Military & Aerospace

Impeccable appearance of a Military Officer is half the battle!
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Issue Net Edition | Date : 15 Jul , 2014

Mrs. Indira Gandhi with Manekshaw

Declining standard of officers’ conduct has been a cause for concern for the past few years. Occurrence of numerous incidents of un-officer like behaviour has caused considerable disquiet.

Unless officers are made to dress like gentlemen, they cannot be expected to behave like gentlemen.

A number of papers have been published by experts to identify reasons for this ominous trend. India’s premier think tank, the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis devoted its issue of April 2013 of the Journal of Defence Studies to this subject. The Army Training Command has chosen ‘Back to Basics – Need of the Hour’ to be the main theme of the next issue of its journal. It wants to generate discussion on the measures that can be taken to arrest the decline.

Whereas most observers blame the influence of changing socio-economic environment on officers’ psyche, others are of the view that increasing aspirations of the officers have impacted the old concept of ‘gentleman-officer’.

Unfortunately, in this pursuit to discover underlying reasons through complex scientific studies, a very obvious causal factor is being completely overlooked, i.e. increasing dilution of the importance of turnout in the services. The term turnout describes the manner in which a person dresses and presents himself. ‘Shabby turnout produces shabby behaviour’ is an old military dictum.

Behaviour is defined as the way in which an individual behaves or acts or conducts himself. It is influenced, inter alia, by psychological dynamics, and, clothing/dress is considered to be an important psychological trigger. That is the reason why dress code has always been an essential part of the services culture.

It will be in order to recall an incident that happened at a major training academy a few years ago. Conduct of the officers at a social function was found to be highly unacceptable. A group of inebriated officers threw beer bottles in the swimming pool and monopolised the dance floor with whiskey glasses in hands. Fearing misbehaviour, all ladies walked off the dance floor.

…clothing has a huge influence on others’ perceptions. People judge and respond to others by the way they look and dress. That, in turn, impacts wearers’ psychology as well.

Expectedly, the Commandant was distraught.  Although not all his staff officers agreed with him, he felt that casual dress allowed for the function was one of the main contributory factors. He prescribed shirt and tie for the next social get-together. A distinct improvement in the general behaviour was discernible.

Convinced of his inference that dress influenced the behaviour of the officers, the Commandant mandated lounge suit/mess dress for all social events. He never had to face any embarrassing spectacle thereafter. Even the New Year party, which used to degenerate into an ugly mayhem earlier, remained a dignified affair.

The above episode has been recounted to highlight the fact that dress exerts profound psychological and behavioural influences on the wearers. Researchers call the process as ‘enclothed cognition’.

Behaviour which is not in line with the expectations of how one should behave when wearing a particular dress creates a psychological conflict called cognitive dissonance. Without being aware of it, people attempt to relieve the conflict by modifying their behaviour to match their dress. Resultantly, their behaviour remains in consonance with the expected norms.

Clothes Make the Man

Mark Twain’s often quoted statement that ‘clothes make the man’ applies in two ways.  One, an appropriately dressed individual takes pride in his appearance. It makes him feel good and boosts his self-confidence; which reflects in his attitude, demeanour and job performance.

Many civilian professionals work from home on certain days. Although they know that that they are not being seen by the other participants, they dress up appropriately before attending an important conference call.

Two, clothing has a huge influence on others’ perceptions. People judge and respond to others by the way they look and dress. That, in turn, impacts wearers’ psychology as well. It makes them strive to come up to the people’s expectations through appropriate behaviour.

Studies carried out by Adam D. Galinsky of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University showed that clothes invade the body and brain, putting the wearer into a different psychological state. Further, it proved that clothing not only sends a certain message to humans, but can also affect how they feel about themselves and how they perform certain tasks.

As per a study reported in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, students who thought they were wearing a doctor’s coat showed a heightened sense of attention than students who thought they were wearing a painter’s coat. It reality, both were wearing the same coat. The influence came from the symbolic interpretation of the article of clothing, i.e. ‘physicians tend to be careful, rigorous and good at paying attention’. Resultantly, wearing a laboratory coat increased selective attention.

Many civilian professionals work from home on certain days. Although they know that that they are not being seen by the other participants, they dress up appropriately before attending an important conference call. They admit that their dress impacts their response and makes them get into the correct frame of mind to discuss serious professional issues.

The Services and the Turnout

Realising the importance of impact of turnout on human psychology, the services have always laid a great deal of stress on prescribing dresses to suit different occasions and requirements. Different dresses evoke diverse feelings, have associated nuances of the norms of conduct and are suggestive of the manner in which a wearer is expected to act. Whereas uniform makes an officer feel like a disciplined leader, combat dress prepares him mentally for physical activity. In other words, dress makes an officer get into the necessary frame of mind and prepares him to perform the required role.

