When Tamil Nadu showed the way on clubs and dress codes

The lady must have been proud wearing the traditional dress of the Khasi tribals. She was a guest of the member of the prestigious Delhi Golf Club. But apparently the Club didn’t want to permit her, in order to impose the dress code framed by the Club.

Tamil Nadu is not new to such new forms of untouchability. During the 80s when Justice Krishna Iyer was taken as a guest for having dinner at the Madras Cricket Club (Chepauk), he was not allowed an entry into the club. The reason? He was in a khadi dhoti and a shirt and was wearing rubber slippers. The host attempted to explain to the doorman, without any success. To avoid any unpleasantness, Justice Krishna Iyer called for the visitor’s book and made an historic endorsement in that book. He wrote: 

“I came as a guest for the dinner but was stopped by the janitor at the MCC entrance because I was not wearing Western costume, the  only permissible apparel according to the MCC culture.  Alas! Swaraj has made the country free but has stopped at the door steps of the MCC.  I return without dinner but as a proud Indian.”  

Next day, the issue was raised in the legislative assembly by certain members. MGR who was the Chief Minister then, rose to the occasion to reply that he had taken cognisance of this gross impropriety and would consider cancelling the licence of the Club. With this incident, one would have thought all the clubs which have imposed strict colonial dress codes would have become swadesi in their approach. Sadly, no. Even the Madras Cricket Club did not mend its ways.  

The new millennium saw another similar episode and matters did not end with some hue and cry. This new millennium saw an arm-twisting by the Tamil Nadu legislature to put down this sartorial despotism. During July 2014, a retired Judge and a Senior Advocate were prevented from going into the club to attend a book release function, for the sole reason they were found wearing dhoti and a shirt. The club would not allow their access inside the club, though they were invitees for the book release function. The next day this episode was widely published. The then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa wouldn’t keep quiet. She not only squarely condemned this undignified reception given by a club (though private), but also promptly brought a new law Tamil Nadu Entry into Public Places (Removal of Restriction on Dress) Act 2014.  

Under this law, the clubs were prohibited from denying entry of a person merely because he was wearing a dhoti. It was stipulated that the violators of the Act will attract penal action, including cancellation of licence after notice, besides punishment with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year and with a fine up to Rs 25,000. That brought an end to the practice of enforcing colonial dress codes in the clubs operated in Tamil Nadu. 

Will Kejriwal replicate Jayalalithaa’s act and bring about such a law for the capital territory of Delhi?