“I’ve got a dot on my head and it’s really, really red. BINDI!” All throughout the young Indian community, this derisive middle-school chant brings back fond memories of the kinds of mocking remarks aimed at Desi practices. For those who did not know of the ethnic and religious significance behind the bindi, the term “red dot” was coined as a way to symbolize the cultural practice of a majority of Indians.
The bindi or tikka is one of the most important aspects of cultural Indian attire. As a decorative piece adorned on the forehead, the tikka is traditionally placed between the eyebrows using bright red or maroon vermillion powder. The customs and rituals associated with the bindi are three-fold. Ranging from the Vedic times to the present-day, the bindi has represented intellect, honor and purity. In a more religious context, the bindi is placed at the sixth chakra (the Hindu belief based on energy centers), ajna, which is thought to contain “concealed wisdom.” Thus, the bindi has been culturally known to help individuals retain energy and strengthen concentration. Finally, according to a longstanding custom, the bindi has been a mark worn by married woman to signify commitment and faithfulness to their marriage. TheIslamic Research Foundation rightfully noted that the “traditional bindi still represents and preserves the symbolic significance that is integrated into Indian mythology in many parts of India.”
Although bindis may seem relatively simple, there are a plethora of varying regional applications. Maharashtran people wear crescent shaped bindis with a small black dot underneath, whereas those from South India often wear small red bindis with a larger white bindi on top. In contemporary Indian society, bindi-stickers have gained prominence with younger generations as more convenient and disposable alternatives to conventional tikkas. These bindi-stickers encourage a more fashionable look by focusing a bit more on the aesthetics.
Traditional Tikka
Bindi or Tikka
Wedding Bindi
While warmly welcomed and commonly sported in the motherland, in NY the bindi is often met one of two ways: either those who wear tikkas are ridiculed and taunted or exotified as having magical qualities. My mom, who stopped wearing a bindi two decades or so ago, recounted, “When I used to wear the bindi in college, a lot of people strangely would ask ‘Why is your forehead bleeding?’ If you don’t come from South-Asia, or someplace near the sub-continent, you don’t really grasp the underlying cultural significance. A lot of times people would stare at it a lot or just glare at my forehead when conversing with me. People, especially those who were my age and older, thought it was weird. Certainly in middle school I was made fun of for wearing one but as you grow older the scorn becomes less evident and far subtler. I didn’t care because I did continue to wear it but I know for non-South Asians, they thought if I was wearing American clothes that it didn’t look right for me to wear bindis.”
My mom’s experience shines valuable light upon how the bindi is sometimes perceived as “fobby” or old-fashioned. Some of the jokes seem light-hearted and silly; they simultaneously illustrate how deriding a cultural practice may crush the confidence and self-worth of the minority group. On the other hand, citing personal experience, when I wore a bindi as part of my outfit for “Cultural Appreciation Day” in high school, I received a flood of comments claiming that I looked “mystic-y and exotic” or that I “looked like a lotus flower” (I’m so serious!). Albeit hilarious, ridiculous, and far better than the criticism my mom received, these comments were still misguided. There is indeed a certain level of mistreatment Indians receive for wearing their cultural clothing and not fully “assimilating” into Western culture enough. However, most Indian women, mainly first-generation immigrants are not likely to abandon the practice of wearing the tikka as its meaning and significance is too dear to them to let go. Even after adjusting to life in NYC, a majority of Indian women in America continue to don the bindi despite ridicule and exotification.
Intertwined in the discussion of the bindi is one regarding cultural appropriation, a phenomenon in which elements of a minority culture are adopted, exploited, and aestheticized by members of a more “dominant” culture. Recently, in pop-culture various celebrities have been seen wearing the bindi as a fashion trend; it has increasingly been Westernized and viewed as a stylistic ornament, rather than an ethnic practice. Famous stars from Selena Gomez and Iggy Azeala to random concertgoers at Coachella and Governor’s Island have all been seen wearing bindis on their foreheads as fashion accessories. It was actually Selena Gomez’s Bollywood-inspired performance of “Come and Get It” that provoked and ignited widespread backlash from the Indian community. The main argument employed by hundreds of Indians was that the bindi had been decontextualized and stripped of its meaning, simply to function as a musical festival ornament or decorative wear. Raisa Bhuiyan, an active journalist for Shameless Magazine correctly remarked that South Asian people “can’t wear the bindi like non-South Asians can wear the bindi.”
For Indians, the bindi is an ancient tradition and has auspicious or spiritual significance; however, it also a reason that Indians are seen as outsiders or foreigners. The stigma that South Asian women face because they choose to don their cultural apparel is unfair and degrading to our culture, because it devalues our traditions and spiritual practices. What is even worse is when people who aren’t from the Indian sub-continent wear the tikka and are in turn glorified and revered for making bold fashion choices that show their appreciation for other cultures. Longstanding traditional wear is exploited and fetishized; as the bindi is modified to the liking of the majority, the minority group is still disenfranchised. Westerners aren’t entitled to borrow aspects of other people’s culture without both comprehending the underlying significance and continuing to perceive Indians through a narrow-minded lense. The bindi is not meant to be tossed around as a symbol of sensuality and to achieve seductive effects as a fashion accessory. By incorporating the bindi into popular culture, people are reducing it to a simple boho-chic aesthetic ornament, essentially divorcing it from its inherent meaning. By “alluring to a foreign culture”, Hindu culture becomes based and founded on Western terms.
Examples of Cultural Appropriation
