India, Aug. 16 -- Clothing is a language; what we wear defines us. It reveals more than our aesthetics. Our clothes announce who we are, banker or painter, labourer or merchant, local or outsider. Some attires become iconic, be it the Nehru jacket, the Gandhi cap, Che Guevara's beret, a priest's dhoti, a Sikh's turban and the mullah's skullcap. However, in sheer popularity, the lungi and its cousins, the tehmat, the puliyakat, the sarong and the dhoti, are the preferred comfort clothing of tens of millions of people across South and Southeast Asia.

The resilient and popular lungi, an unstitched piece of garment draped around the lower body, became part of parliamentary proceedings in the just-concluded monsoon session. Reportedly, Susmit...