Durban - Hindus across South Africa are celebrating the Festival of Lights – Diwali or Deepavali – this week.
As the highlight of their religious calendar, Hindu women celebrate in colourful traditional attire.
However, many no longer reserve this for only special occasions. Following the advent of democracy and the celebration of diversity, there has been a resurgence of cultural garb.
Private banker Kifesha Singh, 36, looks after her company’s ultra-high net worth clients nationally. Her dress code is rigid: business formal.
“This means I usually wear a suit or a dress with stockings and heels. It goes without saying there is never ‘casual Friday’. I have to be professional and always well dressed,” she says
However, she does have “tons” of Indian outfits.
“I’ve been to India about nine times and I love Indian stuff,” says Singh, who recently began wearing Punjabis to work on auspicious days.
“At Investec in Durban, we celebrate cultural diversity and being able to dress in my traditional attire makes me feel proud of my cultural heritage.
”People always respond well. I think they appreciate that as much as I am a businesswoman, I am still a woman of Indian heritage. I think it also shows that I am someone who stands firm on my beliefs and that just gains more respect.”
Jayde Akkiah, 22, a medical bioscience student at the University of the Western Cape, says she follows a few Indian-orientated Instagram accounts and orders online what Bollywood celebs have worn.
“I wear them to weddings and prayers – whenever the opportunity presents itself. Dressing up is a mission, one of my skirts is 3kg on its own, but somehow I just feel like a princess in my Indian outfits.”
Nisha Ramlutchman, Durban University of Technology lecturer and a PhD candidate at the University of KwaZulu-Natal whose research focuses on identity construction, says we only need to look at how local media has evolved to see just how popular “being Indian” is.
“We can all see the progression of Indian channels of local TV. First came Sony, Zee TV and B4U. This was followed by Sony Max and NDTV and most recently Glow and Zee World. Just about three weeks ago three more channels were added: Colors, Star Hindi and Star Tamil.
“These networks are selling a specific cultural product tailored to local audiences who enjoy reality TV programming and serials. It’s also been dubbed into English to overcome the language barrier – as many fifth, sixth and seventh generation Indian South Africans have lost touch with their mother tongue but still want to identify.”
Ramlutchman says: “This kind of viewing and desire to dress up in Indian attire does not or should not interfere with nationalism as all it offers is a sense of being Indian. It’s not about being an India Indian; it’s about being a global Indian. It sells the ideals and values that belong to Indian culture. It unites Indians globally and offers a sense of connectedness.
“It’s certainly meeting a need. We watch these channels take off, it’s clear that there is a hunger for this kind of content.”
“There is definitely a resurgence of cultural identification,” says psychologist and academic Devi Rajab.
“If you look at South African history, during apartheid the Afrikaner government encouraged people to be attuned to their ethnicity. It was born out of the ethos that everyone should know their place. We therefore had policy in place to keep us as separate entities.
“Many of us rebelled. We wore mini skirts and none of the markers of our religious or cultural groups. Now that we live in an open society where we have freedom of expression, many people are choosing to be who they like.
“People across racial and religious groups are choosing to display their cultural preferences – many celebrities wear red strings around their wrists and bindis or dots on their foreheads, which has significance in Hindu culture.”
Morgan Ramsamy, 43, from Bryanston, is chief executive of HealthEdge Group, a GP practice management company. She helps place doctors in underprivileged areas.
“Previously it was all about being very corporate. But men have since stopped wearing ties, because they realise how impractical it is in our climate and we’ve had the recent advent of ‘casual Friday’.
“As it turns out, Friday is a significant day of the week for Indian women as this is the day we worship goddess Lakshmi by cleaning and decorating the lamp we receive when we are married. Most of the women I know have begun to wear their Indian regalia to work on a Friday.
“To us it’s not just a fashion statement. A bindi or dot may be fashionable but to a Hindu woman it has far more meaning. I enjoy being able to explain it to others, who see and appreciate the cultural aspect of who I am.
“I am a proud South African. I lead a cosmopolitan lifestyle. This is just a part of who I am and it adds to the diversity of our nation.
“I think the return to traditional attire is a signifier of the spiritual age we are entering.
“We are looking for something that makes sense. We’ve gone through the stage of being caught up in wealth and Western ways and still we always feel as though something is missing.
“When we start looking, we seek out our roots. I’ve found that highly successful, educated people are moving beyond the materialistic because they are longing for something real. This is why you find that they feel for the poor and want to do more charity. Perhaps it is my age, I am searching for meaning in the world.”
Daily News