The veshti, the Tamil cousin of the humble dhoti, had its day in the sun in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday. To mark Veshti Day, students wore the traditional garment to college, offices doled them out, and many people uploaded pictures of themselves or film stars in veshtis on Twitter or Instagram.

January 6 has always been observed as Veshti Day by the Tamil Nadu Handloom Weavers’ Co-operative Society, or Co-optex, to “promote the use of the traditional attire” and to protect the “interests of cotton weavers”.

But this year, there was an additional purpose to the day – a political statement.

Tamil Nadu had witnessed a heated traditionalism-versus-modernism debate last July, when a veshti-clad judge was denied entry into the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association Club in Chennai. The club’s sartorial rules, it turned out, did not permit dhotis.

Weighing into the debate, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor wrote: “All these stipulations are, of course, colonial relics. They go back to the time when the clubs were set up by propah Englishmen and Indians who aspired to be like them – the brown sahibs....The Englishmen and the brown sahibs banded together in clubs that kept out those who weren’t, or couldn’t be, like them.”

When the Opposition piled on opprobrium on the Tamil Nadu government in the legislative Assembly, the government finally levied a punishment of one-year jail term and Rs 25,000 fine on establishments in Chennai that refuse entry to dhoti-clad men. And so the modest veshti also became a message.

On Tuesday, members of the Rotary Club in Kovilpatti organised a rally in support of veshti. The participants, clad in colourful shirts and dhotis, appealed to people to wear dhotis once a week. Incidentally, they said, this is to protect the “interests of cotton weavers”.