Neglect of the dress code has impacted the psyche of the officers adversely. They have stopped taking pride in their appearance.

Earlier, turnout was considered an critical necessity for earning the respect of the troops. All officers were expected to be appropriately turned out at all times as it was felt that outward appearance, both in formal and informal interactions, impacted the environment considerably. Therefore, formal dresses were specified for social functions as well. Entering an officers’ mess without lounge suit was considered a sacrilege. Even the services institutes followed the dress codes strictly – officers were not allowed to enter without full sleeves shirt and tie.

Over a period of time, formal attire has given way to ‘relaxed casuals’. Today, open collar shirt has become the normal dress for the messes. Service institutes even allow tee-shirts. Dress code has lost the importance that it enjoyed earlier.

Neglect of the dress code has impacted the psyche of the officers adversely. They have stopped taking pride in their appearance. Under the garb of wearing casual clothes, they dress shabbily. It is distressing to see officers visiting canteens and other facilities unshaven and wearing sloppy footwear. Resultantly, such officers tend to behave in an unbecoming manner.

Finally

It is understandable that norms and views undergo change with time. However, it should not be done at the cost of the services culture. It is hard to digest the logic that officers cannot relax and enjoy if dressed in lounge suits. Whereas adjustments must be made to cater for climatic conditions, a certain degree of moderation must be exercised. Swinging from one extremity to another is not judicious.

Lesser importance assigned to the dress code is certainly one of the contributory factors for the deteriorating standard of behaviour of some members of the officer cadre. Unless officers are made to dress like gentlemen, they cannot be expected to behave like gentlemen. ‘You are what you wear’ is an old saying.

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The views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of the Indian Defence Review.

About the Author

Maj Gen Mrinal Suman

is India’s foremost expert in defence procurement procedures and offsets. He heads Defence Technical Assessment and Advisory Services Group of CII.

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16 thoughts on “Impeccable appearance of a Military Officer is half the battle!

  1. In retrospect, the gradual ‘simplification’ of Army dress has been tragic. Compare for eg, at the very ‘top’, the President’s ADC’s to the frock coated Viceroy’s ADC’s before 1947. The officers today invariably have no idea of where and how to wear their cummerbunds, with the result that the inadequate bits of jacket protruding below the belt sometimes look like obscene miniskirts. And who had the idea of reducing stand up collar sizes on Mess Jackets ? A closed collar should ride at least three-quarters up the wearer’s neck – the gullaband collars today lurk somewhere near the collarbone. Come to think of it, giving up the earlier elaborate mess dress for the dressed down mess dresses of today was a mistake : yes cost plays a factor, but fabrics and mass factory produced embroidery is much cheaper today than say 30 years ago. Surely something more dressy and elaborate could be thought of by a professional designer ? And lets not even get started on how wearing swords is the exception today, rather than the rule, on ceremonial occasions.

  2. While changing socio-economic environment could be one of the reasons for the decline, I would dare not put all ‘eggs in the basket of dress code alone’. This calls for much more serious debate.

  3. One fails to understand why officers cannot wear proper attire for the Officers Mess or Institutes. How much longer does it take to adorn a shirt vis-à-vis a T Shirt. It takes thirty seconds longer. And wearing a T Shirt & Jeans does not convert a man’s appearance from a Om Puri to a Shah Rukh Khan. You will always look in the way God created you. But definitely a formal attire commands greater respect from others than does a sleeveless ‘banian’ and a ‘Jhoolta Hua’ Bermuda with rubber slippers does; this seems to treated as a casual attire which lends a ‘COOL’ air to the wearer. It definitely is not a fashion trend.

  4. The author has got it spot on.
    Mess Dresses were introduced during the early 80s with a view to reduce requirement of a large wardrobe as also bring about elegant uniformity. Now it is considered a burden to wear Mess Dresses for evening engagements. Lounge suits should not be the first choice for official engagements. And casual open collar wear should be relegated to Clubs only.

  5. I think uniform is a must for the forces .But Bollywood has certainly brought in the culture of chappals with uniform and all sorts of permutation combination of uniform styles which our jawans tend to copy after seeing their officers aping .I remember the IMA days where a huge stress was given on dress and personal conduct which I find lacking in today’s GC when we see them in town(Dehradun).Maybe because there is more stress on academics but officer-soldier relations can never be compromised .Officer will still have to prove himself to be able to lead his men,what ever social changes may take place in society.

  6. I think uniform is a must for the forces .But Bollywood has certainly brought in the culture of chappals with uniform and all sorts of permutation combination of uniform styles which our jawans tend to copy after seeing their officers aping .I remember the IMA days where a huge stress was given on dress and personal conduct which I find lacking in today’s GC when we see them in town(Dehradun).Maybe because there is more stress on academics but officer-soldier relations can never be compromised .Officer will still have to prove himself to be able to lead his men,what ever social changes may take place in socity.

