The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wheel of Fortune, by Mahatma Gandhi
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Title: The Wheel of Fortune
Author: Mahatma Gandhi
Commentator: Dwijendranath Tagore
Release Date: January 31, 2013 [EBook #41954]
Language: English
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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
The author often uses the South Asian numbering system where, besides
the three least significant digits of the integer part, a comma divides
every two rather than every three digits (for example 10,00,000 instead
of 1,000,000). Italic text has been marked with _underscores_.
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list of corrections to the text can be found at the end of the document.
THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
Freedom's Battle
Swaraj in One Year
Indian Home Rule
Mahatma Gandhi
His Life writings and speeches
Foreword by Mrs. Sarojini Naidu
3rd Edition. Revised and Enlarged
THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
BY
MAHATMA GANDHI
Appreciation by
DWIJENDRANATH TAGORE
MADRAS
GANESH & CO.
1922
THE CAMBRIDGE
PRESS, MADRAS.
CONTENTS
Page.
Dawn of a New Era ix
SWADESHI
Non-Co-operation Programme 1
Khilafat and Swadeshi 5
The Secret of Swaraj 8
Swadeshi 16
Swadeshi in the Punjab 26
Swadeshi Stores 31
Indian Economics 34
How to Boycott Foreign Cloth 44
SPINNING
The Music of the Spinning Wheel 53
"Handlooms or Powermills?" 58
Hand-spinning and Hand-weaving 64
Hand-spinning again 71
A Plea for Spinning 76
The Duty of Spinning 80
The Duty of Spinning 83
The Doctrine of Charka 85
The Message of the Charka 87
The Charka in the Gita 93
Spinning as Famine Relief 97
The Potency of the Spinning Wheel 107
The Wheel of Fortune 110
The Spinning Wheel 116
APPENDICES
I. A Model Weaving-school 123
Spinning Department 133
The Advantage of the thin spindle 136
Hand-Looms 140
What Kind of Loom? 144
Sizing Handspun Yarn 146
II. The Wheel of Fortune 156
DAWN OF A NEW ERA
Many critics and some friends of Mahatma Gandhi have found fault with
his desire to introduce simpler methods of spinning and weaving and to
do away with much of the complicated machinery of Modern Civilisation.
The reason why they object is that they fear such methods mean not
progress towards a higher state but relapse into a primitive condition
of civilisation or even of barbarism. His denunciation of the age of
machinery and of the Industrial System has been criticised by many as
the ravings of a visionary and of one who is merely an impracticable
idealist. This is a strange criticism to come from those who give their
allegiance to a form of civilisation or 'Culture' which has led to the
unprecedented horrors of the late European War and the century-old
disgraces of the Industrial System. Is this present modern civilisation
so very desirable that we should wish it to continue in perpetuity?
Every civilisation in the History of Man has reached a certain point
after which there has been one possibility only for it and that was
absolute relapse into semi-darkness in order to give place to a new and
higher civilisation. The common starting point of all the civilisations
is a kind of night-time. In order that the Babylonian (or Despotic)
Civilisation might give way to the Roman (or Heroic), and the Roman give
way to the Modern (or Intellectual) Civilisation, it was necessary for
each in turn to sink completely into this common night-time. Without
this entire destruction of the ancient structure, there would have been
only a patchwork of the old, and not a harmonious building of the New.
As Christ said: "Ye cannot put old wine into new bottles." The debris of
the Past has to be cleared away in order to make way for the structure
of the Future. Now with regard to Modern Civilisation, all the signs of
the times show that it has failed lamentably and is gradually tottering
to a dishonoured grave. Why make any attempts to prop up what Nature so
evidently has decided to throw on the scrap-heap? Such attempts are
contrary to the teaching of past history. But anything, which tends to
reach the common roots of all civilisations, should be encouraged. In
order that the spiritual civilisation of the Future may have a real
chance of growing in an atmosphere congenial to it, Mahatma Gandhi's
demonstration of the right path should be welcomed. His emphasis on
simplicity of life and on the simplification of the machinery of living
must be realised as a supremely essential condition of the coming of the
new Era. In the civilisation of the Future, an Era of natural harmonious
living will be inaugurated, and artificial, luxurious and pompous living
will be entirely rooted out.
Simplicity of life being a condition of spiritual perfection, we may
look forward to an Era of Civilisation in the Future, greatly superior
to all the civilisations of the Past, if only we accept simplicity of
life as the best method of living. The failure and decline of Western
or Modern Civilisation need not alarm us; for the experience of History
is full of similar declines of once powerful cultures. When Babylonian
Civilisation had reached its height, it had to come down to what we may
term the zero-point of all civilisation from which Roman Civilisation
had made its start. But when Roman Civilisation had reached its zenith,
it was much superior to the zenith Civilisation of Babylon, as the
zenith Babylonian was superior to the zero-civilisation. And so also of
full-fledged Modern Civilisation. We may say that until it returns to
the common zero-point, there is no hope of a full and perfect
development of a civilisation moulded by spiritual ideals.
Let critics of Mahatma Gandhi then look to History before they condemn
him for trying to bring this much belauded Modern Civilisation down to
the common starting point of all great civilisations. We are at the dawn
of a New Era, and Mahatma Gandhi is the one leader who shows to us the
right path. He at least is watering the roots, while all others who try
to keep alive the Civilisation of the Western nations are like foolish
gardeners who lavish water on the withering leaves of a dying tree and
never think of watering its roots.
SWADESHI
THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
BOYCOTT OF GOODS
_vs._
NON-CO-OPERATION PROGRAMME
Mr. Kasturi Ranga Aiyangar was pleased to answer my argument in favour
of the details of the first stage of non-co-operation that I had the
honour of explaining at the great Madras Beach meeting. He expressed his
dissent from all but the renunciation of titles. He suggested boycott of
foreign goods in the place of the other items. Even at the risk of
repeating arguments familiar to the readers of "Young India", I must
deal with the question of boycott which has now received the imprimatur
of so able a publicist as Mr. Kasturi Ranga Aiyangar.
In the first place, boycott of British goods has been conceived as a
punishment and can have no place in non-co-operation which is conceived
in a spirit of self-sacrifice and is a matter of sacred duty.
Secondly, any measure of punishment must be swift, certain and adequate
for the effect intended to be produced. Resorted to by individuals,
therefore, boycott is ineffectual, for, it can give no satisfaction
unless it is productive of effect, whereas every act of non-co-operation
is its own satisfaction.
Thirdly, boycott of British goods is thoroughly unpractical, for, it
involves sacrifice of their millions by millionaires. It is in my
opinion infinitely more difficult for a merchant to sacrifice his
millions than for a lawyer to suspend his practice or for a title-holder
to give up his title or for a parent to sacrifice, if need be, the
literary instruction of his children. Add to this the important fact
that merchants have only lately begun to interest themselves in
politics. They are therefore yet timid and cautious. But the class, to
which the first stage of non-co-operation is intended to appeal, is the
political class which has devoted years to politics and is not mentally
unprepared for communal sacrifice.
Boycott of British goods to be effective must be taken up by the whole
country at once or not at all. It is like a siege. You can carry out a
siege only when you have the requisite men and instruments of
destruction. One man scratching a wall with his finger nails may hurt
his fingers but will produce no effect upon the walls. One title-holder
giving up his title has the supreme satisfaction of having washed his
hands clean of the guilt of the donor and is unaffected by the refusal
of his fellows to give up theirs. The motive of boycott being punitive
lacks the inherent practicability of non-co-operation. The spirit of
punishment is a sign of weakness. A strengthening of that spirit will
retard the process of regeneration. The spirit of sacrifice is a
determination to rid ourselves of our weakness. It is therefore an
invigorating and purifying process and is therefore also calculated to
do good both to us and to those who evoke the spirit of sacrifice in us.
Above all, if India has a mission of her own, she will not fulfil it by
copying the doubtful example of the West and making even her sacrifice
materialistically utilitarian instead of offering a sacrifice spotless
and pleasing even in the sight of God.
KHILAFAT AND SWADESHI
It was not without much misgiving that I consented to include Swadeshi
as a plank in non-co-operation. But Maulana Hasrat Mohani by his sheer
earnestness bore me down. I fear however that his reasons for including
Swadeshi are different from mine. He is a protagonist of boycott of
British goods, I cannot reconcile myself to the doctrine as I have
explained elsewhere in this issue. But having failed to popularise
boycott, Mohani Saheb has accepted Swadeshi as the lesser good. It is
however necessary for me to explain how I have come to include Swadeshi
in the programme of non-co-operation.
Non-co-operation is nothing but discipline in self-sacrifice. And I
believe that a nation that is capable of limitless sacrifice is capable
of rising to limitless heights. The purer the sacrifice the quicker the
progress. Swadeshi offers every man, woman and child an occasion to
make a beginning in self-sacrifice of a pure type. It therefore presents
an opportunity for testing our capacity for sacrifice. It is the measure
for gauging the depth of national feeling on the Khilafat wrong. Does
the nation feel sufficiently to move it to go through even the
preliminary process of sacrifice? Will the nation revise its taste for
the Japanese silk, the Manchester calico or the French lace and find all
its decoration out of hand-spun and hand-woven cloth, i.e., Khadi? If
crores of people will refuse to wear or use foreign cloth and be
satisfied with the simple cloth that we can produce in our homes, it
will be proof of our organising ability, energy, co-operation and
self-sacrifice that will enable us to secure all we need. It will be a
striking demonstration of national solidarity.
