Had never thought about the ways in which the blouse draws these lines around 'modesty' and 'obscenity.' Made me think of the small moments/conversations around blouses that women in the family had, or even how they decided what blouse to wear themselves, and how something which was considered 'too much' at one point in time was considered stylish at another, depending on the trends and norms.
@@DESIBOY-fe7nm women would go half naked up until Mughals. That’s y Rajasthan/Haryana women started covering their head. Punjabi started wearing parda on their chest and head as well. It’s where the practice of foeticide started. Whenever a baby girl was born, they’d write her name/location down. On her 13th bday, after jumma namaz, men would gang rape her for “purification”. A practice still continues in Sindh today. They believe their bodily fluids r Pak. So families in Guj, Rajasthan, Punjab etc began getting rid of baby girls at birth. Sati practice also began in certain areas like Bengal, Rajasthan so widow wouldn’t b humiliated. Otherwise, she’s b brought into a harem. If family fought they’d b all neutralized. It’s y Raksha bandhan was practiced. It’s not in any Vedic scriptures. It started to remind the brothers that family matters. It’s also where the idea of izzat lutna came from. If u marry ur rapist, u become pak again. And ur family isn’t tortured because they have a “napak girl in the home”. Izzat word itself isn’t even Hindu. They went to war if someone harmed their women/girls. But none of actual history is taught to desi folks.
@@DESIBOY-fe7nm Stitched cloth wasn't a thing in India. The general public didn't have shirts, blouses or pants. Just a stretch of cloth, worn as a dhoti or a saree with a stanapatta or angavastra if the person was of high birth. Our clothing was perfect for our hot and humid weather.
@@Manjaxistill we had the most developed textile industry for milleniums and only normal people used to drape themselves with anything they found, nobles and royals always weared sophisticated clothes
The blouse is largely a Victorian introduction based on European ideas of women’s modesty. Similarly the petticoat as well. All you have to do is go look at temples in southern India to have a sense of how women dressed.
It was to sell their fabrics made in factories. Swaddle never does a good job. But people don’t know any better so they think this is incredible stuff. 🙄🙄🙄😒
The blouse is such a versatile concept, so tied in with both sexuality and modesty! And I love how the swaddle constantly experiments with topics and methods of storytelling, absolutely well made video!
As a person from another culture, I find this very interesting. To think that in a not so far past women in India didn't wear blouses is fascinating and tells about a mind frame of freedom and respect. European conquerors ruined everything they touched. Ugh!
After watching this video, i will never be able to witness a styled blouse without thinking about the history that it carries! Such a thoughtful video! 🌻
The only way to keep a culture alive and thriving is to allow for people to constantly experiment and reinvent its clothing per the prevalent societal norms. This is one reason the sari continues to be a force to reckon with in defiance of other more "convenient" and "fashion-forward" garments. This is something religious and moral trolls fail to take into account when harping about retaining cultural roots. Love your channel and the conversations you bring to all of us!
women would go half naked up until Mughals. That’s y Rajasthan/Haryana women started covering their head. Punjabi started wearing parda on their chest and head as well. It’s where the practice of foeticide started. Whenever a baby girl was born, they’d write her name/location down. On her 13th bday, after jumma namaz, men would gang rape her for “purification”. A practice still continues in Sindh today. They believe their bodily fluids r Pak. So families in Guj, Rajasthan, Punjab etc began getting rid of baby girls at birth. Sati practice also began in certain areas like Bengal, Rajasthan so widow wouldn’t b humiliated. Otherwise, she’s b brought into a harem. If family fought they’d b all neutralized. It’s y Raksha bandhan was practiced. It’s not in any Vedic scriptures. It started to remind the brothers that family matters. It’s also where the idea of izzat lutna came from. If u marry ur rapist, u become pak again. And ur family isn’t tortured because they have a “napak girl in the home”. Izzat word itself isn’t even Hindu. They went to war if someone harmed their women/girls. But none of actual history is taught to desi folks.
