This paper extends an earlier investigation into the shift from divine iconography to human representation in historic textile traditions. Building on that transformation, this study examines how textiles subsequently evolved into deliberate instruments of political agenda, ideological persuasion, and collective identity formation. Appropriated by state powers, reform movements, national leaders, and anti-colonial resistance, cloth became a symbolic battlefield where visual codes enacted social authority and contested it. Using case studies drawn from the Indian subcontinent, East Asia, and West Africa, this paper analyses textiles not merely as aesthetic objects but as political texts. Gandhi’s khadi campaigns mobilised hand-spun cotton as a manifesto of self-rule, rejecting British mills in favour of indigenous sovereignty. In contrast, colonial military uniforms, court brocades, and heraldic banners used textile surfaces to legitimise imperial presence, visually inscribing hierarchy onto cloth. African kente patterns signalled lineage and chieftain power, while post-war Chinese textile propaganda transformed fabric into carriers of mass ideological messaging. Through visual analysis, archival history, and theories of semiotics and material culture, this paper argues that textiles functioned as ideological scripts: affirming authority, resisting domination, and shaping social imagination. Once a devotional field for gods, cloth became the medium through which political bodies declared legitimacy, mobilised sentiment, and articulated communal belonging. Reading textiles as political artefacts reveals how fabric remains a living tool of influence today, where motifs, colours, and materials continue to encode nationalism, identity, and power.

Authors:
Manikya Sai Tejaswini Vallabhajosyula, University of North Texas, United States
Lasya Aji Silpa, Appalachian state university, United States
Trippeer Barbara, University of North Texas, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Ms. Manikya Sai Tejaswini Vallabhajosyula is a Teaching Fellow and MFA candidate at the University of North Texas. Her interests include sustainable fashion and wearable art. She is currently researching artisan narratives in Jaipur.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/manikya-sai-tejaswini-vallabhajosyula-b983791b4/

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Manikya-Sai-Tejaswini-Vallabhajosyula-2

See this presentation on the full schedule – On Demand Schedule

Bookmark