{"id":75971,"date":"2026-01-15T14:00:54","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T05:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/jan\/15\/is-it-the-end-of-the-line-for-one-of-indias-most-distinctive-garments"},"modified":"2026-01-15T14:00:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T05:00:54","slug":"is-it-the-end-of-the-line-for-one-of-indias-most-distinctive-garments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=75971","title":{"rendered":"Is it the end of the line for one of India\u2019s most distinctive garments?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <em>bandhgala <\/em>jacket will no longer be part of the formal uniform for Indian Railways staff, following claims it symbolises a \u2018colonial mindset\u2019<\/p>\n<p>It is one India\u2019s most ubiquitous garments, with origins in the grand Mughal courts and Rajasthani kingdoms of times past, and still widely favoured by sharply dressed grooms at wedding receptions.<\/p>\n<p>But this week, the distinctive high-collared <em>bandhgala<\/em> jacket \u2013 known to many as the \u201cprincely jacket\u201d in a nod to its royal origins \u2013 found itself at the centre of a lively debate after it was denounced by the Indian railways minister as a symbol of a \u201ccolonial mindset\u201d.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/jan\/15\/is-it-the-end-of-the-line-for-one-of-indias-most-distinctive-garments\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The bandhgala jacket will no longer be part of the formal uniform for Indian Railways staff, following claims it symbolises a \u2018colonial mindset\u2019It is one India\u2019s most ubiquitous garments, with origins in the grand Mughal courts and Rajasthani kingdoms &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[749,576,62,433,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colonialism","category-fashion","category-india","category-narendra-modi","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75972,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75971\/revisions\/75972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}