Pants Suits Worn In India For 700 Years

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32099, 22 September 1969, Page 2

Pants Suits Worn In India For 700 Years

To an Indian there is nothing new about pants suits on women, the present fashion craze in the West. The women of Northern India have enjoyed the comfort and luxury of long, loose trousers for about 700 years, Miss Usha Jetly said in Christchurch yesterday.

Although the sari is the more common national dress in India, pant suits are still worn by the women of Kashmir and the Punjab. This mode of dress was introduced soon after the Muslim invasion, she said. “Down south in India the sari is worn drawn between the legs, giving the appearance of a culotte,” she said. “In Bengal flsherwomen wear the same style only a little shorter.”

Giri students at the University of Madras also favoured traditional pant suits, she said. The churl, similar to the modern Isadora scarf, was still worn with ptat suits in India. This part of the outfit was used to cover the head and face in the days when women were in purdah. The style of the garara kamji (pants and top) had changed. The very full; gathered trousers of earlier centuries had now become tighter and often looked like jodhpurs. The tunics were now much shorter. They were made in cottons for every-day wear and in silk* for formal occasions.

Miss Jetly is visiting Christ-church-with Miss Leilta Dasgupta, They are promoting tea for the Tea Board of India.

“There is just no chance of Indian girts switching on to mini-skirts,” Miss Dasgupta said. “They prefer their traditional saris or garara kamji because they are more feminine,” A few Indian girls in the big cities had adopted the Western mini-dress, but they were the exception. “Some Anglo-Indian girls and a few Parsees in Bombay, who are quite Westernised, wear ■ mini-skirts,” she said. “They look very attractive in them too. I think Indian men would like to see more miniskirts around, but not for formal occasions.” She said the Western influence was becoming very noticeable among young

women in the cities, even among those who clung to national dress.

“They have become very fond of Western pop music and dances sueh as the shake and the twist,” Miss Jetly said. “But this trend is still confined to students rather than the majority.”

Giris were becoming more independent of their families, and did not regard marriage as the sole aim in life, as they did 10 or 15 years ago. “India is a country where women have absolute equality of opportunity with men, and girls now want to launch into a career and travel before settling down to married Hfe,” she said. To travel aboard had become an obsession with most girls, she said.

Misses Jetly and Dasgupta are both graduates of the University of Delhi. They said

that one of the reasons why they joined the Tea Board of India was to have the opportunity of travelling. , The younger generation of Indians was behind the Prime Minister (Mrs Gandhi), which was a considerable achievement for Mrs Gandhi, Miss Jetly said. “She is a very sympathetic person, deeply involved with India and its problems,” she said. Miss Dasgupta’s comment, brief and to the point, was: "I think of Indira Gandhi as India itself.” The photograph shows Miss Jetly (left) and Miss Dasgupta at their hotel yesterday morning. Both are wearing Kashmir silk saris. Miss Jetly’* sari is in a gold and brown tracery design; Miss Dasgupta’s is a beige, tan and flame floral pattern.