Goodbye, cap and gown: Over three-fourths of Central institutions shed colonial-era dress code since 2015

As many as 70 have discarded ceremonial robes, with 62 having made the switch since 2015. Among the 23 IITs, all but IIT-Delhi have embraced Indian attire. Of these, 18 IITs made the change post-2015. These include six second- and third-generation IITs, where the first batch of students graduated after 2015 and their convocation attire was Indian.

When it comes to IIMs, while 14 of 21 have dropped the colonial dress code, not all have replaced it with Indian outfits. Of the 14 IIMs, students at seven wear Western formals with a stole, while the remaining have adopted Indian attire. However, IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Calcutta, IIM-Lucknow, IIM-Indore, IIM-Rohtak, IIM-Udaipur and IIM-Amritsar continue to follow the colonial convocation dress code.

Among Central universities funded by MoE, 34 of 48 have phased out robes and caps.

According to the UGC advisory, in tune with the Prime Minister’s emphasis on “revival of handloom and improving earnings of the handloom weavers,”  universities were requested to consider using “handloom fabric for ceremonial dresses…for special occasions like convocation etc.”

This would not only “give a sense of pride of being Indian but also be more comfortable in the hot and humid weather,” the advisory said.

The UGC advisory was followed by a call from then Education Minister Prakash Javadekar, who urged universities to replace the “British-inspired” attire as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary.

Additional advisories from the UGC in 2019 and in January 2024, too, emphasised switching over to Indian attire, and promoting handloom as “comfortable for local weather” and a source of “pride in Indian heritage”.

Following Ministry of Education’s lead, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare recently asked medical institutes to adopt an Indian dress code for their convocation ceremonies.

Among Central universities funded by MoE, 34 of 48 have phased out robes and caps. Though 30 of 34 made this switch after 2015, the dress code at four institutions was already Indian attire or robes with traditional patterns: Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya in Maharashtra’s Wardha; Visva Bharati in West Bengal’s Santiniketan; Tezpur University in Assam; and Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri National Sanskrit University in New Delhi.

Of the 34 Central universities where the convocation dress code does not mandate wearing of ceremonial robes anymore, four of them — University of Delhi, Central University of Jharkhand, Central University of Kerala and Central University of Tamil Nadu — have adopted a blend of Western and Indian elements for their graduation ceremony outfits.

Among Central universities, BHU in Varanasi was among the first to respond to the government’s 2015 advisory. It transitioned from black robes to white kurtas-pyjamas for men and saris for women, along with a yellow uttariya and safas.

“It was our 100th anniversary, and the management wanted to promote Indian culture,” says Dr Rajesh Singh, the BHU PRO.

Of 11 Central universities that are yet to make this shift, five —including Rajiv Gandhi University in Arunachal Pradesh, North Eastern Hill University in Meghalaya, Nagaland University and Manipur University — confirmed that they were considering making a change.

“While we haven’t finalised the specifics, we are definitely looking at more Indianised attire,” says Professor W. Chandbabu Singh, Registrar, Manipur University.

Nagaland University, meanwhile, is having discussions on introducing the traditional Naga attire for the convocation ceremony.

Three more of these universities — Sindhu Central University in Ladakh, Central University of Odisha and Central University of Andhra Pradesh — are relatively new and haven’t yet held a convocation ceremony.

The transition, however, has not been without challenges. An official from a Central university says, “The entire concept of a convocation is Western, so why insist on an Indian dress code at all?”

In November last year, IIT-Kharagpur’s detailed convocation dress code had triggered a controversy. The institute’s guidelines had specified the attire style, sleeve length, and even footwear and jewellery. Students, who already wore Indian-style clothing, called the guidelines restrictive. The institute later clarified that these details were not mandatory.

In 2021, IIT-Jammu had faced criticism after it announced plans for convocation attire inspired by Kashmiri culture — pherans (knee-length robe) and pakols (soft, flat, rolled-up men’s cap). Following objections, it switched to white kurtas-pyjamas.

Opposing the dress code introduced in 2015, Lucknow-based Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University’s Dalit Students Union had in 2019 requested permission to wear formal Western attire as a tribute to Dr B R Ambedkar.

When it comes to IITs, even before the UGC advisory, IIT-BHU, IIT-Jodhpur, IIT-Bombay, IIT-Gandhinagar and IIT-Guwahati, had already changed it to Indian attire.

“Since the beginning, our convocation dress code included cream kurtas-pyjamas, with an option for saris, paired with a dark cream Gandhi (Nehru) jacket. The intent was to reflect Indian culture,” says Professor Vikas Dubey, Dean, Research and Development, IIT-BHU.

IIT-Bombay, which always followed an Indian dress code, introduced a khadi uttariya (stole) in 2016.

At many graduation ceremonies now, the dress code includes a nod to the local regional culture. Instead of the traditional blue satin robe at IIT-Mandi for instance, graduates now wear off-white kurta-pyjamas and salwar-kurtas or saris paired with a Himachali shawl and topi (cap).

At Banaras Hindu University (BHU), students now don kurta-pyjamas and saris along with a traditional safa (turban) and uttariya, while IIM-Shillong’s convocation attire features a Khasi wrap.

Incidentally, in 2010, Jairam Ramesh, former environment minister and a Congress member, had removed his convocation robe in protest, calling them a “barbaric colonial relic,” at a ceremony organised by the Indian Institute of Forest Management in Bhopal.