Why Govt Officer's Chair Has White Towel? What '1,000 Towels A Week' In UP Secretariat Really Mean?

Last Updated:April 25, 2026, 16:41 IST

The Uttar Pradesh Secretariat in Lucknow replaces around 1,000 towels twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays.

Walk into any government office in India and one thing is guaranteed — regardless of the department, the rank of the officer, or whether the room is air-conditioned — a crisp white towel will be draped neatly over the back of the chair. The officer may be absent, the chair may be empty, but the towel is always there.

It is so commonplace that most people stop noticing it. But this week, a viral social media debate has put that humble piece of cloth back in the spotlight.

The trigger was a post by IIT Delhi alumnus and author Ketan, who called the white towel a “ubiquitous symbol of power" and highlighted a 2024 episode from Uttar Pradesh that illustrated just how seriously the establishment takes it.

What Happened In UP In 2024?

In 2024, UP Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh called an emergency video conference to ensure that administrative protocols regarding towels were followed.

According to the government order, MPs, MLAs, and MLCs should be given towel-adorned chairs “of the same height and decor" at meetings across the state. The meeting was prompted by complaints from elected representatives who felt snubbed — officers were sitting on towel-draped chairs while the politicians were not.

The Uttar Pradesh Secretariat in Lucknow replaces around 1,000 towels twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. A piece of cloth. Changed twice a week. At public expense. Across a thousand chairs.

Where Did This Tradition Come From?

The origins, like much of Indian bureaucratic culture, trace back to the British Raj. Former civil servant Gurdeep Singh Sappal, who served as OSD to Vice President Hamid Ansari, termed white towels a “legacy of the British era" when roads were fewer, cars were fewer, and there was no air conditioning.

“Officers toured on horses, and towels were an integral part of the hygiene routine. The British left, horses were sent away, but the towels stayed," he said.

There is, however, a second and more pointed theory. According to writer Dharma Adhikari, the towels were introduced by the British to prevent Indians from smudging chair covers with oily hair — and notably, the colonial masters themselves never covered their own chairs with towels.

Either way, what began as a practical hygiene measure in a pre-AC era slowly transformed into something else entirely.

Why White Specifically?

White was chosen for a simple reason: dirt shows up immediately on white fabric, making it easy to spot when a towel needed changing. But over decades, the colour took on a meaning of its own.

A white towel draped over a chair became a marker of the officer’s position and authority — a signal, without a word being spoken, of who sat where in the hierarchy.

Is It Still Just About Sweat?

Hardly. Former civil servant Ashish Joshi called the practice “anachronistic" and indicative of a “feudalistic mindset."

“With almost all government offices, especially those of civil servants, now equipped with air conditioning, this practice has become outdated," he was quoted by The Sunday Guardian.

Sappal put it more bluntly: “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."

Has Anything Changed?

One small but telling detail. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s chair is draped not in white but in an orange towel — though the shift is yet to trickle down to the bureaucratic ranks.

The British left over 75 years ago. The horses are long gone. The towel remains.

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