Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In this path-breaking and entertaining study, the author concentrates on the problem of what to wear rather than describing what is worn. She demonstrates how different individuals and groups have used clothes to assert power, challenge authority, define or conceal identity, and instigate or prevent social change at various levels of Indian society from the village to the nation.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgements
• Glossary of Foreign Words
• Abbreviations
• Preface: Reflections on a Portrait
• 1 Introduction: The Problem of What to Wear
• 2 Searching for a Solution in the late Nineteenth Century
• 3 Gandhi and the Recreation of Indian Dress
• 4 Is Khadi the Solution?
• 5 Questions of Dress in a Gujarati Village
• 6 Some Brahman Dilemmas
• 7 Some Peasant Dilemmas (Kanbi and Kharak)
• 8 Some Pastoralist (Bharwad) and Scheduled caste (Harijan) Dilemmas
• 9 Fashion Fables of an Urban Village
• 10 Dressing for Distinction: A Historical Review Postscript: A Return Visit to India, 1993-1994
• Bibliography
• Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Tarlo analyzes complexities of clothing in India during the past two centuries. She depicts British fitted clothing and the adopted solo topi (pith helmet) as symbols of British imperial dominance, contrasted to Indian draped clothing and turbans associated with colonial subservience. Colonial elite males were forced to decide whether to maintain native dress and be considered "uncivilized" by the British or copy European models. Solutions varied: using foreign fabrics in Indian styles, mixing Indian and European garments, wearing different styles in varying social settings, or adopting full European dress. After independence, Indian leaders adopted a "unity in diversity" policy on tours by wearing local headdresses symbolizing democratic political affinity between leaders and peoples. In 1988, Tarlo began anthropological fieldwork in several villages. She devotes five chapters to specific, in-depth personal experiences related to individual/family/village uses of clothing throughout life cycles, ending with references to acceptance of some modern Western influences (e.g., American jeans) in contemporary urban village-suburbs, and a paradoxical interest in "ethnic chic" (wearing of traditional village clothing by high-society, fashion-conscious individuals searching for roots). Overall, this study provides important local documentation for Western readers and reinforces the premise that clothing as personal identification plays a critical role in the mainstream of world affairs. All levels. B. B. Chico Regis University