‘If Your Jeans Are Original, How Come Everyone Else Has One?’

Abstract

This chapter deals with exclusionary strategies and their representations in colonial, postcolonial, and post-liberalization phases in India. Citing a wide range of secondary sources, it establishes how exclusionary strategies and conscious social distancing were central to the formation of middle-class identity in the colonial and postcolonial India. The author argues that middle-class attitudes towards consumption were characterized by a certain degree of restraint and thrift. However, in the post-liberalization phase, there is an erosion of that miserly attitude towards a guilt-free consumption, leading to unapologetic material indulgences. This chapter looks at popular visual registers such as advertisements to argue how the exclusionary zeal increasingly is visually mediated and manifested through portrayals of exclusivity. It particularly focuses on apparel advertisements that emphasize the ideas of class, exclusivity, and difference. It asserts that the visual aspects of commodity have become exterior markers of difference, as the desire for distinction is more visceral than before.