Attia Hosain’s wedding trousseau also appeared to include sarees if this picture is any indication.
The practice of covering the head in the early decades of the 20th century makes it difficult to spot the kind of blouse but that is a very pretty sari (embroidered? chikan?)
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The Saif-Kareena wedding….here is the posed studio photo and the wedding dress.
Which has similarities in style with Attia Hossain’s wedding dress of 1933. Though described as a saree, it’s more likely a “wedding joda” with a heavy skirt. Also I think I have mentioned my love of those hair ornaments before:)
A little bit on Attia Hosain here and a review of her novel, Sunlight on a Broken Column, here.
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If Rokeya wrote in a humorous vein, Rashid Jahan was a writer who was part of the Progressive Writers Movement, a fiery feminist, a doctor and a contributor toAngarey.
The photographs are from an article on her husband, Rashid Jahan is the woman on the right in the first picture. The pictures are not dated but given that Rashid Jahan died in 1952, they are probably from the 30s/40s.
If the pictures are any indication, this is how young Muslim intellectuals of the time dressed. In a way the saree/blouse ensembles are not that different from what you would see in “progressive”middle class women right up to the 80s (bar the fact that there is no attempt to “”match” saree and blouse.
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This gallery contains 4 photos.
Though Rashid Jahan and Attia Hosain were from Uttar Pradesh, as Pran Nevile’sbook on life in pre-partition Lahore indicates, the upper classes in the North of India (given this was the 1930s I guess Nevile is referring to Lahoris as … Continue reading
I mentioned Rokeya Begum in an earlier post as wearing a Brahmika saree. As these excerpts from Sonia Amin’s book indicate, both Hindu and Muslim women in Bengal moving from the private sphere into the public sphere were evolving a new kind of attire.
Rokeya Begum is best known for her short story on a feminist utopia, Sultana’s Dream. I see that she has been dubbed a sci-fi writer🙂
bhadramahila: closest translation would be respectable woman/gentlewoman
I am a little hesitant to club these three writers together as representative of subcontinental Muslim women writers in the early part of the 20th century. However, though as writers they are quite different, for the purposes of today’s post on the changes in the attire of Muslim women in Bengal and North India, I am going to post on Attia Hosain, Rokeya Begum and Rashid Jahan.
Brooch 2:
I have seen a few 40s Indian movies where the brooch was used to fasten the saree at the waist. However, this photograph is the only one I have found with said brooch.
Also rare to find a puffed sleeve saree blouse of Anne Shirley proportions! I think Anne might go for a bit more volume though 🙂
Brooch 1:
An unusual placement of the brooch on the saree blouse. The blouse itself seems to be the square neck kind of style of the 40s.
The photograph is of HH Maharani Krishna Kumar (the basis for Rekha’s character in Zubeidaa).
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Princess Shashi Raje of Dewas in an embroidered ghaghra-choli looking poised and a little enigmatic in a studio photo. The choli is almost completely hidden by jewellery and yet it doesn’t feel excessive.
Arm bracelets seem to have been very popular in the 1920s/1930s.
A pretty cap sleeve blouse which allows for arm bracelets (bazuband). Pic taken in the 1930s.
Vintage Indian Clothing 