Hand spinning -- India; India -- Economic conditions; Manufactures -- India
We are engaged in a spiritual war. We are not living in normal times.
Normal activities are always suspended in abnormal times. And if we are
out to gain _Swaraj_ in a year's time, it means that we must
concentrate upon our goal to the exclusion of every thing else. I
therefore venture to suggest to the students all over India to suspend
their normal studies for one year and devote their time to the
manufacture of yarn by hand-spinning. It will be their greatest act of
service to the motherland, and their most natural contribution to the
attainment of _Swaraj_. During the late war our rulers attempted to turn
every factory into an arsenal for turning out bullets of lead. During
this war of ours, I suggest every national school and college being
turned into a factory for preparing cones of yarns for the nation. The
students will lose nothing by the occupation: they will gain a kingdom
here and hereafter. There is a famine of cloth in India. To assist in
removing this dearth is surely an act of merit. If it is sinful to use
foreign yarn, it is a virtue to manufacture more Swadeshi yarn in order
to enable us to cope with the want that would be created by the disuse
of foreign yarn.
The obvious question asked would be, if it is so necessary to
manufacture yarn, why not pay every poor person to do so? The answer is
that hand spinning is not, and never was, a calling like weaving,
carpentry, etc. Under the pre-British economy of India, spinning was an
honourable and leisurely occupation for the women of India. It is
difficult to revive the art among the women in the time at our disposal.
But it is incredibly simple and easy for the school-goers to respond to
the nation's call. Let no one decry the work as being derogatory to the
dignity of man or students. It was an art confined to the women of India
because the latter had more leisure. And being graceful, musical, and as
it did not involve any great exertion, it had become the monopoly of
women. But it is certainly as graceful for either sex as is music for
instance. In hand-spinning is hidden the protection of women's virtue,
the insurance against famine, and the cheapening of prices. In it is
hidden the secret of _Swaraj_. The revival of hand spinning is the least
penance we must do for the sin of our forefathers in having succumbed
to the satanic influences of the foreign manufacturer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account