Hand spinning -- India; India -- Economic conditions; Manufactures -- India
The school-goers will restore hand-spinning to its respectable status.
They will hasten the process of making _Khaddar_ fashionable. For no
mother, or father, worth the name will refuse to wear cloth made out of
yarn spun by their children. And the scholars' practical recognition of
art will compel the attention of the weavers of India. If we are to wean
the Punjabi from the calling not of a soldier but of the murderer of
innocent and free people of other lands, we must give back to him the
occupation of weaving. The race of the peaceful Julahis of the Punjab is
all but extinct. It is for the scholars of the Punjab to make it
possible for the Punjabi weaver to return to his innocent calling.
I hope to show in a future issue how easy it is to introduce this change
in the schools and how quickly, on these terms, we can nationalise our
schools and colleges. Everywhere the students have asked me what new
things I would introduce into our nationalised schools. I have
invariably told them I would certainly introduce spinning. I feel, so
much more clearly than ever before that during the transition period, we
must devote exclusive attention to spinning and certain other things of
immediate national use, so as to make up for past neglect. And the
students will be better able and equipped to enter upon the new course
of studies.
Do I want to put back the hand of the clock of progress? Do I want to
replace the mills by hand-spinning and hand-weaving? Do I want to
replace the railway by the country cart? Do I want to destroy machinery
altogether? These questions have been asked by some journalists and
public men. My answer is: I would not weep over the disappearance of
machinery or consider it a calamity. But I have no design upon machinery
as such. What I want to do at the present moment is to supplement the
production of yarn and cloth through our mills, save the millions we
send out of India, and distribute them in our cottages. This I cannot do
unless and until the nation is prepared to devote its leisure hours to
hand-spinning. To that end we must adopt the methods I have ventured to
suggest for popularising spinning as a duty rather than as a means of
livelihood.
SWADESHI
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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