Such a consummation cannot be achieved for the mere wish. It cannot be
achieved by one man, no matter how capable and sincere he may be. It
cannot be achieved by dotting India with Swadeshi stores. It can only be
achieved by new production and judicious distribution. Production means
lacs of women spinning in their own homes. This requires earnest men to
be engaged in honestly distributing carded cotton and collecting yarn
and paying for it. It means manufacture of thousands of spinning wheels.
It means inducing the hereditary weavers to return to their noble
calling and distributing home-spun yarn amongst them and selling their
manufactures. It is thus only as an energising agent that I can think of
Swadeshi as a plank in non-co-operation. But it is not to be despised in
that capacity. And I hope that every worker for the cause, even if he
can do nothing else, will have done something if he can advance Swadeshi
first by increasing production and then distribution. He would be simply
moving in a circle if he is satisfied with distributing cloth that is
already being manufactured in India.
THE SECRET OF SWARAJ
The Congress resolution has rightly emphasised the importance of
Swadeshi and the amount of greater sacrifice by merchants.
India cannot be free so long as India voluntarily encourages or
tolerates the economic drain which has been going on for the past
century and a half. Boycott of foreign goods means no more and no less
than boycott of foreign cloth. Foreign cloth constitutes the largest
drain voluntarily permitted by us. It means sixty crores of rupees
annually paid by us for piece-goods. If India could make a successful
effort to stop that drain, she can gain Swaraj by that one act.
India was enslaved for satisfying the greed of the foreign cloth
manufacturer. When the East India Company came in, we were able to
manufacture all the cloth we needed, and more for export. By processes
that need not be described here, India has become practically wholly
dependent upon foreign manufacture for her clothing.
But we ought not to be dependent. India has the ability to manufacture
all her cloth if her children will work for it. Fortunately India has
yet enough weavers to supplement the out-turn of her mills. The mills do
not and cannot immediately manufacture all the cloth we want. The reader
may not know that, even at the present moment, the weavers weave more
cloth than the mills. But the latter weave five crore yards of fine
foreign counts, equal to forty crore yards of coarser counts. The way to
carry out a successful boycott of foreign cloth is to increase the
out-put of yarn. And this can only be done by hand-spinning.
To bring about such a boycott, it is necessary for our merchants to stop
all foreign importation, and to sell out, even at a loss, all foreign
cloth already stocked in India, preferably to foreign buyers. They must
cease to speculate in cotton, and keep all the cotton required for home
use. They must stop purchasing all foreign cotton.
The mill-owners should work their mills not for their profits but as a
national trust and therefore cease to spin finer counts, and weave only
for the home market.
The householder has to revise his or her ideas of fashion and, at least
for the time being, suspend the use of fine garments which are not
always worn to cover the body. He should train himself to see art and
beauty in the spotlessly white _khaddar_ and to appreciate its soft
unevenness. The householder must learn to use cloth as a miser uses his
hoard.
And even when the householders have revised their tastes about dress,
somebody will have to spin yarn for the weavers. This can only be done
by every one spinning during spare hours either for love or money.
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.
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
In criticising my article entitled 'The Music of the Spinning Wheel!'
the "Leader" the other day attributed to me the ideas that I have never
entertained. And it is necessary for the purpose of understanding the
true value of Swadeshi, to correct some of the current fallacies. The
_Leader_ considers that I am putting back the hands of the clock of
progress by attempting to replace mill-made cloth and mill-spun yarn by
hand-woven and hand-spun yarn. Now, I am making no such attempt at all.
I have no quarrel with the mills. My views are incredibly simple. India
requires nearly 13 yards of cloth per head per year. She produces, I
believe, less than half the amount. India grows all the cotton she
needs. She exports several million bales of cotton to Japan and
Lancashire and receives much of it back in manufactured calico although
she is capable of producing all the cloth and all the yarn necessary for
supplying her wants by hand-weaving and hand-spinning. India needs to
supplement her main occupation, agriculture, with some other employment.
Hand-spinning is the only such employment for millions. It was the
national employment a century ago. It is not true to say that economic
pressure and modern machinery destroyed hand-spinning and hand-weaving.
This great industry was destroyed or almost destroyed by extraordinary
and immoral means adopted by the East India Company. This national
industry is capable of being revived by exertion and a change in the
national taste without damaging the mill industry. Increase of mills is
no present remedy for supplying the deficiency. The difficulty can be
easily supplied only by hand-spinning and hand-weaving. If this
employment were revived, it would prevent sixty million rupees from
being annually drained from the country and distribute the amount among
lacs of poor women in their own cottages. I therefore consider Swadeshi
as an automatic, though partial, solution of the problem of India's
grinding poverty. It also constitutes a ready-made insurance policy in
times of scarcity of rain.
But two things are needful to bring about the needed revival--to create
a taste for Khaddar and to provide an organisation for the distribution
of carded cotton and collection of yarn against payment.
In one year, by the silent labour of a few men, several thousand rupees
have been distributed in Gujarat among several thousand poor women who
are glad enough to earn a few pice per day to buy milk for their
children, etc.
The argument does not apply to the sugar industry as the "Leader" has
attempted. There is not sufficient cane grown in India to supply India's
wants. Sugar was never a national and supplementary industry. Foreign
sugar has not supplanted Indian sugar. India's wants of sugar have grown
and she therefore imports more sugar. But this importation does not
institute a drain in the sense in which importation of foreign cloth
does. Production of more sugar means more scientific agriculture, more
and better machinery for crushing and refining. The sugar industry
therefore stands on a different platform. Swadeshi in sugar is
desirable, Swadeshi in cloth is an urgent necessity.
The Swadeshi propaganda has been going on in a more or less organised
manner now for the past eighteen months. Some of its results are
surprising and gratifying. It has taken a fairly firm hold in the
Punjab, Madras and the Bombay Presidency. Hand spinning and hand-weaving
are steadily increasing in these parts. Several thousand rupees have
been distributed in homes where women never did any work before. And if
more work of this kind has not been done, it is due to want of workers.
This is however written more to note the mistakes of the past than to
sum up the bright side. My observations lead me to the conclusion that
whilst the inauguration of the three vows and Swadeshi stores have
greatly stimulated the Swadeshi spirit, it is no longer possible to
advocate the taking of any of the three vows or the opening of new
Swadeshi stores for the sale of mill-made cloth. The result of the
propaganda has been to send up the prices of yarn and cloth rather than
increase production. It is clear that the purpose of Swadeshi is not
served until the quantity of yarn and cloth produced is increased. The
gain therefore is merely moral and not material. The people have begun
to perceive the desirability of wearing only Swadeshi cloth if the real
interest of the country is to be advanced.
But it is clear that we must take practical steps for meeting the
growing demand for Swadeshi cloth. One way, no doubt, is to increase the
mills. But it is obvious that capitalists do not need popular
encouragement. They know that India needs much more cloth than is
manufactured by our mills. But mills do not spring up like mushrooms. It
is a matter of getting machinery from outside, let alone the difficulty
of getting labour. And after all, India cannot become truly and
economically independent so long as she must rely on the supply of
machinery from outside for the manufacture of her cloth.
The cleanest and the most popular form of Swadeshi, therefore, is to
stimulate hand-spinning and hand-weaving and to arrange for a judicious
distribution of yarn and cloth so manufactured. With a little talent and
a little industry this thing is easy. Even as each home cooks its own
food without difficulty, so may each home weave its own yarn. And just
as in spite of every home having its own kitchen, restaurants continue
to flourish, so will mills continue to supply our additional wants. But
even as because of our private kitchens we would not starve if every
restaurant was through some accident closed, so would we, by reason of
domestic spinning, not have to be naked even if every mill, by a
blockade from the west, had to stop work. Not long ago, we knew this
secret of our own economic independence and it is possible for us to
regain that independence by a little effort, a little organising agency
and a little sacrifice.
Therefore true Swadeshi consists in introducing the spinning wheel in
every household and every household spinning its own yarn. Many a
Punjabi woman does it to-day. And though we may not supply our own cloth
entirely, we shall be saving yearly crores of rupees. In any event there
is no other Swadeshi than increased manufacture by hand-spinning and
hand-weaving. Whether we take up hand-spinning and hand-weaving or we do
not, it is at least necessary to understand what true Swadeshi is.
_How to kill swadeshi_--We are familiar with the official ban put upon
the _Khadi_ cap in various parts of India. In Bihar, I heard that a
magistrate actually sent hawkers to sell foreign cloth. Mr. Painter of
Dharwar fame has gone one better, and has issued an official circular in
which he says:
"All officers subordinate to the Collector and District Magistrate are
desired to take steps to make people realise, that in as much as India
produces less than her population requires, a boycott of foreign cloth
and its destruction or export must inevitably lead to a serious rise in
prices, which may lead to a serious disorder and looting, and that these
consequences will be the result, not of any action on the part of
Government but of Mr. Gandhi's campaign."
