Rant

Are you a victim of ‘cultural appropriation’? I’m sure you are because, right now, somewhere in the world, a fancy dress party will be roaring into life with a dress code along the lines of ‘British stiff upper lip’ or ‘Bowlers and head scarves’. Yet at my brother-in-law’s sixtieth birthday bash the other day (in his Norfolk church), there were tut-tuts from members of the younger generation about the edict that guests wear ‘Indian’. It made for lively conversation. I was early in the stirrups of this particular hobby horse and giving it some welly down the back straight. What on earth could be insulting about dressing up in saris or, in my case, a beautifully embroidered Nehru jacket that was made for me overnight in Jaipur? I saw it as a celebration of a country many of us love. To be accused of being patronising was patronising in itself. ...

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