Vijay’s black suit, white shirt and a 100 years of political outfits | The Federal

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]When Joseph Vijay took over as Tamilnadu Chief Minister, the first thing people noticed wasn't his politics, it was his suit. That debate about suit is worth having because in India, what a politician wear has never been about clothes. It has always been a signal. A position, sometimes a manifesto. To understand what Vijay was saying, you have to go back a hundred years to a train journey from Chennai to Madurai.

[00:00:21]In September 1921, Gandhi boarded a train from Madras to Madurai. On the train, he pleaded with passenger to wear khadi. They told him, "We are poor to even buy that." And as he looked around at millions of Indians in loincloth, barely 4 inches wide, he felt the weight of his own clothing pressing down on him. About it, he later wrote, "What effective answer could I give them if it was not to divest myself of every inch of my clothing I decently could and thus bring myself in line with the ill-clad masses." The next morning, 22nd September 1921 in Madurai on West Masi Street, Gandhi stepped out in a simple dhoti and shawl. He never went back.

[00:00:57]That house today stands as Khadi Emporium. The open ground where he first appeared in public is now called Gandhi Pottal. A white statue marks the spot.

[00:01:06]Gandhi's choice set a default code for Indian public, white, simple. The message, "I'm not above the people I serve." In Tamilnadu, Kamaraj wore plain khadi until his last day. No flourish, just cloth and conviction. In Tamilnadu, Periyar's black shirt stood apart from all of it. A direct rejection of Brahminical order, of caste hierarchy.

[00:01:26]In Tamilnadu, black has carried a political memory for a nearly a century.

[00:01:30]When the DMK was formed, Annadurai chose to move away from that black. Later, the kara veshti and shirt is the baseline, the shared uniform of the democratic Tamil politician. Kara veshti is a dhoti with a thin border. MGR went further, the fur cap, the dark glasses, part leader, part screen hero, entirely his own.

[00:01:48]His costume was a seamless continuation of cinema. The message, "I'm your hero here, there, always." And then there is Modi. Now his kurtas are premium. The Modi jacket became a global political silhouette. But unmistakably, definitely Indian. The desi identity survives. It's just been updated for the 21st century.

[00:02:09]This lineage, however different from each other, continue to hold the desi identity. But running alongside Gandhi's legacy and in direct argument with it is another tradition, B.R. Ambedkar.

[00:02:19]Three-piece suit every single day. The writer Arundhati Roy frames it precisely. Gandhi eventually discarded his western suit and put on a dhoti in order to dress like the poorest of the poor. Ambedkar, on the other hand, born unmoneyed, untouchable, and denied the right to wear clothes that privileged caste people wore, could show his defiance by wearing a three-piece suit.

[00:02:40]In India, renouncement is seen as holy, and that's what Gandhi represented. He wanted to represent the poor as they were, but Ambedkar, who was born poor, untouchable, and nothing to renounce, his suit was an act of claiming what was denied. Hence, he renounced the desi identity, which continued the status quo of casteism. I want to remind you of Pa Ranjith's scene from Kabali, where he talks about this politics. In recent years, something has shifted. Rahul Gandhi has moved from the Congress white kurta to a polo t-shirt and cargo pants.

[00:03:08]The polo, the clean and not ceremonial.

[00:03:11]The cargo, utility, movement, and practicality. Together they say, "I want to work, not preside." Work. A younger political generation is stepping away from khadi and ritual. More direct, more functional. And then there is Vijay. Who didn't dress like any of them. What Vijay wore was a two-piece suit. Black jacket, black trousers, white beneath it. Matte finish, no tie, open collar.

[00:03:35]The black in a room of full white is an immediate separation. And Tamil Nadu, like I said, it echoes Periyar. Whether intended or not, that frequency exists.

[00:03:44]The matte finish says, "I'm not here to perform." No tie says, "I'm not establishment." The The collar says, "I'm not asking for your permission."

[00:03:52]And then what he did in the suit matters as much as the suit itself.

[00:03:56]Vijay reached out to every senior politician, including MK Stalin, the leader of a party he called Theertha Shakthi during his campaign. That hug in the suit was a signal, a layered signal.

[00:04:07]Gandhi chose cloth to say what he believed. Ambedkar chose to reclaim what was denied. Periyar chose a color to name what he was fighting. In a democracy where millions will never read a manifesto, the body is the text. What you wear is your first speech.

[00:04:21]Vijay's first speech is, "I'm beginning something new."