From Nita Ambani to Anil Ambani to Sania Mirza to Aamir Khan, celebrities are wielding the jhadoo as never before. Swachh Bharat has not only swept the glitterati off their feet but also turned the jhadoo — until now an emblem of the aam admi`s war on corruption — into an essential fashion accessory of the socially conscious elite. The Aam Aadmi Party may lament that its symbol`s been usurped by the khaas admi but no one should have a monopoly on the broom which for too long has failed to become socially universal in our hierarchical society.
“Purity” and “pollution”, said Louis Dumont in his seminal work Homo Hierarchus, are a principal feature of India`s caste system, where the higher Read More