  7. Hope the research is really sampled on concrete database(hope it is not in the lines of BPL).
    The only problem with our think-tank is that they are reactive and not proactive. We wake-up to a high threshold of degradation.

    Indeed a lot of thinking basis the studies by various academia – but I only have one disconnect on “enclothed cognition”. Combat dress came into being in the 80/90’s. All wars by Indian Army were fought in OG’s. No war has been fought(except the localised Kargil/insurgency) in combats. Not by any chance denying the need of combat dress.
    I also remember serving in the extreme hot/cold/humid environs of the northern plains. Salted uniforms of the men were a very common sight. Shirt collars with whitened brims, chest portions equally whitened, laid out “maps of myriad regions”.

    • I wish we called them correctly – the combat dress is actually Dress No 7, Dress Combat Disruptive !
      As for sweat on the OGs. Please take a careful look; the OG is near Black now. Our desire to ensure the Uniform does not ” fade” had flooded the market with this darker shade of OG which is no longer OG. As for the cut and fall of uniforms the less said the better. The ”ASC Diplomad” Regimental tailor of yore is an extinct species – I wonder how many officers, let alone tailors can distinguish a Patrol cut Dinner jacket from a jacket why is it cut thus. Our uniforms have no standardisation at all. We wear what the unit tailor/ baniya thinks is correct and they sell what the ”customer” wants at the cheapest price. Quality is incdental. Our uniforms are therefore apeing popular fashion in terms of cut and fall and with our lack of attention to such detail nothing much can be expected.
      The US Dress code runs into nearly 450 odd pages of the minutest detail, our new ”Red Book” in comparison is a poor 9/10 sheets. The other aspect is this misplaced Regimental slant to uniforms. A careful progressive look at the Republic Day Parade at Delhi will reveal how the uniform has got garishly colourful over the years. The focus of the commentator more often that not is “the xyz contingent in their new uniforms”. The colours and shades seems to be in a constant state of flux. The parade itself is slowly apeing the Delhi Police contingent marching style with a ridiculously high arm swing and equally high ”dihine dekh” step — I will not be surprised if a Contingent Commander trips onto Raj Path in 2014.
      Back to basics ! Yes indeed, after all the reams of high sounding flowery jargon on matters military we are privileged to read with mundane regularity we do indeed need to get back to basics, it is much too late already.

  8. Not only the turn out, but the physique agility and appearance of the service officer has become pathetic. Apparently, the physical fitness has been neglected. Most of the officers are pot bellied and overweight. Apparently no BPET & PPT are being conducted, as was done before. Apart from that, it seems that Overweight problems in Medical Boards are also being managed/manipulated. So, most of the time we find photographs of Senior officers with such pathetic physical appearance.

  9. Well written. Officers uniforms these days leave much to be desired. Old worn out uniforms with pants opened up from behind makes one wonder if these officers belong to some impoverished African country. Many look worse in civies. The cake is taken by the officers wives who dress outlandishly and some even look like bollywood vamps.

    • I wonder, whether you are an officer / ex-army or some Safai karmachari from Afreeka ?

      What made you write such stuff about wives of offfrs, may be your upbringing ?
      Please stick to the topic, It will not be in the interest of unclothed-decency, that I speak about your Vamp/Unvamp wife, mother & sister.

      PS : Respected editor, kindly edit such unwarranted comments by mentally misguided individuals .

  10. The General has a point. However, in our country the climate has a big role to play. During the summers and the monsoon period most of the country makes it unbearable to wear formal dress. So, the open collar culture has come in. What I would concentrate more is on the turnout when in uniform. Our uniforms are very smart. Yet in most places we never get the chance to wear the service dress or the blue patrol because there is no winter uniform in the South and the Eastern part. Let me close by saying that even in open collar you can look very smart and presentable if you wear the right colour combinations.

  11. Can anyone dispute a single point. How nicely has the problem been analysed. Your dress is the mirror of your personality. Britishers ruled the word by extracting respect of the rule by ensuring that their dress made them stand out. An excellent article. Should be read by all serving officers.

  12. You have hit the nail on the head Gen Suman.
    I happened to attend an investiture ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan a couple of years ago and was appalled to see the dress of most of the three star generals including the AG himself. No one seemed to take notice. The uniform itself was converted into a casual wear to be felicitated by the President herself!
    One often comes across generals at Airports wearing Bermudas, a tea shirt and some fancy footwear. Needless to say they are hardly treated as military officers even by lower rung of officials. One can imagine the impact all this has on the men these officers command. No wonder we often hear about deteriorating officer-men relationship.
    Its time we reverted back to being a gentleman in our appearance too.

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