A Glimpse Into Traditional Indian Dance Wear
Keeping traditions and culture in a foreign country is no easy task for immigrants. Navigating their home lives with their new surroundings can be daunting, and they may often feel discouraged to keep their customs, but immigrant communities around the world are still able to celebrate their heritage wherever they are in an innovative way.
I was first introduced to Indian culture through my best friend, Tulsi Patel, who throughout our adolescence would bring me to Indian weddings, restaurants and cultural gatherings such as Indian dance competitions, in which she performed. I immediately fell in love with not only the food (especially the food), people and culture, but the clothing and traditional fashion of India itself – adorned with metallic trimming and patterns. Whether it be a dance style or religious/cultural event – Indians have a specific dress code they abide by. So, in order to fully understand traditional Indian clothing, I sat down with Tulsi and asked her a few questions.
Hey! Let’s begin with explaining what Bhangra is, can you tell me a little about it?
Hello! Yeah, so Bhangra is a dance from this state in India, called Punjab! It’s pretty much a folk dance from Punjab and as it’s been brought to America, new styles and takes have been implemented into the dance. So, the way they do the dance in India is a little bit different than the way we do it here. For instance, in the competitions you have gone to you would see American music implemented into the mix, because it’s an Indian American mix, but in India, you wouldn’t see that.
Can you describe the clothing that you wear for competition?
So, the outfit that you wear for a Bhangra performance is called a Vardi. Guys during a Bhangra performance have to wear a headpiece called a Phagh, which is basically a turban that fans out at the top. Girls don’t wear a Phagh, but it actually has religious significance, so during a performance, if the Phagh falls off on stage, you can’t just kick it off stage or else you get points taken off. You would have to go pick it up and move it off stage. I remember that happened to another team performing in the past, someone’s Phagh dropped and they just kicked it out of the way and they ended up getting points taken off because it has so much religious significance. So, a Phagh, really religious Punjabi people wear it all the time but it doesn’t have a fan on it, it’s just the turban. Sikhs wear them because they can’t cut their hair, so guys use the Phagh to wrap their hair in it. Some people only wear it to temple.
So, yeah, the Vardi – both girls and boys wear it and it’s a long shirt kind of, but girls wear pants under and guys wear silk wrapped around them.
I know there are different pieces/clothing for different dances, can you tell me a little bit about why there’s distinct clothing for different occasions?
I don’t know the specific reason or origin of why people wear certain clothing for different things. I don’t understand why for Garba (a dance from the Indian state of Gujarat) girls wear a Chaniya Choli, but you would never be able to wear a Punjabi. Just for reference – a Chaniya Choli is a blouse with a long skirt and fabric wrapped around your body, some states may call this a Lehenga. A Punjabi is also known as a Salwar Kameez, and it’s just a long top with leggings underneath. Depending on the style and material of the Salwar Kameez, it can be either everyday or formal wear.
I think it’s similar to how at prom you typically wear long dresses and for homecoming you wear short dresses. There isn’t a specific “why,” it’s just the way it is. It’s more of what is trending and what is in fashion. Also, having certain outfits or styles of clothing to go with a specific event or dance gives the clothing its own meaning to the dance. For example, you would never wear a Vardi at Garba, so it makes the Bhangra dance that much more special because you would never see someone wear a Vardi elsewhere. That’s also like if there was a huge ball thrown, you wouldn’t have another opportunity to wear the long gowns and gloves and stuff, because half of the excitement of going to that Ball would be putting on the dress, you know what I’m saying? You have no other opportunity to wear that elsewhere. So, whenever I’m going to a Garba or a Bhangra competition, half the excitement is getting to wear that style of clothing, because I can’t wear it all the time. Depending on the event, you get to wear a specific type of clothing.
Pictured to the above is Tulsi wearing a Chaniya Choli/Lehenga with her mother.
Image Credit: Peyton Boudreaux
We ended up getting extremely off-topic, like always, and my questions simply turned into a giant conversation about how Indian customs in America still honor tradition but have modernized in response to integration with the global community. For instance, Bhangra is not widely known in India since it is a Punjab dance, so it is mainly performed in that state. Similar to Garba, a Gujrati dance is performed in Gujrat – people who are from different states in India may not know what these dances are simply because they haven’t been exposed to them. In America, for example, the dance is more widely known due to the mixing of people from various states of India coming together in a commonplace and sharing their customs. What I also found profoundly interesting is that Bhangra dance competitions are unique to Indian Immigrants in the U.S, deriving from first-generation Indian Americans forming teams and circuits within their communities among college campuses – coming together to organize the competitions themselves. In India, the folk dance is only done at the time of the harvest, often accompanied by a Dohl (an Indian musical instrument) in the performance.
Moreover, learning more about the clothing gave it that much more meaning to me and really highlighted why people wear certain clothing for specific occasions. There is no written dress code for occasions and dances, however as humans, we pass down these unspoken set of rules and standards, tweaking them to fit the modern era. Clothing is much more than just material as it represents who we are to others. Traditional clothing bears the weight of a history of people and their customs behind the silk and cloth, allowing us to celebrate our heritage - keeping the culture of the many before us very much alive.
Strike Out,
Writer: Peyton Boudreaux
Editor: Lindsey Valenti
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