Sharing identity through dress: The case of Sikh women

In a multicultural society like India dresses are critical at developing, nurturing, and communicating diverse social identities. A clothed body stands as a cultural product vital not only to the individual but also crucial in forming and sustaining a sense of belongingness and fostering a group identity. This paper addresses the relationship between dress the dress worn by Sikh women, the salwar-kameez, and establishment of identities amongst the Sikh women of today. It is argued that the motivation for adorning a dress lies beneath complex layers of history and tradition, custom and habit, evaluation and response to a given context that significantly shapes what we adopt and display. The dress as a mechanism of representation not only plays a significant function as a means of differentiation from other groups and social integration within the same group, but it is also a powerful force in identity politics. Dress is society’s way of showing where do we belong and what is our role and position in the social order.