Headdress in the freedom struggle

To move on to a sort of facetious but not completely inconsequential role headdresses played in the freedom struggle as expressions of defiance, protest and peace - here is a pretty interesting article.

Pugree, with its multi-dimensional social ethos, was a political symbol in India during her freedom struggle. It played a very important role during India’s struggle for independence. It was the symbol of Indian pride. When the British were trying hard to penetrate the Indian socio-political field, the Indians were nurturing anti-European feelings. Once Gandhiji remarked, “People these days dislike anything that has a European flavour.” Boycott and a bonfire of European clothes gained currency in the early 19th century and it kindled a new spirit, a new hope of pan-Indianness. As a reaction to the Western cultural onslaught people started giving symbolic importance to Indian headgears. It became a symbol of protest against the British subjugation. Indian freedom struggle is a live example of the tens of thousands of martyrs who sported their own specific pugree or cap to demonstrate their pride for their motherland. In the context of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre one can find a picture of the notorious “Crawling Lane” where a Punjabi man is forced to crawl under the threat of the bayonet but even then his traditional headdress is held high in silent symbolic protest.