holding: private property, European acquisition, plantations
ii. Cheap wage labor for commercial agriculture and mining
iii. Encourage spread of money and commodities, money payments for taxes, land rents
iv. Block native production and exports

f. Direct rule, new legal codes, cultural assimilation, military force

i. French kicked out of India
ii. East India Company rules country until Rebellion of 1857
iii. 1858: Britain begins direct rule of India

g. Imperialism accelerates, late 19th-early 20th centuries

i. More nations: Germany, the United States, Belgium, Italy, Japan, and Russia
ii. More territory: China (trade zones), Africa
iii. 1914: 85% of Earth's land = colonial powers, colonies, and former colonies

C. World Wars and Russian Revolution destabilize colonies
D. India independence: 1947
E. 1950s-1970s: most colonies become independent
F. Correlation between three periods of colonialism and three periods of consumption

1. Exploration = Elizabethan courtly consumption
2. Consumer revolution = mercantilism, goods available to more and more classes in Britain because of wealth and raw material extraction from colonies
3. Entrenchment of consumerism = Imperialism, clothing used to distinguish people in colonial settings

 

IV. British Responses to Indian Dress

A. British as civilized, Indian men as naked and disgraceful: dhoti
B. Gracefulness of Indian men's dress

1. Flowing lines
2. Effeminate, Indian men as weak and powerless

C. Civilizing mission

1. Missionaries distributed saris and respectable Indian clothes
2. Cloth and clothes increasingly manufactured in England
3. British manufacturers try to conform to traditional Indian tastes, appeal to lower classes
4. British create Indian elites: educate, but keep distinct

a. Serve as mediators
b. British worry about power of elite Indians
c. Boundary maintenance

i. British in India maintain European style: sun helmet, suits, light colors, perfectly pressed and starched clothes
ii. Indian dress regulated at school
iii. "oriental" touches added to military uniforms
iv. Decrees govern Indian dress for ceremonial and official events

D. Goal of British sartorial policies

1. Improve Indian standards of dress
2. Promote consumption of British goods
3. Keep Indians distinct from Europeans, inferior

 

V. Indian Sartorial Responses to British Rule

A. Indian problems of "what to wear"

1. European clothes = civilization, power, and masculinity
2. Change in clothes = change in culture, risk of alienation

a. Sitting on floor
b. Head coverings and issues of respect
c. Shoes: wear inside?

B. Problems faced by men only, Indian women had to be modest, wear saris
C. Four choices

1. Foreign fabrics, traditional styles

a. Women wore British manufactured saris
b. Men Europeanized traditional garments
c. Accepted by other Indians
d. Satisfied British: look Indian, buy English cloth

2. Combine Indian and European

a. Popular in cities
b. British coat over dhoti
c. Ridiculed by British, disdained by other Indians

3. Change clothes according to context

a. Home = Indian clothes
b. Work, public spaces = European clothes
c. Strategic move: maximize clothing benefits
d. Changing clothes = inconvenient
e. Early 20th c.: British-educated returnees stopped switching, became Europeanized

4. Full European dress

a. Suits and turbans
b. British still discriminated against Indians on basis of skin color
c. Indian peers: putting on airs

D. Dimensions of complicated problem of what to wear

1. Economic: promote British industry, European clothing was expensive
2. Political: boundary maintenance, challenge of boundaries
3. Private decisions