"The Evolution of the Sari: From Cultural Traditions to Modern Expressions"

With the advent of British rule and the influx of Victorian standards of propriety and morality, the fine, translucent saris worn by Indian women were considered too salacious and indecent. As a result, the blouse and petticoat were introduced by the British as a norm for everyday dressing to be followed by Indian women.

The industrial revolution began to influence India in myriad ways in the 1940s. While it served as a boost to technological developments and production systems, it had an adverse effect on the Indian handloom sector. Handspun and handwoven khadi saris were replaced by European mill-made chiffon saris, often worn with lacy petticoats and frilly blouses. This was especially popular among Parsi women.

When the Swadeshi movement came into full force, Satyagrahi women wore khadi saris and cholis, often draped in the nivi style. Popularized by Gyanodanandini Tagore (Rabindranath Tagore’s sister-in-law), this went on to become the most popular style of wearing a sari at the time and is still popular today. The nivi is the ulta palla style of wearing a sari, with the pleats in front and at the center of the waist. This style was also made fashionable by its prevalence in Bengali cinema and by looks that went on to become iconic in Hindi cinema, like the white chiffon sari worn by Rekha in the film Silsila (1981).

The sari is draped in more than 100 styles across the country, evolving with time and influenced heavily by geographical factors. A woman from the north of India could historically be found wearing a tunic with a woolen shawl draped as a sari, while a woman from Rajasthan, which experiences extreme summers, would drape hers in a relaxed, airy style. In fact, Rajasthani women also covered their heads, both as a symbol of modesty and to protect them from the extreme heat; sometimes they would even dampen the pallu in order to regulate body temperature.

Quite apart from aesthetics, then, the sari played a functional role. Kolis spent most of their time fishing with their feet in water; this required their women to have shorter saris, hence the nauvari (9-yard) sari, which was created and worn with one end passing between the legs and tucked in the back, similar to the Gandhara women of the Kushana period. This helped women stay comfortable in the warmth and humidity of the Konkan region while also maintaining their modesty. According to costume historian Rugmani Venkat, this drape was also popular amongst the 'nautch girls' of Maharashtra, as it allowed them to dance freely.

In the book Women of India by Otto Rothfeld, featuring illustrations by M.V. Durandhar, the sari is described more as a costume and less as a part of a woman’s lifestyle. But for an Indian woman, the sari is not a costume; it’s a medium of expression, a way of life. It lends her a sense of ownership, pride, and belonging. It is her companion through good times and bad—worn to both celebrate her wedding day and mourn the passing of a loved one. Every pleat and every fold of a sari has a story to tell.

As Ally Matthan said in her TEDx talk, “When these saris die, the stories die, the voices of the women die, the voices of the men who weave these saris die.” When a woman wears a sari, she not only drapes herself in a piece of cloth, she drapes herself in history.

The sari as we know it today exists in a multitude of forms: Mysore silks, Banarsis, Kanjivarams, Paithanis, Pochampallis, Patolas, Tanchois, Tangails, Jamawars, Balucharis, and so many more. The popular way of wearing the sari today, with a choli and petticoat, is believed to have been introduced variously during the rule of the Mughals as well as the British. For many years, Hindus believed that piercing a cloth with a needle was an impure act and hence refrained from wearing stitched garments. With the coming of Muslim rulers, the ghagra, or petticoat, came into existence as another format for the existing dhoti style of draping a long piece of cloth, which we later went on to call a saree.