Figure 1.--The photo shows a shepherd boy in southern India. He is wearing a lungi. Note the shawl, probably worn in the evening when it gets cooler. He id holding his lunch in the bag. The photgraph was taken about 2008. |
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The traditional clothes men and boys wear are normally a lungi and at the most a towel hung over one shoulder, and women also a lungi plus a short blouse. The origins of the lungi are not known. The fact that it is like a dhoti a simple swath of cloth rather than a more elaborate and expensive sewn garment suggests strongly that it has ancient origins. The lungi is wrapped around the waist to cover the lower part of the body. It was worn by both men and women. It is not only worn in India, but is comparable to the Malaysian sarong. Lingis are the most common traditional form of male dress in rural areas and among the poorer city residents, Men of the educated classes prefer light cotton trousers called pajamas. The torso remains bare above the waist, except when it gets cooler. Adults may wear a lungi with a short vest, but this is less common for boys. There are regional differences. The lungi is especially prominant in the south and east. There is not much difference between childrenīs and grown upsī clothes - apart from a little more freedom children observe. One reader noted traditional clothing was still commonly worn in the 1960s, especially in regional areas. When the author visited Kerala in the 1980s, we noted traditional clothing being widely worn. We note children, especially boys, commonly wearing Western clothes. We are not sure why that is. We suspect it is the practicality. School uniforms are for, example, almost always Western styles. A few girls schools had traditional styled uniforms.
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