Be cool and stay cool in Indian summers - Desi style

India continues to wear Western suits as workwear, a colonial imposition. European traders brought these clothes, but local cotton garments were more suitable. The suit became a symbol of modernity. Now, India is a major economy and should embrace its own cultural attire. Light, loose cotton clothes are better for India's hot climate. One of the fallacies accepted unquestioningly in India for at least the last 100 years is the suitability of the suit -- the long-sleeved jacket and trouser set to accompany a shirt -- as the default workwear. European traders brought their heavy, unwieldy clothes to India but eventually also realised that the gossamer thin local cotton garments were far more suitable. However, when traders turned into colonial rulers, their view changed and clothes became a tool of power. As part of the Macaulay plan to turn Indians into 'brown sahibs' via subliminal messages contained in both educational curricula and social codes, the suit became a badge of modernity just like fluency in the English language. It was to be a counterpoint to the effete and regressive indigenous culture that needed to be improved by white wisdom. Much of that insidious conversion has been rightly countermanded in the nearly 80 years since Independence. But suits remain. There is nothing wrong with suits, per se. In their own habitat, the cooler climes of Europe and North America, they make eminent sense. The airiness of the dhoti or veshti and kurta or shirt do not provide adequate protection from the frigid winds of those regions. So, by all means Indian men should dress appropriately when visiting or living there. As indeed should Indian women: my mother often recounted how tough it was to walk on snow in the US while wearing a saree! There was a hybrid approach at one point, epitomised by the tropical safari suit. It became the preferred attire of the bureaucracy and public sector undertaking staffers in the 1970s and 1980s; now they are primarily the uniform of the security staff of politicians and celebs. Those working in private companies, Indian and foreign, never really took to them anyway, and remained loyal to western suits, albeit in blends supposedly more suited to the extreme temperatures of India. But why persist with any such colonial impositions in the predominantly hot and humid climate of India, circa 2026? There is no need to impress British bosses anymore. India is now the world's fourth largest economy and Indians do not need to kowtow to any "superior" western ideas. Much like the Gulf Arabs, by dint of their petro dollars, also assert their cultural mores with no compunction. Even many African nations no longer unthinkingly follow European precepts. In fact, there is reason to believe that the West is now in the right frame of mind for reverse cultural colonisation, if articulated effectively. Many western cities regularly reel under heatwaves, with people being hospitalised or even dying of dehydration there. Why not introduce them to the joys of ceiling fans and air coolers instead of just air-conditioning? And show them how airy, long cotton clothes will keep them cool and prevent sunburn better than sunscreens? And in India too, awareness needs to be created that western remedies make little sense compared to desi solutions. In these columns last week, I had posited the dhoti-shirt as an alternative to suits for the elites who have forgotten the efficacy of our own customs. More broadly speaking, all those living in India need to wear light, loose, cotton clothes and live and work in cross-ventilated spaces in buildings aligned to shield us from the summer sun but catch the winter one. If that ethos permeates the higher echelons of government and the corporate world, the support systems for mass re-conversion -- affordable cotton clothes and laundry services -- will revive too. Right now, the trend is still to adopt western synthetic blends for clothes, on the plea that they are cool (both literally and culturally) and convenient. That needs to change. All thinking Indians need to lead that charge and show the world how to be cool and stay cool, desi style.