Hand spinning -- India; India -- Economic conditions; Manufactures -- India
steady and trained workers, I would undertake to drive pauperism out of
India during this year. This undoubtedly requires a change in the angle
of vision and in the national taste. I regard the Reforms and everything
else in the nature of opiates to deaden our conscience. We must refuse
to wait for generations to furnish us with a patient solution of a
problem which is ever-growing in seriousness. Nature knows no mercy in
dealing stern justice. If we do not wake up before long, we shall be
wiped out of existence. I invite the sceptics to visit Orissa, penetrate
its villages, and find out for themselves where India stands. They will
then believe with me that to possess, or to wear, an ounce of foreign
cloth is a crime against India and humanity. I am able to restrain
myself from committing suicide by starvation, only because I have faith
in India's awakening, and her ability to put herself on the way to
freedom from this desolating pauperism. Without faith in such a
possibility, I should cease to take interest in living. I invite the
questioner, and every other intelligent lover of his country, to take
part in this privileged national service in making spinning universal by
introducing it in every home, and make it profitable for the nation by
helping to bring about a complete boycott of foreign cloth during this
year. I have finished the questions and endeavoured to answer them. The
most important from the practical stand-point was the one regarding
spinning. I hope, I have demonstrated the necessity of home-spinning as
the only means of dealing with India's poverty. I know, however, that
innumerable difficulties face a worker in putting the doctrine into
execution. The most difficult, perhaps, is that of getting a proper
wheel. Save in the Punjab where the art is still alive, the difficulty
is very real. The carpenters have forgotten the construction and the
innocent workers are at their wit's end. The chief thing undoubtedly,
therefore, is for the worker to make himself acquainted with the art and
the handling of spinning wheels. I lay down some simple tests for
testing them. No machine that fails to satisfy the tests should be
accepted or distributed.
(1) The wheel must turn easily, freely, and noiselessly.
(2) The turning handle must be rigidly fixed to the axle.
(3) The post must be properly driven home and joints
well-fixed.
(4) The spindle must turn noiselessly and without a throb in
its holders. Jarring sound cannot be avoided unless the
holders are made of knit straw as in the Punjab, or of tough
leather.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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