In two other paragraphs means are indicated of combating the Swadeshi
propaganda _i.e._ by holding meetings, and by dealers who are opposed to
boycott attending the Collector's office at stated hours. The Madras
Government have issued a still more pedantic circular. The meaning of
these circulars is obvious. Pressure is to be put upon the dealers and
others not to countenance boycott. The subordinate officials will take
liberties which the authors of circulars may not even have contemplated.
Fortunately for the country, these threats now produce little or no
impression upon the public, and the Swadeshi movement will go on in the
teeth of the official opposition, be it secret or open, unscrupulous or
honourable.
The officials are so ignorant and obstinate, that they will not take the
only effective course for avoiding the feared 'disorders and looting,'
_viz._ making common cause with the public and stimulating production.
Instead of recognising the agitation against foreign cloth as desirable
and necessary, they regard it as an evil to be put down. And then it is
complained, that I call a system which seeks to thwart healthy public
agitation, satanic. Why should there be any dearth of indigenous cloth?
Is there not enough cotton in India? Are there not enough men and women
who can spin and weave? Is it not possible to manufacture all the
required number of wheels in a few days? Why should not each home
manufacture its own cloth, even as it cooks its own food? Is it not
enough in times of famine to distribute uncooked grain among the
famine-striken? Why should it not be enough to distribute raw cotton
among those who need clothing? Why this hypocritical or false alarm
about the dearth of cloth, when it is possible in India to manufacture
enough for India's needs in a month even without the aid of the mills?
The people have been purposely or ignorantly kept in the dark hitherto.
They have been wrongly taught to believe, that all the cloth needed
cannot be manufactured in India's homes as of yore. They have been
figuratively amputated and then made to rely upon foreign or mill-made
cloth. I wish the people concerned will give the only dignified answer
possible to these circulars. They will forthwith burn or send out all
their foreign cloth, and courageously make up their minds to spin and
weave for their own requirements. It is incredibly easy for every one
who is not an idler.
_Y. I.--18th Aug, 1920._
SWADESHI IN THE PUNJAB
The Joint Secretaries of the Bharat Stri Maha Mandal, Punjab Branch,
send a report of the Swadeshi activities of Shrimati Saraladevi
Chaudhrani ever since her return to Lahore from Bombay. Miss Roy and
Mrs. Roshandal, the Secretaries, state that meetings of women were held
respectively on the 23rd, 24th and 25th June at three different places
in Lahore. All the meetings were attended by hundreds of women who were
deeply interested in what Shrimati Saraladevi had to say. The burden of
her discourses was India's deep poverty. She traced the causes and
proved that our poverty was primarily due to the abandonment of Swadeshi
by the people. The remedy therefore lay in reverting to Swadeshi.
Saraladevi herself writes to say that her Khaddar Sari impressed her
audiences more than her speeches, and her songs came next, her speeches
last. The good ladies of Lahore flocked round her and felt her coarse
but beautifully white Sari and admired it. Some took pity on her that
she who only the other day was dressed in costly thin silk Saris now
decked herself in hand-woven Swadeshi Khaddar. Saraladevi wanted no pity
and retorted that their thin foreign scarves lay heavier on their
shoulders with the weight of their helpless dependence on foreign
manufacture whereas her coarse Khaddar lay light as a feather on her
body with the joy of the knowledge that she was free because she wore
garments in the manufacture of which her sisters and her brothers had
laboured. This statement so pleased her audience that most of the women
present resolved to discard foreign clothes. Saraladevi has now been
charged by these ladies to open a shop where they could buy Swadeshi
goods. She has since addressed more audiences. She spoke at the District
Conference at Sialkot and to a meeting exclusively devoted to ladies
numbering over one thousand. I hope that the men of Punjab will help
Saraladevi in her self-imposed mission. They may harness her talents and
her willingness in founding Swadeshi Sabha and organising Swadeshi
propaganda on a sound basis. Both men and money are needed to make the
work a success.
Swadeshi is more than reforms. There is much waste over reforms. There
is none in Swadeshi. Every yard of yarn spun is so much labour well
spent and so much wealth added to the national treasury. Every drop
counts. Swadeshi spells first production and then distribution.
Distribution without production means the raising of prices without any
corresponding benefit. For to-day demand exceeds the supply. If we will
not manufacture more cloth, more foreign imports must continue a painful
and sinful necessity.
Punjab has a great opportunity. Punjab grows splendid cotton. The art of
spinning has not yet died out. Almost every Punjabi woman knows it. This
sacred haunt of the Rishis of old has thousands of weavers. Only the
leaders need to have faith in their women and themselves. When
Saraladevi wrote to me that she might want goods from Bombay, I felt
hurt. The Punjab has all the time and all the labour and the material
necessary for producing her own cloth. She has brave merchants. She has
more than enough capital. She has brains. Has she the will? She can
organise her own Swadeshi in less than a year, if the leaders will work
at this great cause. It is playing with Swadeshi for the Punjab to have
to import cloth from Bombay.
The Punjab has to right herself by putting her Swadeshi on a proper
basis and by ridding herself of Messrs. Bosworth Smith and Company. She
will then be both economically and politically sound. Geographically she
stands at the top. She led the way in the older times. Will she again do
so? Her men are virile to look at. Have they virility enough to secure
without a moment's delay purity of administration? I have not strayed
from Swadeshi to politics. My Swadeshi spirit makes me impatient of
garments that denude India of her wealth and equally impatient of the
Smiths, the O'Briens, the Shri Rams and the Maliks who denude her of her
self-respect and insolently touch women's veils with their sticks, chain
innocent men as if they were beasts, or shoot them from armoured cars or
otherwise terrorise people into subjection.
_Y. I.--7th July 1920._
SWADESHI STORES
In a previous issue I endeavoured to show how stores for the sake of
selling mill-manufactures did not advance Swadeshi in any way whatsoever
but on the contrary, tended to send up the price of cloth. I propose to
show in this article how with a small capital, it is possible to advance
true Swadeshi and earn a modest livelihood.
Suppose that there is a family consisting of husband, wife and two
children one of whom is ten years old and the other five. If they have a
capital of Rs. 500 they can manage a Khaddar Bhandar in a small way.
They can hire, say in a place with a population of 20,000 inhabitants a
shop with dwelling rooms for Rs. 10 per month. If they sell the whole of
the stock at 10 p.c. profit they can have Rs. 50 per month. They have no
servants. The wife and the children in their spare time would be
expected to help in keeping the shop tidy and looking after it when the
husband is out. The wife and children can also devote their spare time
to spinning.
In the initial stages the Khaddar may not sell at the shop. In that case
the husband is expected to hawk the Khaddar from door to door and
popularise it. He will soon find a custom for it.
The reader must not be surprised at my suggesting 10 p.c. profits. The
Khaddar Bhandars are not designed for the poorest. The use of Khaddar
saves at least half the cost not necessarily because the Khaddar is more
durable (though that it certainly is) but because its use revolutionises
our tastes. I know what saving of money its use has meant to me. Those,
who buy Khaddar from patriotic motives merely, can easily afford to pay
10 p.c. profits on Khaddar. Lastly the popularising of Khaddar means
much care, devotion and labour. And the owner of a Khaddar Bhandar does
not buy it at a wholesale shop but he must wander to get the best
Khaddar, he must meet the local weavers and induce them to weave hand
spun yarn. He must stimulate in his own district hand spinning among its
women. He must come in touch with the carders and get them to card
cotton. All this means intelligence, organisation and great ability. A
man who can exhibit these qualities has a right to take 10 p.c. profits.
And a Swadeshi Bhandar conducted on these lines becomes a true centre of
Swadeshi activity. I commend my remarks to the attention of the managers
of Swadeshi stores that are already in existence. They may not
revolutionise their method at once but I have no doubt that they will
advance Swadeshi only to the extent that they sell Khaddar.
_Y. I.--7th July, 1920._
INDIAN ECONOMICS
A friend has placed in my hands a bulletin on Indian Piece Goods Trade
prepared by Mr. A. C. Coubrough C. B. E. by order of the Government of
India. It contains the following prefatory note: 'The Government of
India desire it to be understood that the statements made and the views
expressed in this bulletin are those of the author himself.' If so, why
has the Government of India burdened the tax-payer with the expense of
such bulletins? The one before me is 16th in the series. Do they publish
both the sides of the question?
The bulletin under review is intended to be an answer to the Swadeshi
movement. It is an elaborate note containing a number of charts showing
the condition of imports and home manufacture of piece goods including
hand-woven. But it does not assist the reader in studying the movement.
The painstaking author has bestowed no pains upon a study of the
present movement or its scope. That the Government of India treats the
greatest constructive and co-operative movement in the country with
supreme contempt and devotes people's money to a vain refutation instead
of a sympathetic study and treatment is perhaps the best condemnation
that can be pronounced upon the system under which it is carried.
The author's argument is:
(1) The movement if successful will act not as a protective but a
prohibitive tariff.
(2) This must result in merely enriching the Indian capitalist and
punishing the consumer.
(3) The imports are non-competitive in that the bulk of the kind of
piece goods imported are not manufactured in India.
(4) The result of boycotting such piece goods must be high prices
without corresponding benefit.