@@RojaJaneman You are partly wrong. The Vedic religion ordains Upper Caste 'Āryā' women to cover themselves from bossom to ankles. Kshatriya ladies also put a veil while some Brahmin sub castes didn't. However, Vedic standards of modesty was unfortunately never strictly followed allover India. Another fact is that blouse came from Scythians not mughals. Even Angrakha was developed during the same period as the 1st blouse. Upper caste Hindu women were NOT half naked. They wore chest coverings and would mostly stay at home. Lower caste ladies, workers & servants didn't have these restrictions
@@adflix424 all indian women, irrespective of their casts, could go around bare breasted. The same practice can be seen in Thailand, combodia, bali, etc
Wow this was way more interesting than I expected! It’s mind-blowing that only a few generations before my grandparents, we probably didn’t bother with blouses. I guess it makes sense, given the constantly shifting winds of policing people’s bodies.
You know, I actually love when there was a whole wave of jacket blouses inspired by Victorian Fashions: They had long and fitted sleeves with ruffles at the end.
@@soomayahsoomayah2110 Technically, ‘traditional’ sarees exposed the chest and there were no supportive undergarments. Sarees are the most revealing outfits actually.
Such was the healthy mindset of Indian men and women pre British times!! They considered everything natural and didn’t have vulgarity in their minds. People of India were truly progressive and hence wearing just saree without blouse was not a problem. Came the English and poisoned our minds. They couldn’t digest the fact that Indian women had so much freedom and were literally leading the best lives. Hence they began to spoil everyone’s mindset so that they can suppress women into just kitchen and kids like their own white ladies…. People used Media to objectify women and over many years we all have grown cheap and useless. Nowa days whether it’s burqa or saree or skirt doesn’t matter minds of men and women have gotten sick. Wish our minds and mentality goes back to a progressive society soon in every way.
i prefer the old hindu tradition of NO BLOUSE , to think of it if as a civilization we cant even bear the thought of seeing another human being naked or with minimal clothing then how can we think of molding the cosmos when we cant accept our own selves
@@adflix424 ye of course it was white man job to mold and explore the cosmos because the people there are so advance ....they were not fighting in the name of god and waging wars for pity things and fund each of their project with blood money taken from east the white man is noting but a hoax , yes there are few exceptional people in west but they are mostly jewish and their roots again comes to asia and comming to the clothing i dont thnik what you wear is even clothing and is completely cruelity on women to tie them like meat in CORSETS you guys were wearing stockings
In Hindu kingdom of Travancore women from depressed classes were not allowed to cover the upper body. Officials even collected breast taxes(called 'മുലക്കരം')from women. There were series of movements, (some even turned violent) people from depressed classes for the right to cover their breasts. (Between mid-late 19th century to early-mid twentieth century).
Well that sucks. In other states like Odhisa it's about the heat issue. Most of the (so called) lower class women worked in farms to earn a living. So they ditched blouse to get body temperature down. In my native place, there are many casts who have this "no blouse" tradition. The women still hang on to it, despite being ridiculed by others.
@@DESIBOY-fe7nm Also, even if a lady willfully wear a blouse/any clothing to cover their body, the casteist people who belonged to upper castes will forcefully remove it and publicly harass her.
So intriguing that we lost our freedom. I remember even in my village also my dadi, taiji, even very young ladies in my neighbourhood never used to wear blouse and it never rose any eyebrow. All so normal and moral subject. Alas not anymore
The more we get exposed the more we get to know.. The adivasis in MP, both adivasis and non- adivasis in Odisha do wear saree without a blouse.. It shows how a blouse had been a foreign concept. I had recently joined as social worker and I with my colleague was visiting this one village. Since he was already living in that village as part of the work, he showed me in the house of this woman who was eating her day-meal. Immediately she shied away and we also got awkward. Though I noticed that she is not wearing a blouse I thought that could be the reason. So after a few minutes she showed up with a blouse. Even bra can be attributed to that category. Killing a women's freedom, not wearing one causes obscenity.. I think I can style the way I want but there's somewhere in my mind know that I would be stared at if I go braless
Omg I have also been so much confused by the blouses. You can see in the Ramayan and Mahabharat serials that the women just covered their breasts, put hair on one shoulder and the palla of the saree on the other shoulder. Also, this purdah system was never a part of our culture, you can see the goddesses are never in purdah. Actually, I think that our original culture was very modern and open for women.
