New Delhi: America Narayanan wears his veshti with pride and felt humiliated when the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association barred him from its club in Chennai for dressing wrongly.

"It is an insult to an Indian traditional dress; they have not insulted Narayanan. They have insulted a representative of the union ministry," says Narayanan, an Honorary Secretary in the Union Panchayati Raj Ministry.

Narayanan has written a complaint letter to Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and begun a signature campaign against the club, but privileged highbrows across the country have been submitting meekly to the dress code of popular clubs.

The Delhi Gymkhana Club does not allow kurta-pajama or kolhapuri chappals. Clubs in Kolkata, too, do not allow kurta-pajama but if sandals cover feet and ankle are allowed.

The dhoti is the traditional attire for men in Bengal but Kolkata clubs permit their members to wear them only at special occasions or festivals like the Poila Baisakh and Bijoy Sammelan.

The Bangalore Club frowns at the Indian churidar kurta and the Bombay Club won’t let in chappals.

Fashion designer Rohit Bal is disgusted with these dress codes. “A rule that stops people from entering a place within our own country if they are wearing Indian clothes is as ridiculous as it can be. I think this is result of miserable colonial hangover,” he says.

Be it executives, air stewards or even newsreaders dress smart inevitably means to dress Western.