The Rebirth of the Gandhi Cap

Thanks to Anna Hazare, the self-appointed anti-corruption messiah from Ralegan Siddhi, a village in the Parner taluk of Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra, touted to be a “model of sustainable development”, the much-forgotten, home-spun Gandhi cap has been given a new lease of life. When Hazare fasted at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi in August 2011, hundreds of people, young and old, expressed their solidarity by sporting Gandhi caps emblazoned with the slogan, “I am Anna”.

Chandramohan Patel, an electronics and communications graduate from IIT-Kharagpur, went to his convocation donning a Gandhi cap. Following his footsteps, the Indian glitterati has embraced the Gandhi cap as the next new fashionable icon of radical chic. At the Lakme Fashion Week, actors like Vidya Balan, Sridevi and Vidya Malvade sported Gandhi caps. What’s more, Bella Ragazza, a Delhi-based fashion boutique, announced its intention to launch a designer Gandhi cap collection.