When you will you read ramayan and mahabharata you will find out women uttaariya and anatariya with jewellery but their is no decption of covering the breast
And Boom ! We "Adopted" this culture 😂 And Now it has quite opposite POV attached to it.... compared to its original purpose of "Geographical Necessaries" 🤷♀️ Indian is Very-Very-Very Diverse Cultural Country Beyond Our Imagination 🤯🤓
This was one of the most intelligent and informative documentaries on this channel. Good job. Keep it less political and more informative. Leave the opinions on the viewers.
Actually it's not. Except regions of Bengal, Oddisha, Kerala and Tamilnadu, blouse has been an essential garments of Indina women. There is plenty of literary evidence that this channel didn't bother to research. Hilariously women of Bengal and Oddisha considered blouse immodest because it exposed the contour of the upper body.
Sad that you depict India by its post colonial borders when this is our shared history. When I go visit my home village I still see women wearing sarees without a blouse. 🇧🇩
How abhorring it is that dress codes vary according to the castes. Our culture has its dark sides, we should have accepted rather than just ignored them. Mulakaram was a breast tax implemented by abominable people. Oppressed class women were not allowed to cover their Breast and if they wants to then they have to pay Mulakaram which they couldn't afford because of poverty. You should have mentioned Mulakaram and especially the woman named "Nangeli" who was the first woman to protest against this obscene law.
Stop spreading misinformation. This has been debunked several times. Mulakkaram had nothing to do with breast, apart from the word being there to signify women. It was a head count tax, the counterpart of which was thalakaram- headtax for men, paid to landlords by tenants and laborers who use the lands. If you still want to keep believing the myth, try finding a Royal decree of breast tax for covering breast...and good luck finding something that doesn't exist
@@aleenaprasannan2146 Head tax The "breast tax" (mulakkaram or mula-karam in Malayalam) was a head tax imposed on the Nadars, Ezhavars and lower caste communities by the Kingdom of Kingdom of Tranvancore (in present-day Kerala state of India).[1][web 1][web 2][note 1] They were expected to pay the tax when they became laborers, about the age of fourteen.[8][note 5] The lower caste men had to pay a similar tax, called tala-karam, "moustache tax," independent from their wealth or income.[5] This is on Wikipedia too. You just have to search. So according to you accepting reality and talking about it is spreading misinformation.
@@aleenaprasannan2146 I pity you. Please try to read the right information and don't debate with another person unless you are not quite sure about what you are saying.
@@jayshrinarwade4598 Wikipedia is your source for right kind of 'information'? Dude, I'm from the said place and from the same caste that the fictional Nangeli was supposed to be from. Come and see our historical museums and photographs of Queens without uppercloth. The same queens who enjoyed a powerful position in a matrilinial uppercaste community where consorts married into women's household and property rights moved through women and her kids. No women in kerala used to wear upper clothes before Victorian moral were imposed. It's a work of fiction. This is not some prehistoric knowledge hard to get evidence, we still have grandparents who were alive during colonization and Royal rule. Nobody ever weighed my great grandmother's breasts to impose said tax and from a family of women who kept us informed about all the societal wrongs they advocated to stop, including the very wrapped up knowledge of degrading caste custom of grooming of women's body hair being a 'job' earmarked for wives of traditional barbers....I would have never heard the end of it if it were true. And you still haven't cited any sources for a Royal edict or decree. The family still exist and their documentation is still available. The one who is pulling gossips masquerading as 'right information' from an open-source web dictionary with no shred of evidence is you. So you should be the one listening to people of the region and community whose history you are perversely contorting....which would be me. Don't ever tell me you have the 'right information' about my history
@@jayshrinarwade4598 Also...read what you copy pasted and tell me where it says it was imposed to cover breasts? Your own copy paste says it's a head count tax on labourers which is exactly what I said. So what are you on about how I should get the right info
Interesting. The origins are well explained. The next "phase" of foreign influence after the British -- the invention of the brassiere (or soutien gorge in France) (cira 1890s) and its global marketing and adoption. You certainly show Bollywood clips where the "blouse" looked very much like a bra... front and back. Part II of this of objectivation story might be about when the bra arrived. The earliest Bollywood scene I know of is 1960s as an undergarment. Thank you.
Though I am a staunch opposer of present context of feminism which your channel argue for , but I am definitely an ardent follower of your channel it's very informative , I may not concur with your ideology but definitely will appreciate your ideas .
