Mundu Wearing Compulsory – by government order
Published July 27, 2009 | The Kerala State government has decreed that Kerala men must wear Mundus on Saturdays. The mundu is the Kerala equivalent of the Indian dhoti or Lungi. It is generally white with a coloured border or in the most formal states threaded with a gold border.
Like many traditional indian dresses, young Keralites have forsaken the mundu for jeans or “slacks”. In the countryside most still wear the mundu.
The mundu can be worn in two styles: full the ground or in the heat, folded once to the waist so that it is raised to above the knee.
Like many traditional Indian clothing, it is seen as unfashionable even though all admit it is supremely comfortable and suitable to the sticky tropical Kerala climate.
The government are hoping to stimulate the cotton industry by forcing more men to wear and buy mundus. The real beneficiaries will probably be the tourism trade as foreigners revel in their experience of authentic india.
Whether the government should be telling people what to wear is one question, but what a pleasure to see more Keralite men gliding down the streets gently wafting their mundus.
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