(5) The boycott therefore being against the law of supply and demand and
against the consumer must fail in the end.
(6) The destruction of hand spinning which I have deplored is due to
natural causes, _viz._ the invention of time-saving appliances and was
therefore inevitable.
(7) The Indian farmer is responsible for his own ruin in that he has
indolently neglected cotton culture which was once so good.
(8) The best service I can render is therefore to induce the
agriculturist to improve the quality of cotton.
(9) The author concludes, 'If instead of filling homes with useless
_Charkhas_ he were to start a propaganda for the more intensive
cultivation of cotton and particularly for the production of longer
staple cotton, his influence would be felt not only at the present day
but for many generations to come.'
The reader will thus see, that what I regard as the supreme necessity
for the economical salvation of India, the author considers to be rank
folly. There is therefore no meeting ground here. And in spite of the
prefatory note of the Government of India reproduced by me, the author
does represent the Government attitude. I have invited them and the
co-operators definitely to make common cause with the people in this
movement at any rate. They may not mind its political implications
because they do not believe in them. And surely they need not feel sorry
if contrary to their expectation, the rise of the _Charkha_ results in
an increase in the political power of the people. Instead of waging war
against _Khadi_, they might have popularised its use and disarmed the
terrible suspicion they labour under of wishing to benefit the foreign
manufacturer at the expense of the Indian cultivator. My invitation is
open for all time. I prophesy that whatever happens to the other parts
of the national programme, Swadeshi in its present shape will bide for
ever and must if India's pauperism is to be banished.
Even though I am a layman, I make bold to say that the so-called laws
laid down in books on economics are not immutable like the laws of Medes
and Persians, nor are they universal. The economics of England are
different from those of Germany. Germany enriched herself by bounty-fed
beet sugar. England enriched herself by exploiting foreign markets. What
was possible for a compact area is not possible for an area 1,900 miles
long and 1,500 broad. The economics of a nation are determined by its
climatic, geological and temperamental conditions. The Indian conditions
are different from the English in all these essentials. What is meat for
England is in many cases poison for India. Beef tea in the English
climate may be good, it is poison for the hot climate of religious
India. Fiery whisky in the north of the British Isles may be a
necessity, it renders an Indian unfit for work or society. Fur-coats in
Scotland are indispensable, they will be an intolerable burden in India.
Free trade for a country which has become industrial, whose population
can and does live in cities, whose people do not mind preying upon other
nations and therefore sustain the biggest navy to protect their
unnatural commerce, may be economically sound (though as the reader
perceives, I question its morality). Free trade for India has proved
her curse and held her in bondage.
And now for Mr. Coubrough's propositions.
(1) The movement is intended to serve the purpose of a voluntary
prohibitive tariff.
(2) But it is so conceived as neither unduly to benefit the capitalist
nor to injure the consumer. During the very brief transition stage the
prices of home manufactures may be, as they are, inflated. But the rise
can only be temporary as the vast majority of consumers must become
their own manufacturers. This cottage manufacture of yarn and cloth
cannot be expensive even as domestic cookery is not expensive and cannot
be replaced by hotel cookery. Over twenty-five crores of the population
will be doing their own hand-spinning and having yarn thus manufactured
woven in neighbouring localities. This population is rooted to the soil
and has at least four months in the year to remain idle.
If they spin during those hours and have the yarn woven and wear it, no
mill-made cloth can compete with their _Khadi_. The cloth thus
manufactured will be the cheapest possible for them. If the rest of the
population did not take part in the process, it could easily be supplied
out of the surplus manufactured by the twenty-five crores.
(3) It is true that non-competitive imports are larger than those that
compete with the manufactures of Indian mills. In the scheme proposed by
me the question does not arise, because the central idea is not so much
to carry on a commercial war against foreign countries as to utilise the
idle hours of the nation and thus by natural processes to help it to get
rid of her growing pauperism.
(4) I have already shown that the result of boycott cannot in the end be
a rise in the price of cloth.
(5) The proposed boycott is not against the law of supply and demand,
because it does away with the law by manufacturing enough for the
supply. The movement does require a change of taste on the part of those
who have adopted finer variety and who patronise fantastic combinations
of colours and designs.
(6) I have shown in these pages, that the destruction of hand-spinning
was designed and carried out in a most inhuman manner by the agents of
the East India Company. No amount of appliances would ever have
displaced this national art and industry but for this artificial and
systematically cruel manner of carrying out the destruction.
(7) I am unable to hold the Indian farmer responsible for the
deterioration in cotton culture. The whole incentive was taken away when
hand-spinning was destroyed. The State never cared for the cultivator.
(8) My activity, I am proud to think, has already turned the
cultivator's attention to the improvement of cotton. The artistic sense
of the nation will insist on fine counts for which long staple is a
necessity. Cotton culture by itself cannot solve the problem of India's
poverty. For it will still leave the question of enforced idleness
untouched.
(9) I therefore claim for the _Charkha_ the honour of being able to
solve the problem of economic distress in a most natural, simple,
unexpensive and business-like manner. The _Charkha_, therefore, is not
only not useless as the writer ignorantly suggests, but it is a useful
and indispensable article for every home. It is the symbol of the
nation's prosperity and therefore, freedom. It is a symbol not of
commercial war but of commercial peace. It bears not a message of
ill-will towards the nations of the earth but of good-will and
self-help. It will not need the protection of a navy threatening a
world's peace and exploiting its resources, but it needs the religious
determination of millions to spin their yarn in their own homes as
to-day they cook their food in their own homes. I may deserve the curses
of posterity for many mistakes of omission and commission but I am
confident of earning its blessings for suggesting a revival of the
_Charkha_. I stake my all on it. For every revolution of the wheel spins
peace, good-will and love. And with all that, inasmuch as the loss of
it brought about India's slavery, its voluntary revival with all its
implications must mean India's freedom.
_Y. I.--8th Dec. 1921._
HOW TO BOYCOTT FOREIGN CLOTH
It is needless to say at this time of the day, that the proposed boycott
of foreign cloth is not a vindictive measure, but is as necessary for
national existence as breath is for life. The quicker, therefore, it can
be brought about, the better for the country. Without it, Swaraj cannot
be established or retained after establishment. It is of the highest
importance to know how it can be brought about even before the first day
of August next.
To arrive at the boycott quickly, it is necessary (1) for the
mill-owners to regulate their profits and to manufacture principally for
the Indian market, (2) for importers to cease to buy foreign goods. A
beginning has already been made by three principal merchants, (3) for
the consumers to refuse to buy any foreign cloth and to buy _Khadi_
wherever possible, (4) for the consumers to wear only _Khadi_ cloth,
mill cloth being retained for the poor who do not know the distinction
between Swadeshi and Pardeshi, (5) for the consumers to use, till Swaraj
is established and _Khadi_ manufacture increased, _Khadi_ just enough
for covering the body, (6) for the consumers to destroy Pardeshi cloth,
as they would destroy intoxicating liquors on taking the vow of
abstinence, or to sell it for use abroad, or to wear it out for all
dirty work or during private hours.
It is to be hoped that all the parties referred to in the foregoing
clauses will respond well and simultaneously. But in the end success
depends upon the persistent determination of the consumer. He has simply
to decline to wear the badge of his slavery.
_Abusing the khaddar_--A friend draws attention to the fact that many
who have adopted the _khaddar_ costume are using it as a passport for
arrogance, insolence, and, what is worse, fraud. He says that they have
neither the spirit of non-co-operation in them nor the spirit of truth.
They simply use the _khaddar_ dress as a cloak for their deceit. All
this is likely, especially during the transition stage, i.e., whilst
_khaddar_ is beginning to become fashionable. I would only suggest to my
correspondent that such abuse of _khaddar_ must not even unconsciously
be allowed to be used as an argument against its use. Its use to-day is
obligatory on those who believe that there is not sufficient Indian
mill-made cloth to supply the wants of the nation, that the wants must
be supplied in the quickest way possible by increasing home manufacture,
and that such manufacture is possible only by making home-spinning
universal. The use of _khaddar_ represents nothing more than a most
practical recognition of the greatest economic necessity of the country.
Even a scoundrel may recognise this necessity, and has therefore a
perfect right to wear it. And if a Government spy wore it to deceive
people, I would welcome his use of _khaddar_ as so much economic gain to
the country. Only I would not give the wearer of the _khaddar_ more than
his due. And I would therefore not ascribe to him any piety or special
virtue. It follows, therefore, that co-operationists or government
servants may wear _khaddar_ without incurring the danger of being
mistaken for non-co-operationists. We may no more shun _khaddar_, than a
devout church-goer may renounce his church because bad characters go to
it for duping gullible people. I recall the name of an M. P. who
successfully cloaked many of his vices by pretending to be a staunch
temperance man. Not very long ago a bold and unscrupulous speculator
found entry into most respectable circles by becoming a temperance
advocate. Well has a poet said that 'hypocricy is an ode to virtue.'
_Some 'ifs'_--If you are a _weaver_ feeling for the country, the
Khilafat and the Punjab,
(1) You should weave only hand-spun yarn, and charge so as to give you a
living. You should overcome all the difficulties of sizing and adjusting
your loom to the requirements of coarse yarn.
