Saree, not sorry

When in Rome, do as the Romans do! But instead of blending in, what if doing that made you feel like an outsider?

Born in New Delhi, Tanya Rawal was used to seeing her mother wear sarees, but when she moved to the US, she was made aware of a person’s need to conform to the West.

But that was until she realised that she had had enough. A project that started in her classroom — Tanya is an adjunct professor at the University of California at Riverside — is now a major social media campaign. And it all started when the 31-year-old stepped outside her home wearing what every Indian woman can relate to — a sari.

I have watched Indian-Americans reject Indian culture my whole life. Earlier this year we all heard the former Governor of Louisiana, Piyush Bobby Jindal state his disapproval of “hyphenated Americans”. This incident was followed by Donald Trump’s fervent stance against immigrants.

Such comments that are made to attract the votes of white Americans have a profound effect on the everyday lives of brown people in the United States. There are also the less talked about consequences of anti-immigration discourse that we ‘foreign looking’ people often impose on ourselves — we tend to hide our culture.

This tendency, I believe, is a result of fear. It is scary to be called a terrorist. It is scary to have people treat you like you are an exotic tropical bird in the desert. The ‘Saree, Not Sorry Project’ is an attempt to create a safe space for minorities to embrace their hyphenated identities.

I was teaching a gender theory course and I was planning on addressing how we perform our gender, ethnicity, class, etc. So I opted to bring this performance to the surface with the Saree, Not Sorry Project. Once I had the idea, I immediately called my mom. A week later her friends were ready to open their saree closets and share their collections with me.

I had plenty of people tell me how much they admired the saree. But I, honestly, prefer the people that respond by not looking twice. My goal is to make the difference of the sari so mundane that it does not generate any response.

Actually, lehengas were my first love, but I always admired people in sarees. Labouring in a saree reveals the true versatility of the saree as well as the combination of grace that a person can represent. At first I would give myself about 30 minutes to get ready, now I can get ready in about 10 minutes. And I am less dependent on safety pins now too!

I am going to focus on the immigration question for now. With the 2016 presidential elections around the corner we need to keep up our fight against candidates that plan to legalise racism with anti-immigration policies. I am also developing a podcast with the theme of ‘Saree, Not Sorry’ in an effort to start a discussion on fashion and politics. It is without question that fashion, like skin colour, is the first thing people see when they look at you. I would like to talk to designers to see how they can take advantage of fashion as a mode for political discourse.