Don't oppose feminism. Oppose those you misunderstand it. Just like how ideas of religion and actions of people who identify with that religion are two completely different entities. Just like how you can only understand a religion by reading it's scriptures, not by watching Instagram reels. Similarly you cannot actually understand feminism without reading the history and writings of feminist leaders who were both men and women. However, you're free to make your own opinions regarding any " ideology". But i suggest you to not fall for anti-revolutionary and anti-reform prejudices . Because these prejudices actually demotivated Indian masses from supporting revolutionaries of Indian Freedom movement and social reform movements, which led to their tragic failure.
I mean is their a word other than 'blouse' in our Indian languages. I'm not sure but as far as my limited knowledge goes, I don't think their is any in Bengali and Hindi Atleast .
So the pre-British invasion movies that show Indian women in blouses are inaccurate? Like Aishwarya in Jodha and Akbar? Wow this really changes the perspective.
@@tehreemraza123 No, it's accurate. Rajput & other North Indian castes had cholis- a younger sister of the Scythian cropped tunic from Kushan era But the blouse that women wear today - with circular armholes & bust darts are gifts from Europeans
funny modern day blouse is so young, didn't know that. I am wondering what will those moral police think about this when just 100 years back women almost used to venture out in the streets without their blouse on. truly we have regressed.
@@rabri-ghewar No, I'm not learning history from movies but that means those movies aren't historically accurate coz in those types of movies the kings and queens have very sophistically stitched clothes
🙄🙄🙄🙄 Blouses were also encouraged by the Brits to sell more of their clothing. Remember cotton was considered gold. They made serious bank by ensuring Indians purchased their fabrics. To give boost to the industrial revolution. Cotton was one of the crops that they forced Indian farmers to raise, they maintained firm monopoly on it. Swaddle hire me. I can do better research. This is ridiculous. Or maybe I should start posting reactions/critiques on ur videos to ensure quality care?? 🤨🤨🤨 Did u forget that rajasthani, gujju, Bhil etc. women especially wore open-back blouses? They didn’t let pop fashion decide their outfits.
Please do post, this channel manages to slightly twist facts on things they present. Or they present it from very western perspective of Indian culture.
So if a woman is wearing a burkha Or naqaab, or ghunghat its conservative and limiting her abilities and wearing blouse and sari is immodest, and wearing pants is too modern. So what should we wear?
This video totally defies what noble women such as Sita wore and their goonghat (face veil), nobility never exposed their breasts or their faces. Just read our religious books. Modesty and shyness are paramount in our religious texts.
The 'historian' deserves a pay cut. Lmao. Vedic period never had cholis. Infact the technical know how to create closed seam fitted garments came from Scythians. The original Indian blouse was developed from a Shaka man's cropped tunic and initially adopted by court dancers, and much later by noble women. It followed the trickle up fashion theory. Vedic period had stan-pattas but unfortunately such modesty wasn't followed allover India even by Upper Caste women. I reckon some Persian or Arab visitor to South India being disgusted by how scantily Indians covered themselves
Well, there are some middle-aged women who do wear lower back designed blouses. You can almost see their backs, so it's not limited to one set of age group.
I don't understand why this SWDL Team always blame British code of morality ..... Is not Modesty practisable for all regardless of their gender ? Yeah sure the moral code must not be established by the rich and powerfull.
@@spilltea4241 we had different standards of modesty. Ngl the british and the mughals coming have ruined us more and made us into what the fuck we are today.
@@ananyaverma9599 No Mam , not all you can Lord Buddha instruct Bhikkhunis to cover their shaved heads due to the hot Indian climate and differentiate them from other women in the soceity to establish a moral code and modesty , this I get from Vinaya Pitaka . Again when you see a Jain sadhu or sadhvi their head and body is also covered , because both Buddhists and Jains are believed that bodily glamour is the hindrance of Nirvana or Kaivalya . Coming to the next topic head covering on the head, covering up naval with anchal and shatika up to gulaf or heel is the traditional model attire of a Hindu kulavadhu . But , here comes a but , all Hindus, Buddhists and Jains are not so much interested to covering up all the women with a piece of cloth . When the covering up started India began to fall in the dark ages with her numerous superstitions.
@@carolinpurayidom4570 and let me guess who decide what is objectification and what appreciation? Let me guess, hmmmmmmm Oh! It is women because they're God gift to humanity 😂😂