(2) If you cannot possibly tackle hand-spun yarn for warp, you must use
Indian mill-spun yarn for it and use hand-spun for woof.
(3) Where even the second alternative is not possible, you should use
mill-spun yarn for both warp and woof.
But you should henceforth cease to use any foreign yarn, whether it is
silk or cotton.
If you are a _Congress official or worker_, you should get hold of the
weavers within your jurisdiction, and place the foregoing propositions
before them for acceptance and help them to the best of your ability.
If you are a _buyer_, insist upon the first class of cloth, but if you
have not the sense or the courage to do so, take up the second or the
third, but on no account purchase foreign cloth or cloth woven in India
but made of foreign yarn.
If you are a _householder_,
(1) You should make a fixed determination henceforth not to buy any
foreign cloth.
(2) You should interview the weaver in your neighbourhood, and get him
to weave for you enough _khadi_ out of home-spun and failing that to
weave out of Indian mill-spun yarn.
(3) You should deliver to the Congress Committee all your foreign cloth
for destruction or sending to Smyrna or elsewhere outside India.
(4) If you have not the courage to give up your foreign cloth, you may
wear it out at home for all dirty work, but never go out in foreign
cloth.
(5) If you have any leisure, you should devote it to learning the art of
spinning even, properly-twisted yarn for the sake of the nation.
If you are a _schoolboy or schoolgirl_, you should consider it a sin to
receive literary training, before you have spun, carded or woven for the
nation for at least four hours per day till the establishment of Swaraj.
_Y. I.--6th July 1921._
SPINNING
THE MUSIC OF THE SPINNING WHEEL
Slowly but surely the music of perhaps the most ancient machine of India
is once more permeating society. Pandit Malaviyaji has stated that he is
not going to be satisfied until the Ranis and the Maharanis of India
spin yarn for the nation, and the Ranas and the Maharanas sit behind the
handlooms and weave cloth for the nation. They have the example of
Aurangzeb who made his own caps. A greater emperor--Kabir--was himself a
weaver and has immortalised the art in his poems. The queens of Europe,
before Europe was caught in Satan's trap, spun yarn and considered it a
noble calling. The very words, spinster and wife, prove the ancient
dignity of the art of spinning and weaving. 'When Adam delved and Eve
span, who was then a gentleman,' also reminds one of the same fact. Well
may Panditji hope to persuade the royalty of India to return to the
ancient calling of this sacred land of ours. Not on the clatter of arms
depends the revival of her prosperity and true independence. It depends
most largely upon re-introduction, in every home, of the music of the
spinning wheel. It gives sweeter music and is more profitable than the
execrable harmonium, concertina and the accordian.
Whilst Panditji is endeavouring in his inimitably suave manner to
persuade the Indian royalty to take up the spinning wheel, Shrimati
Sarala Devi Chaudhrani, who is herself a member of the Indian nobility,
has learnt the art and has thrown herself heart and soul into the
movement. From all the accounts received from her and others, Swadeshi
has become a passion with her. She says she feels uncomfortable in her
muslin saris and is content to wear her _khaddar_ saris even in the hot
weather. Her _khaddar_ saris continue to preach true Swadeshi more
eloquently than her tongue. She has spoken to audiences in Amritsar,
Ludhiana and elsewhere and has succeeded in enlisting the services, for
her Spinning Committee at Amritsar, of Mrs. Ratanchand and Bugga
Chowdhry and the famous Ratan Devi who during the frightful night of the
13th April despite the Curfew Order of General Dyer sat, all alone in
the midst of the hundreds of the dead and dying, with her dead husband's
cold head in her lap. I venture to tender my congratulations to these
ladies. May they find solace in the music of the spinning wheel and in
the thought that they are doing national work. I hope that the other
ladies of Amritsar will help Sarala Devi in her efforts and that the men
of Amritsar will realise their own duty in the matter.
In Bombay the readers are aware that ladies of noted families have
already taken up spinning. Their ranks have been joined by
Dr. Mrs. Manekbai Bahudarji who has already learnt the art and who is
now trying to introduce it in the Sevasadan. Her Highness the Begum
Saheba of Janjira and her sister Mrs. Atia Begum Rahiman, have also
undertaken to learn the art. I trust that these good ladies will,
having learnt spinning, religiously contribute to the nation their daily
quota of yarn.
I know that there are friends who laugh at this attempt to revive this
great art. They remind me that in these days of mills, sewing machines
or typewriters, only a lunatic can hope to succeed in reviving the
rusticated spinning wheel. These friends forget that the needle has not
yet given place to the sewing machine nor has the hand lost its cunning
in spite of the typewriter. There is not the slightest reason why the
spinning wheel may not co-exist with the spinning mill even as the
domestic kitchen co-exists with the hotels. Indeed typewriters and
sewing machines may go, but the needle and the reed pen will survive.
The mills may suffer destruction. The spinning wheel is a national
necessity. I would ask sceptics to go to the many poor homes where the
spinning wheel is again supplementing their slender resources and ask
the inmates whether the spinning wheel has not brought joy to their
homes.
Thank God, the reward issued by Mr. Rewashanker Jagjiwan bids fair to
bear fruit. In a short time India will possess a renovated spinning
wheel--a wonderful invention of a patient Deccan artisan. It is made out
of simple materials. There is no great complication about it. It will be
cheap and capable of being easily mended. It will give more yarn than
the ordinary wheel and is capable of being worked by a five years old
boy or girl. But whether the new machine proves what it claims to be or
it does not, I feel convinced that the revival of hand-spinning and
hand-weaving will make the largest contribution to the economic and the
moral regeneration of India. The millions must have a simple industry to
supplement agriculture. Spinning was the cottage industry years ago and
if the millions are to be saved from starvation, they must be enabled to
reintroduce spinning in their homes, and every village must repossess
its own weaver.
_Y. I.--21st July 1920._
"HANDLOOMS OR POWERMILLS?"
Whenever an attempt has been made, as it is being made to-day, to
encourage the use and production of hand-spun and hand-woven cloth, many
have looked askance whether it is intended in this age of mechanical
industrialism to supplant the latter by medieval handlooms. The issue is
placed between the hand power and the power mill. A correspondent of the
_Janmabhumi_ falls into this common error. Apparently agitated at the
idea of reviving the home industries, he exclaims, "The real question
for consideration with us or with any people to-day is not whether the
handloom will or will not be able to hold its own against the power
loom, or whether it cannot feed millions of families or clothe millions
more in home-made dress; but which will contribute to the economic and
political power of a nation or country, whether it is the handloom or
the power-mill? Handicrafts or machine industries--that is the real
issue."
It is not quite clear from the above what the notions of the
correspondent are about the economic and political power of this
country. We cannot imagine him to seriously believe--though his argument
runs as if he does--that that power can be achieved without feeding and
clothing the millions of our half-starving and half-naked men, women and
children. The political and economic power of a nation depends even in
this "age of mechanical industrialism," not on its powerful machines but
on its powerful men. Germany was equipped with the best and most
powerful and modern machinery, but it failed because at the last moment
the power of its nation failed. We want to organise our national power.
This can be done not by adopting the best methods of production only but
by the best method of _both_ the production and the distribution.
Production that is the manufacture of cloth in this particular instance
can be brought about in two ways; (1) by establishing new mills and
increasing the output or producing capacity of each mill and (2) by
increasing the number of hand-looms and improving them. All these
activities can go together. The notion of a competition between the
hand-loom and the power mill has been shown by such an eminent economist
as Prof. Radha Kamal Mukerjea to be "altogether wrong." Says
Mr. Mukerjea in his _Foundations of Indian Economics_:
"The hand-loom does not compete with the mill, it supplements it in the
following way:
(1) It produces special kinds of goods which cannot be woven in the
mills.
(2) It utilizes yarn below and above certain counts which cannot at
present be used on the power-mill.
(3) It will consume the surplus stock of Indian spinning mills which
need not then be sent out of the country.
(4) Being mainly a village-industry, it supplies the local demand, at
the same time gives employment to small capitalists, weavers and other
village workmen and
(5) lastly it will supply the long-felt want of, and honest field of,
work and livelihood for educated Indians."
But even this is not all that can be said in favour of hand-loom
industry. Mill industry no doubt can be a powerful aid to the promotion
of Swadeshi. But apart from the bitter struggle, strife and
demoralisation of the capitalist and the workman (as explained by the
eminent scholar, administrator and economist, the late Mr. Romesh
Chundra Dutt) it has led to, the question is: Can it solve the problem
which pure Swadeshi is designed and sought to do and which arises only
because of its abandonment? Every writer of note on the industries of
India, whatever his ideas and conclusions about the future of Indian
Industrialism may be, has shown that there was a time and that was even
till the Early British Rule in India--where spinning and weaving, only
next to agriculture, were the great national industries of India, when
all the cotton was spun by hand and every portion of the work was done
by the farming population which augmented its resources by spinning and
weaving. Mr. Dutt has given extracts from the statistical observations
of Dr. Francis Buchanan's economic enquiries in Southern and Northern
India, conducted between 1798 and 1814. They show how many hundreds of
thousands of our men, women and children worked on this industry--mostly
in their leisure time--each day and earned crores of rupees annually.
