01-18-2007, 03:37 AM
A lot of Indians claim "comfort level" for the decline of traditional clothing but it has more to do with the dominant trend in the world today, the West holds the dominant position so naturally their culture will percolate to other nations, take the native languages today, you will find that in many of them half the time english words are mixed in with the local language, does this also have to do with comfort level?
I do not feel uncomfortable to use Telugu words instead of English one's and neither do other's, but I still use English words unconciously even though they have common Telugu equivalents, the reason for that has nothing to do with comfort level, it has everything to do with the fact that English is the dominant language in the world today and not enough emphasis is put on the native languages by the middle class.
So comfort level I don't think is a valid reason, how the hell is a cumbersome jeans more comfortable than the plain old panche, yet people prefer jeans in the hot Indian climate because that is what is marketed as being cool and hip in the media and in the movies.
But I think Sari still has it's base in rural India along with other traditional attire, so it's not all doom and gloom, that is why rural India need's to be the majority if our uniqueness and cultural heritage has to survive, otherwise we will end up like Japan where people have dumped Kimono's and wear plain old western clothes.
I do not feel uncomfortable to use Telugu words instead of English one's and neither do other's, but I still use English words unconciously even though they have common Telugu equivalents, the reason for that has nothing to do with comfort level, it has everything to do with the fact that English is the dominant language in the world today and not enough emphasis is put on the native languages by the middle class.
So comfort level I don't think is a valid reason, how the hell is a cumbersome jeans more comfortable than the plain old panche, yet people prefer jeans in the hot Indian climate because that is what is marketed as being cool and hip in the media and in the movies.
But I think Sari still has it's base in rural India along with other traditional attire, so it's not all doom and gloom, that is why rural India need's to be the majority if our uniqueness and cultural heritage has to survive, otherwise we will end up like Japan where people have dumped Kimono's and wear plain old western clothes.