I think one day there will be a mixed cosmopolite culture all over the world and language will be the only cultural difference, neighbouring cultures have always assimilated elements from each other upon contact (e.g. sewn clothing such as Sherwani/Shalwar-Kameez and decent architecture came to India from Persians/Pashtuns) and now due to technology and communication not only neighbouring cultures but even cultures from different corners of the globe are enhancing each other and sharing elements, the process has been sped up…
I think it’s already happened, whichever part of the urban world you go to whether it’s Manchester, Dubai, Islamabad or Tokyo the dress, cuisine, art/architecture is the same; universal and cosmopolite (those in Manchester eat curry and those in Isb eat burger and fries).
Here in Britain Fish ‘n’ Chips (of Jewish/German origin) was once the nations favourite but now Curry (of Asian origin) is our “national dish”. When I go to Pakistan my dress (jeans t-shirt) and dietary habits (chinese, italian, south-asian, british) remain the same…
Most aspects of culture such as clothing, food, art etc. are universal and no culture has monopoly over then, they have always changed for every ethnicity but ones language defines who one is ethnically, that’s one thing we should all maintain like the Japanese, Chinese or Turks who have a universal cosmoploite culture in every way but they have retained their languages with pride. It’s okay for languages to evolve and enhance their vocabulory by assimilating words from other languages if they don’t have suitable vocabulory for a certain thing (e.g. computer) but unneccesarily adopting foreign words just to be cool (friend instead of dost) is so not cool, especially on FOBs…
Clothing is universal, people in our countries wear pant and shirts and here in England old English ladies wear Kaftans (of Arabic origin). The other day my little cousin was watching “Zack and Cody’s Suite Life” at our house and the cute chinky girl in that was wearing salwar-kurta with a scarf around her shoulders but it was so westernised and skimpy that you couldn’t tell unless you concentrated..
As far as Shalwar Kameez is concerned I think Paki men should shed it now for jeans-tshirt/pant-shirt as the latter look smarter, Salwar Kameez looks scruffy if it’s from the Darzi (tailor) and the designer stuff such as by Amir Adnan looks effeminate and medieval.
Women’s Shalwar Kameez however can be quite sexy and more elegant and stylish than any female-wear around the world so they should carry on wearing them, female Shalwar Kameez is versatile so it can be casual, party, formal, etc.. Now Saaris are a no-no, they looks like cocoons on most women, very few women (tall and slim) can carry them off half-decently but even they look to medieval in them..
PS. Please can you start referring to our region as South-Asian Subcontinent instead of Indian Subcontinent, the only Indian bit about it is the area comprising India..