How our home-industries came to the sad plight they are in to-day is an
open secret, admitted by all authorities and need not be repeated here.
Suffice it to say that the problem to-day is not to bring about that
political and economic re-organisation of our country, which disturbs
the West to-day--an organisation which has led to the breaking up of the
society by ceaseless struggles, bitterness and rupture between Capital
and Labour. We want to work out the real political and economic
regeneration of the country by Swadeshi. And the problem of the Swadeshi
is the problem of 80 per cent. of our population who spend more than six
months of the year in enforced idleness, eking, throughout the year, a
miserable, half-starving and half-naked existence. We must find out
suitable work for them during their idle hours. We must make them a real
asset and power to the nation. Pure Swadeshi alone can do it.
_Y. I.--28th July 1920._
HAND-SPINNING AND HAND-WEAVING
Some people spurn the idea of making in this age of mechanism
hand-spinning and hand-weaving a national industry, but they forget
there are millions of their countrymen in this age who, for want of
suitable occupation, are eking out a most miserable existence, and
thousands who die of starvation and underfeeding every year, whereas
only a hundred years ago hand-spinning and hand-weaving proved an
insurance against a pauper's death. The extent to which relief was
provided by this industry is recorded by Mr. Dutt in his "History of
India: Victorian age" from the investigations conducted by Dr. Buchanan
for seven years, 1813-1820. Dr. Buchanan travelled throughout of the
whole country. And his observations and statistics convinced him that
next to agriculture, hand-spinning and hand-weaving were the great
national industries. We make no apology for giving some of the facts and
figures collected by Dr. Buchanan:
In the districts of Patna and Behar with a population of 3,364,420
souls, the number of spinners was 330,426. "By far the greater part of
these," observed Dr. Buchanan, "spin only a few hours in the afternoon,
and upon the average estimate the whole value of the thread that each
spins in a year is worth Rs. 7-2-8 giving a total annual income of
Rs. 23,67,277 and by a similar calculation the raw material at the retail
price will amount to Rs. 12,86,272, leaving a profit of Rs. 10,81,005
for the spinners or Rs. 3-4-0 per spinner...."
In the district of Shahbad, spinning was the chief industry. 159,500
women were employed in spinning and spun yarn to the value of
Rs. 12,50,000 a year. Deducting the value of cotton each woman had some
thing left to her to add to the income of the family to which she
belonged.
In the Bhagalpur district (with a population of 2,019,900) where all
castes were permitted to spin, 160,000 women spent a part of their time
in spinning and each made an annual income of Rs. 4-1/2 after deducting
the cost of cotton. This was added to the family income. In the
Gorakhpur district (population 1,385,495) 175,600 women found employment
in spinning and made an annual income of Rs. 2-1/2 per head. In the
Dinjapur district (with a population of 300,000) cotton-spinning which
was the principal manufacture occupied the leisure hours 'of all women
of higher rank and of the greater part of the farmers' wives.' Three
rupees was the annual income each woman made by spinning in her
afternoon hours.
In the Purniya district (population 2,904,380) all castes considered
spinning honourable and a very large population of women of the district
did some spinning in their leisure hours.
In eastern Mysore women of all castes except Brahmans bought cotton and
wool at weekly markets, spun at home, and sold the thread to weavers.
Men and women thus found a profitable occupation. In Coimbatore, the
wives of all the low class cultivators were great spinners.
The statistics of weavers show that they also were as numerous as the
spinners. In the Patna city and Behar district, the total number of
looms employed in the manufacture of chaddars and table cloths was 750,
and the value of the annual manufactures was Rs. 5,40,000 leaving a
profit of Rs. 81,400, deducting the value of thread. This gave a profit
of Rs. 108 for each loom worked by three persons or an income of Rs. 36
a year for each person. But the greater part of the cloth-weavers made
coarse cloth for country use to the value of Rs. 24,386,621 after
deducting the cost of thread. This gave a profit of Rs. 28 for each
loom.
In Shahabad weavers worked in cotton only. 7,025 houses of weavers
worked in cotton and had 7,950 looms. Each loom made an annual income of
Rs. 20-3/4 a year and each loom required the labour of a man and his
wife as well as one boy or girl. But as a family could not be supported
for less than Rs. 48 a year, Dr. Buchanan suspected that the income of
each loom given above was understated.
In the Bhagalpur district some worked in silk alone. A great many near
the town made Tasar fabrics of silk and cotton intermixed; 3,275 looms
were so employed that the annual profit of each weaver employed in the
mixed silk and cotton industry was calculated to be Rs. 46 besides what
the woman made.
For the weaving of cotton-cloth, there were 7,279 looms. Each loom
yielded a profit of Rs. 20 a year. But by another calculation, Dr.
Buchanan estimated it to be Rs. 32 a year.
In the Gorakhpur district there were 5,434 families of weavers
possessing 6,174 looms and each loom brought an income of Rs. 23-1/2.
Dr. Buchanan thought this was too low an estimate and believed that each
loom brought an income of Rs. 88 in the year.
In the Dungarpur district "Maldai" cloth was manufactured. It consisted
of silk warp and cotton woof. 4,000 looms were employed in this work
and it was said that each loom made Rs. 20 worth of cloth in a month,
which Dr. Buchanan considered too high an estimate. About 800 looms were
employed in making larger pieces in the form of Elachis.
In the Purniya district weavers were numerous.... In Eastern Mysore
cotton-weavers made cloth for home-use as silk weavers produced a strong
rich fabric. Workmen who made cloth with silk borders earned As. 6 a day
and those who made silk cloth earned As. 4.
Thus we see that crores of rupees were earned by these spinners and
weavers by following their noble and honest calling. The
decentralisation of the industry--every village, town and district
having always at its command as much supply as it needed--automatically
facilitated its distribution and saved the consumer from Railway Excise
and all sorts of tariffs and middlemen's profits that he is a victim to
to-day. If we cannot return to these days--though there is no reason,
except our own bias and doubt why we should not--can we not at least so
organise our industries as to do away without much delay with the
foreign cloth with which our markets are being dumped to-day?
_Y. I.--15th Sep. 1920._
HAND-SPINNING AGAIN
_The Servant of India_ has a fling too at spinning and that is based as
I shall presently show on ignorance of the facts. Spinning does protect
a woman's virtue, because it enables women, who are to-day working on
public roads and are often in danger of having their modesty outraged,
to protect themselves, and I know no other occupation that lacs of women
can follow save spinning. Let me inform the jesting writer that several
women have already returned to the sanctity of their homes and taken to
spinning which they say is the one occupation which means so much
_barkat_ (blessing). I claim for it the properties of a musical
instrument, for whilst a hungry and a naked woman will refuse to dance
to the accompaniment of a piano, I have seen women beaming with joy to
see the spinning wheel work, for they know that they can through that
rustic instrument both feed and clothe themselves.
Yes, it does solve the problem of India's chronic poverty and is an
insurance against famine. The writer of the jests may not know the
scandals that I know about irrigation and relief works. These works are
largely a fraud. But if my wise counsellors will devote themselves to
introducing the wheel in every home, I promise that the wheel will be an
almost complete protection against famine. It is idle to cite Austria. I
admit the poverty and limitations of my humanity. I can only think of
India's _Kamadhenu_, and the spinning wheel is that for India. For India
had the spinning wheel in every home before the advent of the East India
Company. India being a cotton growing country, it must be considered a
crime to import a single yard of yarn from outside. The figures quoted
by the writer are irrelevant.
The fact is that in spite of the manufacture of 62.7 crores pounds of
yarn in 1917-18 India imported several crore yards of foreign yarn
which were woven by the mills as well as the weavers. The writer does
not also seem to know that more cloth is to-day woven by our weavers
than by mills, but the bulk of it is foreign yarn and therefore our
weavers are supporting foreign spinners. I would not mind it much if we
were doing something else instead. When spinning was almost compulsorily
stopped nothing replaced it save slavery and idleness. Our mills cannot
to-day spin enough for our wants, and if they did, they will not keep
down prices unless they were compelled. They are frankly money-makers
and will not therefore regulate prices according to the needs of the
nations. Hand-spinning is therefore designed to put millions of rupees
in the hands of poor villagers. Every agricultural country requires a
supplementary industry to enable the peasants to utilise the spare
hours. Such industry for India has always been spinning. Is it such a
visionary ideal--an attempt to revive an ancient occupation whose
destruction has brought on slavery, pauperism and disappearance of the
inimitable artistic talents which was once all expressed in the
wonderful fabric of India and which was the envy of the world?
And now a few figures. One boy could, if he worked say four hours daily,
spin 1/4 lb. of yarn. 64,000 students would, therefore, spin 16,000 lbs.
per day, and therefore feed 8,000 weavers if a weaver wove two lbs. of
hand-spun yarn. But the students and others are required to spin during
this year of purification by way of penance in order to popularise
spinning and to add to the manufacture of hand-spun yarn so as to
overtake full manufacture during the current year. The nation may be too
lazy to do it. But if all put their hands to this work, it is incredibly
easy, it involves very little sacrifice and saves an annual drain of
sixty crores even if it does nothing else. I have discussed the matter
with many mill-owners, several economists, men of business and no one
has yet been able to challenge the position herein set forth. I do
expect the 'Servant of India' to treat a serious subject with
seriousness and accuracy of information.
