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Hair, devotion and trade in India

This collection explores the social importance of hair in a diverse range of cross-cultural essays on hair in fashion, film, art, history, literature, performance and consumer culture. Edwards’ chapter explores the meaning of hair in India and the ceremonies and rituals that surround its dressing, cutting and collection, which are a safeguard against transgression, marking and maintaining the social order. Ethnographic material developed by the author over twenty years is allied to an analysis of the symbolism of hair on the subcontinent and to the changing influences on traditional hair grooming practices. The chapter is consolidated by the author’s original photographs which offer a visual account of hair in ritual and ceremony in India.

Offering a unique perspective on hair in India, it analyses hair in daily practices and ritual performances, and the rising importance of the Indian market for branded hair products, by L’Oréal for example, over vernacular hair products such as neem and ‘black henna’ (henna + indigo). It identifies the religious symbolism of hair across the sub-continent, and delineates how hair donated at Hindu temples by pilgrims intersects with the global trade in hair and hair products. It makes apparent some of the dilemmas faced by India as the sub-continent modernises and industrialises.

It is based on three research projects on the use of natural dyes in India funded by the British Academy (2005-07), the Nehru Trust (2006) and the Luigi and Laura Dallapiccola Foundation (2006-07). These generated interviews over a two-year period with indigo farmers, a former Miss World, L’Oréal India, the temple authority at Tirumala, Hindu pilgrims and Hajjis (Muslims who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca). It was reviewed by specialists in the field of visual and cultural studies and also the book’s editors; revisions were implemented in the light of their comments.