Indians judging NRI fashion is just unacceptable and classist
Check the comments for their nonsense excuses towards the author 🤦♀️
Here is why judging NRI fashion is seriously unacceptable and needs to STOP. Like please stop victimizing yourself at our expense and peddling hateful gatekeeping disguised as wokeness. Especially the hate lobbed at NRI influencers fashion choices at Coachella!
First of all, NRIs, mixed race Indians/SA, and anyone raised in Indian/SA diasporas outside the mainland are very likely to be varying degrees of bicultural/multicultural in essence. (They can also 100% embody indian/SA culture/subcultures depending on their influences or what they personally identify with). But it’s still likely that any culture that spreads outside its mainland is naturally going to manifest in its own way and mix with other cultures or evolve based on the type of access they have to their mainland culture. This is a natural process and it does not make sense to call them “not Indian enough,” it is literally just how Indian culture morphs when exposed to different environments. This in itself is a valid manifestation of Indian culture in its own right and should be respected as such. Indo-western fashion has been a thing for ages now, it’s not a new concept. It’s completely unrealistic and limiting to say all people with Indian roots should behave and dress as if they were raised in India with real time access to the latest trends.
Mainland Indians assume Indian culture is only what is trending at the moment. A lot of criticism is that NRI fashion is outdated and therefore they aren’t representing Indian culture. NEEDLESS to say, Indian culture is not limited to some software update you download to be the latest and truest Indian with bug fixes and shi. A lot of Indian patterns and fashion elements in themselves are timeless and classic attributes of Indian culture (lehengas, bindis, paisley, polki, bandini, ikat, kanchivaram, tikas, bindis, etc..). They are not “less Indian” just because they borrowed from early 2000s Bollywood or their bindi shape ain’t trending the last few years and these fashion choices remain Indian inspired even when they mesh with western or other cultural styles. That’s why people are so mad about the Scandinavian scarves, because dupattas are a big part of traditional Indian attire and not given any credit. Indian styles that existed a few decades ago are still 21st century modern Indian clothing, and are more so variations of current trends than completely different outfits. Let’s not act like NRIs are wearing precolonial garbs to represent modern India. Even wearing the most current Indian fashion will NOT get you more respect from white people, let’s get that straight. They’ll just find new ways to stereotype and judge you.
Also, NRIs are NOT ambassadors of India. Many of us were not raised in India, we were raised with the standards of the country we grew up in. In pageants and competitions, we typically represent this country and not India, that’s how it works. We are known formally as british indians, Indian Americans, Indo-caribbeans, etc…and not just Indians because we are either 1st/2nd gen Indians who grew up abroad or are members of Indian/SA diasporas that have thrived over several generations overseas. Putting the onus on us to represent India in its entirety is a ridiculous expectation. We are not the same as Indians who immigrate to other countries later in adulthood and I really don’t see you applying the same expectations on Indians who travel abroad to be cultural ambassadors the way you do with NRIs.
The event itself that garnered the most outrage is frickin Coachella lmao. Coachella first of all is NOT a pooja, it is not a diwali or traditional Indian wedding. It is not even an Indian event or cultural event meant to represent our heritage or showcase or represent the latest Indian fashion. Coachella is a western music festival, with mainly western artists. People who attend Coachella of any ethnicity often don bohemian fashion, which in itself is south Asian inspired retro fashion from western hippie culture. In other words, the fashion theme is indo-western! It specifically blends the outdoorsy, cowgirl/wildwest aesthetic with a lot of skin revealing almost beachy garments, a heavy dose of campiness, and south Asian fashion elements like henna, bindis, tikas, dupattas, and certain SA outfits or prints. There is probably very few completely traditional Indian outfits that would even make sense to wear to this event, nor would it serve any purpose in terms of challenging negative stereotypes of Indians.
The actual problem is that non-Indian people feel the right to wear Indian-inspired anything while criticizing when Indians wear their own fashion. The NRI influencer response to this was totally appropriate in wearing their own campy, beachy, Indian inspired boho themed outfits. Campy is inherently tacky because it’s intentionally theatrical and pokes fun at stereotypes by embracing them instead of hiding, that’s the point. So wearing loud bright colors and exaggerated accessories is totally in line with this concept. Also let’s be real, if you have deeper skin tones, and are deep winters, then bright, rich colors are gonna complement you really well. Lookup color theory. The criticism on being too colorful though was heavily targeted at dark skinned south asian women, many of whom happen to be deep winters who look great in high contrast attire, further emphasizing both colorism and sexism. Yes I’m aware that there are very specific outfits you wear for specific events in an Indian wedding itself and this differs a lot from region to community to religious sects, but Coachella isn’t the specific platform to showcase this for sociopolitical impact.
It is also completely untrue when people say Indian garments aren’t actually that colorful, I’m not even gonna bother seriously countering this weird argument. My extended family living in India literally gifts me very colorful patterned clothes all the time. My cousins and their genz friends always wear bright colorful patterns and even teased me for my neutral monochrome American outfits. While not every Indian garment is inherently very bright or colorful, it does have a significant impact on our fashion choices. The issue of westerners blanket labeling everything Indian as colorful is a separate issue and you don’t need to minimize color in your own attire just to prove them wrong, especially at the expense of traditional Indian colors in fashion.
I’m sorry if anyone from India was judged by NRIs. There’s no excuse for that and insecurities about their Indianness can be common with bicultural desis. There are just as many of us who stand up to this behavior. But attacking them with this much vitriol on the internet in the name of revenge is not the flex you think it is. Indians seem to think it is some kind of retribution with the way they attack NRIs sometimes. NRIs don’t actively oppress you living in India. They have a huge weight themselves of meeting multiple cultural expectations at 100% effort while not being accepted as they are or for their uniqueness. Bringing them down by accusing them of not being Indian enough and asking them to be more like you is not the solution to racial tensions between India and the west. Your frustrations toward racism are being misdirected towards the easiest target, other desis, which just gives non-Indians more reason to blame people who look like you for your own problems.