_Y. I.--16th Feb. 1921._
A PLEA FOR SPINNING
A determined opposition was put up against the conditions regarding
Swadeshi that were laid down in the civil disobedience resolution passed
by the All-India Congress Committee at Delhi. It was directed against
two requirements, namely, that the civil resister offering resistance in
terms of that resolution was bound to know hand-spinning and use only
hand-spun and hand-woven _khadi_; and that in the event of a district or
tahsil offering civil disobedience _en masse_ the district or the tahsil
concerned must manufacture its own yarn and cloth by the hand. The
opposition betrayed woeful ignorance of the importance of hand-spinning.
Nothing but hand-spinning can banish pauperism from the land. Paupers
cannot become willing sufferers. They have never known the pain of
plenty to appreciate the happiness of voluntarily suffering hunger or
other bodily discomfort. Swaraj for them can only mean ability to
support themselves without begging. To awaken among them a feeling of
discontent with their lot without providing them with the means of
removing the cause thereof is to court certain destruction, anarchy,
outrage and plunder in which they themselves will be the chief victims.
Hand-spinning alone can possibly supply them with supplementary and
additional earnings. Hand-weaving for many and carding for a limited
number can provide complete livelihood. But hand-weaving is not a lost
art. Several million men know hand-weaving. But very few know
hand-spinning in the true sense of the term. Tens of thousands are, it
is true, turning the wheel to-day but only a few are spinning yarn. The
cry all over is that hand-spun yarn is not good enough for warp. Just as
half-baked bread is no bread, even so ill-spun weak thread is no yarn.
Thousands of men must know hand-spinning to be able in their respective
districts to improve the quality of the yarn that is now being spun in
the country. Therefore those who offer civil disobedience for the sake
of establishing Swaraj must know hand-spinning. Mark, they are not
required to turn out yarn every day. It would be well if they did. But
they must know how to spin even properly twisted yarn. It was a happy
omen to me, that in spite of the opposition the amendment was rejected
by a large majority. One argument advanced in favour of rejection was,
that the Sikh men considered it an undignified occupation to spin and
looked down upon hand-weaving. I do hope that the sentiment is not
representative of the brave community. Any community that despises
occupations that bring an honest livelihood is a community going down an
incline. If spinning has been the speciality of women, it is because
they have more leisure and not because it is an inferior occupation. The
underlying suggestion that a wielder of the sword will not wield the
wheel is to take a distorted view of a soldier's calling. A man who
lives by the sword does _not_ serve his community even as the soldiers
in the employ of the Government do not serve the country. The wielding
of the sword is an unnatural occupation resorted to among civilized
people only on extraordinary occasions and only for self-defence. To
live by hand-spinning and hand-weaving is any day more _manly_ than to
live by killing. Aurangzeb was not the less a soldier for sewing caps.
What we prize in the Sikhs is not their ability to kill. The late Sardar
Lachman Singh will go down to posterity as a hero, because he knew how
to die. The Mahant of Nankhana Saheb will go down to posterity as a
murderer. I hope therefore that no man will decline to learn the
beautiful life-giving art of hand-spinning on the ground of its supposed
inferiority.
_Y. I.--10th Nov. 1921._
THE DUTY OF SPINNING
In "The Secret of Swaraj" I have endeavoured to show what home spinning
means for our country. In any curriculum of the future, spinning must be
a compulsory subject. Just as we cannot live without breathing and
without eating, so is it impossible for us to attain economic
independence and banish pauperism from this ancient land without
reviving home-spinning. I hold the spinning wheel to be as much a
necessity in every household as the hearth. No other scheme that can be
devised will ever solve the problem of the deepening poverty of the
people.
How then can spinning be introduced in every home? I have already
suggested the introduction of spinning and systematic production of yarn
in every national school. Once our boys and girls have learnt the art
they can easily carry it to their homes.
But this requires organisation. A spinning wheel must be worked for
twelve hours per day. A practised spinner can spin two tolas and a half
per hour. The price that is being paid at present is on an average four
annas per forty tolas or one pound of yarn _i.e._, one pice per hour.
Each wheel therefore should give three annas per day. A strong one costs
seven rupees. Working, therefore, at the rate of twelve hours per day it
can pay for itself in less than 38 days. I have given enough figures to
work upon. Any one working at them will find the results to be
startling.
If every school introduced spinning, it would revolutionize our ideas of
financing education. We can work a school for six hours per day and give
free education to the pupils. Supposing a boy works at the wheel for
four hours daily, he will produce every day 10 tolas of yarn and thus
earn for his school one anna per day. Suppose further that he
manufactures very little during the first month, and that the school
works only twenty six days in the month. He can earn after the first
month Rs. 1-10 per month. A class of thirty boys would yield, after the
first month, an income of Rs. 48-12 per month.
I have said nothing about literary training. It can be given during the
two hours out of the six. It is easy to see that every school can be
made self supporting without much effort and the nation can engage
experienced teachers for its schools.
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.]
We have sufficiently talked about Charka and how it is going to free
India--how a nation that came through the Charka to this country as
traders, merchants and travellers settled themselves down as rulers with
our co-operation, and how non-co-operation and by means of that very
Indian _Charka_ they will go back to their own country if they cannot
live as fellow-citizens in India.
There are peoples who say--"how can you expect the Mahomedans to be
non-violent." How, I do not want to speak out. I want the _Charka_
itself to speak out. The whole Europe will know when we place these
Charkas in our mosques. Something like 800 Charkas had been ordered for
the mosques so that the people who come there should be able to produce
Indian yarn with which Indian clothes should be woven by Indian hands in
Indian homes to clothe our nakedness or at least to provide home-spun
shrouds for us. Thus every revolution of the _Charka_ I can assure you,
will bring the success of this bloodless revolution the nearer every
day. That is the doctrine of _Charka_. Therefore I ask you to work up
this doctrine which will be a great advertisement both of our
determination to win freedom, and if possible, through peaceful means.
If you are determined to have the freedom of your country, if you want
to see the cessation of our slavery in which we are living for close
upon two centuries, it requires from you a peaceful battle--the battle
of the _Charka_.
_Y. I.--9th Feb. 1921._
THE MESSAGE OF THE CHARKA
The _Indian Social Reformer_ has published a note from a correspondent
in praise of the spinning-wheel. The correspondent in the course of his
remarks hopes, that the movement will be so organised that the spinners
may not weary of it. Mr. Amritlal Thakkar in his valuable note
(published in the _Servant of India_) on the experiment which he is
conducting in Kathiawad, says that the charkha has been taken up by the
peasant women. They are not likely to weary, for to them it is a source
of livelihood to which they were used before. It had dried up, because
there was no demand for their yarn. Townspeople who have taken to
spinning may weary, if they have done so as a craze or a fashion. Those
only will be faithful, who consider it their duty to devote their spare
hours to doing what is to-day the most useful work for the country. The
third class of spinners are the school-going children. I expect the
greatest results from the experiment of introducing the charkha in the
National Schools. If it is conducted on scientific lines by teachers who
believe in the charkha as the most efficient means of making education
available to the seven and a half lacs of villages in India, there is
not only no danger of weariness, but every prospect of the nation being
able to solve the problem of financing mass education without any extra
taxation and without having to fall back upon immoral sources of
revenue.
The writer in the _Indian Social Reformer_ suggests, that an attempt
should be made to produce finer counts on the spinning-wheel. I may
assure him that the process has already begun, but it will be some time
before we arrive at the finish of the Dacca muslin or even twenty
counts. Seeing that hand-spinning was only revived last September, and
India began to believe in it somewhat only in December, the progress it
has made may be regarded as phenomenal.
The writer's complaint that hand-spun yarn is not being woven as fast as
it is spun, is partly true. But the remedy is not so much to increase
the number of looms, as to persuade the existing weavers to use
hand-spun yarn. Weaving is a much more complex process than spinning. It
is not, like spinning, only a supplementary industry, but a complete
means of livelihood. It therefore never died out. There are _enough
weavers and enough looms in India to replace the whole of the foreign
import of cloth_. It should be understood that our looms--thousands of
them in Madras, Maharashtra and Bengal--are engaged in weaving the fine
yarn imported from Japan and Manchester. We _must_ utilize these for
weaving hand-spun yarn. And for that purpose, the nation has to revise
its taste for the thin tawdry and useless muslins. I see no art in
weaving muslins, that do not cover but only expose the body. Our ideas
of art must undergo a change. But even if the universal weaving of thin
fabric be considered desirable in normal conditions, at the present
moment whilst we are making a mighty effort to become free and
self-supporting, we must be content to wear the cloth that our hand-spun
yarn may yield. We have therefore to ask the fashionable on the one hand
to be satisfied with coarser garments; we must educate the spinners on
the other hand to spin finer and more even yarn.
The writer pleads for a reduction in the prices charged by mill-owners
for their manufactures. When lovers of Swadeshi begin to consider it
their duty to wear khaddar, when the required number of spinning-wheels
are working and the weavers are weaving hand-spun yarn, the mill-owners
will be bound to reduce prices. It seems almost hopeless merely to
appeal to the patriotism of those whose chief aim is to increase their
own profits.
