A dhoti resurgence as work from home becomes the norm

The pants are off now as shorts of multi-coloured hues adorn the nether regions of men. Work from home hasn't been kind to trousers, once the showstoppers in men's attire. With the likes of Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet turning the focus solely on the top, the bottom has literally fallen out of the male wardrobe.

Yet, just once in a while there's a scare, as when you get up to fetch some papers, only to realize you have been exposed. That lurid pair of shorts or even worse the checkered boxers on display have the potential to bring your own and your company's stock down a few notches.

Time then, to bring back the good old dhoti, that four yards of unstitched cloth, apotheosized into a convenient wrap around for men.

It is functional, comfortable and makes a fashion statement. Worn with a smart shirt and even a jacket on top, it is equally suitable for lounging in an easy chair as it is to sit upright at the work desk. Since the standard dhoti is almost always white or off white, it can be matched with virtually any shirt.

The dhoti dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization and continued to be used throughout Indian history by emperors and commoners alike. Hindu Gods too have mostly been depicted wearing some form of it. Indeed, for a country whose sartorial choices have been influenced by outsiders and invaders like the Persians and the British, the dhoti has been the one constant and quintessentially Indian garment. Even the term dhoti is generally believed to have originated from the Sanskrit word dhauta meaning to cleanse or wash. Over the years, it morphed into various regional avatars like mundu, vesti, dhuti, laacha, chaadra, dhotar, mardaani or pancha.

As a visible expression of Indian identity, it was standard wear before and immediately after Independence with men like the erudite Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan in his bandh-gala suit over a dhoti or C Rajagopalachari in his white khadi jacket and dhoti, wearing it with pride. In popular culture too, the dhoti conferred dignity and respect on the wearer. Think of the upright schoolmaster of the 1972 N T Rama Rao classic Badi Panthulu or the memorable bade babu of the 1972 Rajesh Khanna-starrer Bawarchi.

Paradoxically, with the exit of the British, the dhoti went into hiding to be replaced by the ugly and uncomfortable trousers. Truth be told, pants were never really made for the Indian male with his signature paunch atop mostly short legs making for a rather comical combination. Often it led to the ungainly sight of men constantly hitching up their trousers or sneakily loosening a button for some room to breath.

There have been recent attempts to restore the dhoti to its rightful place, around men's waists. Last year, the Tamil Nadu government told its staff to avoid casualwear to work and cleared the dhoti as a reflection of Tamil culture. And this year, on January 6, officials at the Chief Secretariat in Puducherry came to work in veshtis, white shirts and shawls to celebrate the International Dhoti Day. But the dhoti’s real moment of glory came in 2019 when Abhijit Banerjee, winner of the year’s Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, wore a white, gold-bordered dhoti in Bengali style paired with a kurta and a bandhgala for the awards ceremony in Stockholm. It should have set off a sartorial revolution in the country, but the Indian corporate executive, conservative to a fault and too inhibited to stand out, stuck to his pant-shirt routine.

Till the COVID-19 pandemic stuck. Locked down at home and no longer called upon to show up in formals, it was time to dress down for on-camera meetings. In the bargain, the tie lost its place as did the formal trousers, to be replaced by cargos and bermudas. But the dhoti remains confined to the back of the cupboard, awaiting the return of the ceremonial occasion when it can be aired.

(Sundeep Khanna is a senior journalist. Views are personal.)