So apparently pre-colonial Indian women just… wore saris without a blouse?? Midriff out, tiddies vibing, nobody cared?? Meanwhile our temples have 10% pure porn on the OUTSIDE WALLS where KIDS could see because kama was a legit life goal???
Then the Victorians showed up, saw all this, had a collective aneurysm, and said “obscene” is now a crime. Let the temples rot. Invented the blouse. Made us feel ashamed of our own ancestors.
“They did not simply colonize our country; they colonized the nipple.”
Anyway 90% of “modest Indian culture” is just Victorian missionaries gaslighting us for 200 years.
Full essay here if u wanna get mad: https://medium.com/@sayyida-noor/khajuraho-erotic-temples-victorian-blouse-colonial-shame-a93ef910c539
now go stare at a khajuraho carving and rethink everything 🗿
This is very much glossing over ~600 years of Muslim rule between when the Khajuraho temples were built (and subsequently largely abandoned - likely a major factor behind their survival) and the British arrival…
ah yes the classic “but what about the muslims” pivot — never fails 💀
yes, the temples fell out of active worship over centuries. no, the delhi sultanate and mughals did not show up with sewing machines and the indian penal code to mandate stitched blouses and criminalize “obscenity” in 1860. that was the brits. specifically victorian brits. with their specific brand of shame.
you can have multiple colonizers with different approaches. one set looked at the carvings and largely left them alone. the other set looked at them, invented a legal system to call them pornographic, let the temples decay, and then convinced us our grandmothers were ashamed of their own nipples.
the blouse wasn’t a mughal import. it was a victorian one.
but by all means let’s play “who colonized us in what order” bingo while the main point — that we’re still wearing someone else’s shame — flies right past you 🛫