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Dress code

THE women lawyers of Mumbai are up in arms against the High Court's orders prescribing the kind of apparel they should wear when they appear in cases before Their Lordships. They are particularly cut up with the banning of salwar kameez which many of the m find convenient and comfortable, and which, in fact, is taking precedence over the sari even in the Southern States.

In days of yore, and for those with conservative outlook even in these days, dressing appropriately for the occasion was de rigueur, whether it was the workplace or a social event. Indeed, there were stories of the solitary Englishman in the jungle sitti ng for his dinner in black coat, bow tie and top hat, as also of bada sahebs hurriedly putting on formal dress for answering telephones!

There was a time when candidates for interviews, whether for admission to educational institutions or for jobs, had to be attired in their formal best. Many companies had, and some still have, strict dress codes, requiring their employees to wear lounge suits and ties in sober colours, preferably grey. Clubs all over the world demand compliance with similar rules, and some oblige the forgetful and the ignorant with coats and ties from spares which they keep just in case. Many will recall the case of the famous painter F. Hussein getting into trouble with a Bombay Club when he insisted on entering barefoot in his kurta-pyajamas.

The Americans were the first to pooh-pooh these notions as silly, and totally out of sync with the principle that what counts is the quality and performance of the person, and not what he wears. This was more or less in keeping with Deng Ziao Ping's dict um about cats: It did not matter whether they were black, white, brown or grey so long as they were good at catching mice! The first American Ambassador appointed immediately after the formation of the United States shocked the Court of St. James by refu sing to wear the prescribed insignia, and presenting his credentials in laid-back style.

Even the Church is loosening its grip, with the result monks and nuns are no longer distinguishable from others in their workaday dresses. The higher ranks of the police too, in whose case the uniform certainly enhances their effectiveness and authority, have begun to attend offices, call on their superiors and go on inspection in slack shirts. The last remaining citadels yet to fall are the courts, the military and school children.

The last ditch fight being put up by the romantics and nostalgics (some might say eccentrics!) for retaining some semblance of ceremonials as a means of inspiring awe and respect already seems all but lost. The members of younger generation especially co uld not care less how they dress, and are appearing for interviews, unshaven and dishevelled, in T-shirts, jeans and bathroom slippers.

What a change from the times when, in 1948, for the sin of wearing a dhoti and a shirt in misguided nationalist spirit, I was thrown out of the presence of the interview board of three white persons in the Parry & Co (as it then was)! However, within thr ee years, my friend, Mr. T. Madhava Menon wore the native Kerala dress for the almighty IAS interview itself and carried the day, scoring very high marks in the personality test.

B. S. Raghavan