Because I think that it has been appropriated. Bandhani is a traditional tie-dye technique, with deep cultural and historial significance for the Rajasthani, even extending to Sindhi and Marwari sub-groups in the west of India and east of Pakistan - who comprise of nomadic and semi-nomadic artisans.

The word 'bandhan/bandhana' can have several meanings depending on the context - knot, relation(ship), or kerchief - they're all related to each other, in the sense that this piece of clothing signifies relationship, and can be tied to the end of one's cloth - just in the same way you can "build" a "building" in English, if that makes sense. One of the most identifiable parts of the bandhani is the parsely and floral pattern, as well as the use of non-pastel, dark dyes.

Now, I am neither a Rajasthani, nor from the north-western parts of India or eastern part of Pakistan, so it should be obvious that I don't know much about them. Maybe some information over here is not true - and I'd appreciate correction. Personally, I feel like it is an extreme case of cultural appropriation in the sense that:

• the culture behind it has been erased, or people don't bother doing enough basic research behind them

• it has been commodified and mass-produced as a fashion trend, which is disrespectful to the people, and has harmed their livelihood severely

• the patterns have a deep cultural, religious and social significance, so do the colors, and using them trivially again erases the original meaning behind them

The bandana culture (at least from my stereotype of American media) has been stolen collectively on different occasions by multiple subcultures - the hippies, the bikers, white supremacists, cowboys, gang members, black rights activists and even antifa/anarchists members, shifting the original symbolism from that of familial collectivism to something that is representative of rejection of government authority.

Unfortunately, as a very vulnerable group, they don't have the voice to raise against this injustice, because obviously when basic needs are not met, people tend to ignore the erasure of their own identity and culture, and try to survive with what they can. The place that they live in is the antipode to the American continent, and obviously, that region does not receive a lot of attention, as opposed to western cities.

Saw a "performative" animal rescue video where a young lad was harassing a really old, poor Rajasthani woman of nomadic origin, perhaps from a very vulnerable, and extremely backward scheduled tribe, whose culture very much resemble with the Roma people, (perhaps it is because Rajasthan/Sindh is where the Romas migrated from almost a few thousand years ago, so it makes a lot of sense).

In this particular instance, she had a snake with herself, and what she would do is sell a pseudo-scientific drug/herb-mixture, claiming that this saves your from the bite of an Indian cobra. She would let the snake bite her - well, here's the reality - the snake had it's fangs removed.

The snake can not survive in the wild now, which sucks. I condone condemn the exploitation of animals too, as well as this old lady's behavior, but how is this fair? This young lad comes from a society of high privilege and caste. Dad is probably a government civil servant, mom is a doctor. Grand parents probably one of those freedom fighters from India. So this kid is probably loaded with old money - he and his kids will never have to worry about working for their entire lives, and they'll still make money passively.

Seeing from a colonialist lens, this looks like intersectional imperialism to me, in this instance, brown imperialism (which I've talked about before; remember linguistic and cultural imperialism of majoritarian culture?). The boy "saved" the snake, but at the cost of letting these vulnerable people starve, and does he provide an alternative for her livelihood? She's probably de-fang another snake, albeit with a lot of difficulty.

Alternatively, there exists a few illegal night-club party bars out here in India for the ultra-rich, where they use small doses of snake toxins to get a high - I am not really sure how that works, but from little what I know, it is similar to acid, with the added risk of dying from the venom itself.

If this kid is so much about animal activism, why does he and his friends not care about those instances of animal abuse from the corrupt, rich people? Why does he not care about the inhumane dairy industry or the industrialized broiler chicken farm?

Just needed some opinion on this, because I am kinda ticked off by this brat's behaviour.

It goes something like:

>Anchi Telugere, inchi Kannadere > >Encha Tamilere merepere > >Kanne-duru, Kerala-la kelapundu > >Enna Tulu Nadu bulipundu

English translation:

>Thither dwell the Telugus, hither the Kannadigas > >How Tamilians have garnered their name in fame's halls > >A mere eye's blink away, Kerala stands proud > >Yet, my Tulu Nadu weeps and mourns

\- Kayyara Kinyanna Rai

(My apologies for not writing it in the original script, which was just recently added to Unicode 16.0 on 8th September of 2024, - well, for starters, I don't know how to write in it, and second of all, there's no font for the alloted Unicode block or transliteration software available at the moment - the fonts will probably be released by Monotype soon, I would like to believe?.)

 

Yes, missionaries from the colonizing western states were involved in destroying my culture, but that does not absolve the majoritarian groups of cultural imperialism after the independence of my country. Dravidian hypocrisy is when they can't see their own short-comings - destroying vulnerable minority and tribal language, appropriating culture, music and dance. And this is why I am so unenthusiastic and apathetic about growing Hindi imperialism towards the South.

Imagine being in a country where you have access to the most amount of coconut trees, that you can literally pick them for free (if you can climb).

Imagine being in a country where there are street vendors who will sell you a coconut for between 30 to 40 Indian rupees - you know, relatively cheap.

And you buy this shit for 200 rupees:

!

...all because your elitist ass from SoBo can't handle to buy "dirty, street stuff".