Hand spinning -- India; India -- Economic conditions; Manufactures -- India
The chief difficulty in working out the scheme is the spinning wheel. We
require thousands of wheels if the art becomes popular. Fortunately,
every village carpenter can easily construct the machine. It is a
serious mistake to order them from the Ashram or any other place. The
beauty of spinning is that it is incredibly simple, easily learnt, and
can be cheaply introduced in every village.
The course suggested by me is intended only for this year of
purification and probation. When normal times are reached and Swaraj is
established one hour only may be given to spinning and the rest to
literary training.
_Y. I.--2nd Feb. 1921._
THE DUTY OF SPINNING
[Speaking at a monster meeting of students held in Mirzapur Park,
Calcutta, Mahatma Gandhi appealed to them to withdraw from educational
institutions. In the course of that speech he spoke on the duty of
spinning, which portion is printed here.]
Our education has been the most deficient in two things. Those who
framed our education code neglected the training of the body and the
soul. You are receiving the education of the soul but the very fact of
non-co-operation for non-co-operation is nothing less and nothing more
than withdrawing from participation in the evil that this Government is
doing and continuing to do. And if we are withdrawing from evil
conscientiously, deliberately, it means that we are walking with our
face towards God. That completes or begins the soul training. But
seeing that our bodily education has been neglected, and seeing that
India has become enslaved because India forgot the spinning wheel, and
because India sold herself for a mess of pottage, I am not afraid to
place before you, the young men of Bengal, the spinning wheel for
adoption. And let a training in spinning and production of as much yarn
as you can ever do constitute your main purpose and your main training
during this year of probation. Let your ordinary education commence
after Swaraj is established, but let every young man, and every girl, of
Bengal consider it to be their sacred duty to devote all their time and
energy to spinning. I have drawn attention to the parallel, that
presents itself before us, from the war.
_Y. I.--2nd Feb. 1921._
THE DOCTRINE OF CHARKA
[The opening session of the National College, Calcutta, under the
auspices of the Board of Education, formed by Srijuts Chittaranjan Das,
Jitendralal Banerjee and other non-co-operation leaders, took place on
Friday the 4th February 1921. In opening this College, Mahatma Gandhi
addressed the students and professors, from which the following is
culled.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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