What did your tee do today?
There aren’t that many garments that let you wear your heart on your sleeve. You can put NY on your baseball cap and JUICY on your sweatpants, but you know people are going to judge you for it.
The T-shirt, however, is a surprisingly wide and forgiving canvas. You can say what you’re thinking, draw what you feel, offer advice, support a cause. A lot of those causes have been worn a bit thin through overuse of the same material. “Save the Earth” has been a particularly vague and inexplicably popular slogan.
In recent years, though, tees made in India have become more interesting, more relevant, and more political. At the not-forprofit Centre for Law and Policy Research (CLPR), a line of T-shirts released this August bears the Preamble to the Constitution. The design was launched in the run-up to August 15, India’s 75th Independence Day.
“When anyone wears the preamble on their body, they signal their allegiance to the Constitution and its values. The idea behind the T-shirt was also to generate curiosity and a larger popular culture around the Constitution,” says Kalyani Menon, a research associate at CLPR who worked on the campaign. The hope, Menon adds, is that the T-shirt will highlight the values of India as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic Republic, and invite people to see the Constitution in a new light — not just as a legal document but as a promise and an exhortation to every citizen; to remind Indians that this document has a dramatic impact on everyday life.
At Blank Noise, a Bengaluru-based collective working to combat gender-based violence and victim-blaming, the T-shirt has become central to its messaging.
One model from 2006 bears the words “Kya Dekh Rahe Ho?” (Hindi for “What are you looking at?”) in Devnagari script, but backwards. It was inspired by the discomfort that women face while commuting, with rear-view mirrors often adjusted and directed at their chests, says Blank Noise founder Jasmeen Patheja.
Another line of Blank Noise tees offers a Step by Step Guide to Unapologetic Walking. “Walk very very slowly,” it states. “Walk without your phone, walk without your eyes fixed to the ground.”
In 2018, as an extension of this reclaimthe-streets campaign, Blank Noise printed the words Akeli Awara Azaad (which the collective translates as: We are on our own/ We have the right to wander/ The right to freedom) on T-shirts.
This tee has had over 1,500 takers since. “It is currently a fundraiser and communitybuilding initiative. We often give them at discounted prices and as gifts to feminist allies or to those who have shaped the mission,” Patheja says. Wearers have included the late activist and author Kamla Bhasin and actor Kalki Koechlin.
There are reasons the T-shirt works so well as a personal billboard. It’s simple, with little to distract from the message in terms of embellishment or silhouette. It’s easy and inexpensive to make. And it is universal; a tee is instantly familiar, regardless of the viewer’s class, age or gender.
When it comes to messaging that relates to sexuality and gender politics, it’s also a powerful way to reclaim the body being objectified or vilified.
“It is a confrontation,” Patheja says. “It demands attention and rejects shame. It calls a viewer’s attention and questions their gaze. It seeks attention and invites conversation.”