Cultural appropriation isn’t just colonial, it’s casteist

When Italian luxurious home Prada just lately unveiled its model of the Kolhapuri chappal, Indian social media was fast to react. Accusations of cultural appropriation and erasure adopted, accompanied by calls for for correct attribution and a wider name to “decolonise trend”. However what if the cultural erasure didn’t begin with Prada, or with the West? What if the deeper, older story isn’t just about colonial appropriation, however about caste-based appropriation from inside? Beneath the Indian diaspora’s outrage lies a deeper, extra uncomfortable fact: the problem isn’t nearly what’s being borrowed, however who will get to borrow and who doesn’t. The Kolhapuri controversy exposes not solely colonial legacies but additionally the casteist dynamics embedded inside India’s cultural economic system.

Not simply Indian, however Dalit in origin

Originating in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur area and its neighbouring districts, the Kolhapuri chappal is thought for its sturdiness and distinct construction. What’s much less generally mentioned is who makes them. Historic accounts of Kolhapuri craftsmanship typically point out particular sub-castes such because the Chamar, Dhor, and Matang: scheduled caste communities traditionally assigned the duty of leatherwork, a apply stigmatised as a consequence of its contact with animal hides.

These artisans, typically from marginalised backgrounds, tan, dye, and sew the leather-based by hand, making a product celebrated for its sturdiness and aesthetic. But, mainstream narratives typically generalise Kolhapuris as a “Maharashtrian” or “Indian” craft, erasing the caste-specific labour behind them.

Artisans making kolhapuri chappals inside a Igna Leathers workshop in Kolhapur
| Picture Credit score:
EMMANUAL YOGINI

Appropriation marketed as “revival”

Inside India, cultural appropriation typically wears the masks of reverence. Many Indian artforms, textiles, jewelry, and crafts originate from Dalit-Adivasi aesthetics, labour, and design however commercialised by higher caste (Savarna) owned companies. When a luxurious Indian label collaborates with artisans, it’s seen as uplifting custom. However these collaborations not often contain co-authorship or fairness. Artisans are paid per piece. Designs are owned by the model. The origin story is softened right into a advertising stunt. Whereas artisans toil for minimal wages, the income and status accrue to manufacturers. Artisans, typically from marginalised social backgrounds, kind the spine of India’s handicraft sector however lack management over branding or distribution. Savarna designers and types act as gatekeepers, curating and benefiting from these crafts whereas framing their function as “saviours of craft”.

An artisan polishes a kolhapuri chappal inside a retailer in Chappal market in Kolhapur
| Picture Credit score:
EMMANUAL YOGINI

Who owns the technique of design?

Indian trend runways function designers predominantly from Savarna castes. The narratives in Indian trend are largely formed by editorials run by upper-caste surnames. The management roles within the Indian trend and textile sector are disproportionately represented by higher castes. In the meantime, Bahujans stay largely invisible in decision-making roles, typically restricted to labour roles. Their labour, when filtered by a Savarna designer’s lens, turns into “artwork.” When finished independently, it stays “ethnic” or “rural.”

Guests store Kolhapuri chappals inside a retailer in Chappal market in Kolhapur
| Picture Credit score:
EMMANUAL YOGINI

Many conventional artisans lack entry to formal design schooling, capital funding, or English-language fluency. Such limitations make it troublesome for Bahujans to take part within the elite circuits of trend. Bahujans are sometimes decreased to tokenistic roles: a one season’s showstopper or a lookbook mannequin, to sign performative inclusivity with out ceding energy. Bahujans are not often seen in management roles, resembling inventive administrators or model homeowners, but their identification is exploited in advertising campaigns that romanticise their poverty and struggles as “hardwork” or “heritage.” This tokenism commodifies Bahujan battle whereas denying them company, perpetuating a cycle the place their labour is widely known, however their voices are silenced.

The diaspora and the blind spot

The Indian diaspora’s calls to decolonise trend typically overlook these inner caste hierarchies. This blind spot is telling. Nationwide delight tends to eclipse caste critique. In calling out overseas appropriation, many overlook to look at who inside India controls narrative, capital, and authorship. The act is similar. The response shifts from outrage to celebration relying on who borrows and who will get to writer the narrative.

Guests store Kolhapuri Chappals inside a retailer in Chappal market in Kolhapur
| Picture Credit score:
EMMANUAL YOGINI

What cultural fairness really requires

The query isn’t whether or not Kolhapuris or any Indian craft ought to evolve. They need to. However the extra pressing query is: who will get to determine how they evolve? Who income? Who will get cited in design colleges and magazines, and who stays a footnote? True cultural fairness is about honest wages, credit score, illustration in management roles and platforms for co-authorship in design and storytelling which rebalance historic exclusion.

The Prada-Kolhapuri controversy is greater than a conflict over sandals; it’s a mirror reflecting how world and native methods each flatten the histories of marginalised makers whereas uplifting these with socio-economic capital. Throughout the Indian trend ecosystem, the intersections of caste and sophistication dictate who will get to be the “designer” and who stays the uncredited, underpaid and exploited “artisan.” Till credit score, compensation, and illustration are equitably shared, cultural appropriation — whether or not by Prada or privileged Indian elites — will stay a type of theft, rooted in each colonial and casteist legacies.

The author is a Chennai based mostly designer, artist and educator

Revealed – July 04, 2025 05:02 pm IST