Question

How did Mahatma Gandhis dressing style change with time?

Answer 1

(i) Mahatma Gandhi belonged to a Gujarati Bania family, Hence, he usually wore a shirt with a dhoti or pajama when he was a boy. When he went to London to study law as a boy of 19 in 1888, he cut off the tuft on his head and dressed in a western suit.
(ii) On his return, he continued to wear western suits. As a lawyer in Johannesburg, South Africa in the 1890s, he still wore western clothes.
(iii) It was in 1913 that he completely discarded western suits and wore lungi and kurta. In 1921, he adopted the short dhoti forever. On 22 September 1921, a year after launching the non-co-operation movement, he announced that he would content himself with a loincloth, and a chaddar whenever necessary for protection of his body.
(iv) At this time, he did not want to use this dress all his life and only wanted to experiment for a month or two. But soon he saw this as his duty to the poor, and he never wore any other dress.