What is the first thing that you would notice when walking into any sarkari (government) office in India? Of course, the state of it, which depending on the status of the officer themself, can vary from the face of oppulence to one rickety fan and a dim tubelight.
Then, the musty smell of papers and files, and beyond that, something that often goes unnoticed but is a constant fixture, is a bright white towel draped neatly over the high-backed chair.
It doesn’t matter if the officer is present or absent, whether the room is air-conditioned or sweltering, or whether the department handles education or explosives.
The towel is always there. A recent social media post going viral has brought this simple little towel into the spotlight, making people question why exactly it is there in the first place, its significance, and how it has remained such a constant fixture all these decades.
How Did This Come To Attention?
This was brought to notice recently by Ketan (@Ketanomy), an IIT Delhi alumnus and author of the Indian Economy Handbook, who pointed out how most sarkari offices have a white towel over the chairs. He further wrote that these towels are “a ubiquitous symbol of power”.
On April 19, 2026, Ketan wrote, “Walk into any government office in India, towels are a common sight on the chairs of bureaucrats. A ubiquitous symbol of power.
Such is the importance of the towel that a few years ago in Uttar Pradesh, lawmakers filed complaints, aggrieved at not being offered chairs draped in white towels during visits to government offices, while pointing out that officers were “sitting on tall, betowelled chairs.”
The matter was serious enough that the state’s parliamentary affairs department had to issue a formal directive to officials, reminding them of the existing hierarchy.
The government ordered that MPs, MLAs and MLCs be given towel-adorned chairs “of the same height and decor” at meetings across the state.
In the Uttar Pradesh secretariat in Lucknow, around 1,000 towels are changed twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays.”
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A Colonial Relic That Outlived Its Purpose
Reports trace the origins of this white towel directly back to the British Raj. Gurdeep Singh Sappal, formerly the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) with Vice President Hamid Ansari during both his terms in office, explained how this practice embedded itself into the Indian bureaucratic bloodstream.
In an X/Twitter post, Sappal said, “White towels are a legacy of British era, when there were few roads, fewer cars and no ACs. Officer toured on horses and towels were an integral part of hygiene routine.
British left, horses were sent away, but towels stayed!
It’s not just towels, the size of tables and colour of ink are also defined by hierarchy. When I was working at Joint Secretary level with the Vice President of India, I had to fight a stiff battle of sorts to order a smaller table that would fit better in my office.
The system would not approve of a smaller table! Regarding the colour of ink to be used for noting and signature, Sh. Arun Shourie has written a hilarious, if not ridiculous, memoir as minister. In 1999, two officers in the Ministry of Steel made notings on files using red and green ink. This raised a furore as they were junior officers.
The seniors were scandalised and an enquiry was initiated. India’s bureaucracy spent 13 months debating which colour ink officers could use on files.
The enquiry was routed through several ministries and departments: Ministry of Steel wrote to Dept of Administrative Reforms It referred to Directorate of Printing (ink experts) Printing referred to Dept of Personnel & Training (DoPT) DoPT threw the ball back: “it’s your Manual, you decide” National Archives was consulted for longevity of ink colours Ministry of Defence consulted for Army ink hierarchy Conclusion after 13 months: juniors wrote in blue-black or blue ink, because that has the longest life of impression.
In British era, the files had to travel to Britain, so juniors would write in ink that would stay for the longest. The top brass would sign in green and red. Ruling: Two new paras were added to the manual of office procedure: Para 32(9) says that only officers of Joint Secretary level and above may use red or green ink, and that too only in rare cases.
Para 68(5), on the other hand, does not limit the use of these colours to any particular rank (as modern ball pen ink have no issues of shelf life for any colour!)
The white towel on the officer’s chair. The red telephone on the desk. The peon standing at the door. The green ink reserved for the senior sahib.
These are not accidents of history. They are architecture, the physical grammar of a bureaucratic culture that worships hierarchy.”
A second, more uncomfortable colonial explanation has also been proposed. Dharma Adhikari, a writer who has studied the practice across South Asia, offers a less flattering origin story in his widely-read piece on the subject.
Adhikari states, “Such towels were introduced there by the British to prevent the subjugated Indians from smudging chair covers by their oily hairs. The colonial masters themselves never covered their chairs with towels. Towels on seat frames were introduced as a sweat sponge for human backs, according to another theory.”
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: The Print, India Today, Hindustan Times
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: Offices, sarkari Offices, govt offices, colonialism, colonial india, history, indian history, indian government office, sarkari baabus
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