Incongruities pointed out by the writer such as the wearing of khaddar
on public occasions and at other times of the most fashionable English
suits, and the smoking of most expensive cigars by wearers of khaddar,
must disappear in course of time, as the new fashion gains strength. It
is my claim that as soon as we have completed the boycott of foreign
cloth, we shall have evolved so far that we shall necessarily give up
the present absurdities and remodel national life in keeping with the
ideal of simplicity and domesticity implanted in the bosom of the
masses. We will not then be dragged into an imperialism, which is built
upon exploitation of the weaker races of the earth, and the acceptance
of a giddy materialistic civilization protected by naval and air forces
that have made peaceful living almost impossible. On the contrary, we
shall then refine that imperialism, into a common wealth of nations
which will combine, if they do, for the purpose of giving their best to
the world and of protecting, not by brute force but by self-suffering,
the weaker nations or races of the earth. Non-co-operation aims at
nothing less than this revolution in the thought-world. Such a
transformation can come only after the complete success of the
spinning-wheel. India can become fit for delivering such a message,
when she has become proof against temptation and therefore attacks from
outside, by becoming self-contained regarding two of her chief
needs--food and clothing.
_Y. I.--29th June 1921._
THE CHARKA IN THE GITA
In the last issue I have endeavoured to answer the objections raised by
the Poet against spinning as a sacrament to be performed by all. I have
done so in all humility and with the desire to convince the Poet and
those who think like him. The reader will be interested in knowing, that
my belief is derived largely from the Bhagavadgita. I have quoted the
relevant verses in the article itself. I give below Edwin Arnold's
rendering of the verses from his Song Celestial for the benefit of those
who do not read Sanskrit.
Work is more excellent than idleness;
The body's life proceeds not, lacking work.
There is a task of holiness to do,
Unlike world-binding toil, which bindeth not
The faithful soul; such earthly duty do
Free from desire, and thou shalt well perform
Thy heavenly purpose. Spake Prajapati
In the beginning, when all men were made,
And, with mankind, the sacrifice--"Do this!
Work! Sacrifice! Increase and multiply
With sacrifice! This shall be Kamadhuk,
Your 'Cow of Plenty', giving back her milk
Of all abundance. Worship the gods thereby;
The gods shall yield ye grace. Those meats ye crave
The gods will grant to Labour, when it pays
Tithes in the altar-flame. But if one eats
Fruits of the earth, rendering to kindly heaven,
No gift of toil, that thief steals from his world."
Who eat of food after their sacrifice
Are quit of fault, but they that spread a feast
All for themselves, eat sin and drink of sin.
By food the living live; food comes of rain.
And rain comes by the pious sacrifice,
And sacrifice is paid with tithes of toil;
Thus action is of Brahma, who is one,
The Only, All--pervading; at all times
Present in sacrifice. He that abstains
To help the rolling wheels of this great world,
Glutting his idle sense, lives a lost life,
Shameful and vain.
Work here undoubtedly refers to physical labour, and work by way of
sacrifice can only be work to be done by all for the common benefit.
Such work--such sacrifice can only be spinning. I do not wish to
suggest, that the author of the Divine Song had the spinning wheel in
mind. He merely laid down a fundamental principle of conduct. And
reading in and applying it to India I can only think of spinning as the
fittest and most acceptable sacrificial body labour. I cannot imagine
anything nobler or more national than that for say one hour in the day
we should all do the labour that the poor must do, and thus identify
ourselves with them and through them with all mankind. I cannot imagine
better worship of God than that in His name I should labour for the poor
even as they do. The spinning wheel spells a more equitable distribution
of the riches of the earth.
_Y. I.--20th Oct. 1921._
SPINNING AS FAMINE RELIEF
Mrs. Jaiji Petit has sent the following notes of an experiment being
conducted in spinning among the famine-stricken people at Miri near
Ahmednagar. I gladly publish the notes as the experiment is being
conducted under the supervision of an Englishwoman. The reader will not
fail to observe the methodical manner in which the work is being done.
All the difficulties have been met and provided for. Even the very small
experiment shows what a potent instrument the spinning wheel is for
famine relief. Properly organised it cannot but yield startling
results.--M. K. G.
In the month of August 1920, when the severity of the famine was being
felt, the idea of introducing spinning as a famine relief to respectable
middle class people was started and Miss Latham kindly gave a spinning
wheel to introduce the work. Attempts were made to introduce the work
especially among the Dhangars who were used to spinning wool but they
proved futile. Spinning a thin thread of cotton was thought an
impossibility in a village which did not know anything about it. Doubts
were also entertained as to whether the work if taken up would be paying
or at least helpful. In such different difficulties and objections, the
wheel remained idle for nearly three months, and in spite of vigorous
efforts no body seemed willing to take up the work. In December 1920,
Miss Latham again sent four more wheels through the kindness of
Mrs. J. Petit and some cotton. They were given for trial to different
persons. Signs now seemed a little hopeful and at last one Ramoshi woman
was prevailed upon to take up the work seriously. This was about the
20th of January 1921, since when the work has assumed a different shape.
The example of this woman was copied by two more who undertook to take
the work. Through great perseverance 4 lbs. of yarn were prepared by
these three spinners and it was sent for sale. In the meantime many
women began to make the inquiries and expressed a desire to take it up
if it helped them financially in some way. A rate of spinning 6 as. a
lb. was therefore fixed and it helped other spinners to join the work.
Here another difficulty viz. that of funds came in the way. All the five
wheels were engaged and five more prepared locally were also engaged.
The stock of cotton was also exhausted. It seemed that the work would
suffer for want of funds to prepare wheels, purchase cotton, and pay the
workers. Rao Bahadur Chitale personally saw this difficulty and helped
the work with a grant of Rs. 100. Miss Latham, when she knew of this
difficulty, kindly sent another hundred. These two grants came at the
right time and gave a stimulus to the work. Local gentlemen helped with
their own cotton.
The demand for wheels went on increasing day by day. People being too
poor to pay for the wheels, it became necessary to get the wheels
prepared locally and lend them to the workers. Twenty seven more wheels
were prepared which also gave work to local carpenters who had no work
on account of famine. One carpenter improved the wheel by making it more
light and useful for finer yarn. The prices of the wheel were paid at
Rs. 3, Rs. 3-8, and Rs. 4 per wheel according to the quality. Three of
these wheels have been sold for Rs. 9-8. The total sum spent on these
wheels is Rs. 103-8-0 which includes the sum for the wheels kindly sent
by Mrs. Petit.
Though local cotton was secured for the work, it proved too bad for
beginners. A new method therefore was introduced to improve the local
cotton, which not only helped the work but also provided work for a few
more persons. Raw cotton was secured and the dirt and the dry leaves in
it were carefully removed before it was ginned. The rate for this work
was fixed at one pice per lb. Any old man who did this work got an
opportunity of earning one anna a day, by cleaning 4 lbs. of raw
cotton. After it was thus cleaned, it was ginned with a hand-gin which
gave work to some women who ginned, at the rate of one anna per 10 lbs.
One woman could thus earn 2 as. and 6 pies each day. This ginned cotton
was then cleaned by a _pinjari_ who charged at the rate of one anna per
pound and earned about 8 as. per day. It would have been better and
easier too, if cotton had been purchased from the mills, but as this
cleaning process of the local cotton provided work for a few workers, it
was thought the more desirable in these days. A major portion of these
cleaning charges is however made up by the sale of cotton seed secured
after ginning. The following statement will show the expenses incurred
for this and the price of raw cotton for every 60 lbs.
RS. A. P.
Price of 60 lbs. of raw cotton @
20 Rs. a patia (240 lbs.). 5--0--0
Removal of dirt, waste and dry
leaves @ 1 pice per pound 0-15--0
Ginning of 52 lbs. of raw clean
cotton @ 1 an. per 10 lbs. 0--5--3
Cleaning the Lint (17 lbs.) by a
pinjari @ 1 Anna per lb. 1--1--0
--------
Total 7--4--3
Deduct price of cotton seed 35 lbs.
@ 20 lbs. per Re. 1-12--0
--------
Net charges for 17 lbs. of clean
cotton 5--9--3
Thus the cost of one pound of cotton comes to 5 as. and 3 pies only. The
proportion of waste viz. 8 lbs. in 60 lbs. of raw cotton is too high and
could be avoided by securing better and cleaner cotton.
There are at present 29 wheels going and there is still a great demand
for wheels. But the funds being limited, more wheels could not be
prepared and provided. Spinning is done by those who absolutely knew
nothing about it previously. Consequently the yarn is still of an
inferior sort. It is improving day by day but if a competent teacher
could be secured, it would improve rapidly. Amongst the spinners, some
are full-time workers and others are leisure-time workers.
About two lbs. of yarn are now prepared every day and the quantity will
increase as the spinners get used to the work. The rate for spinning is
fixed at 6 as. a lb., though many workers complain that it is not
enough. As the yarn sent for sale realised a price of As. 12 a pound,
the spinning charges could not be increased without a loss. Every lb. of
yarn requires Annas 11 pies 3 for expenses, as 0-5-3 for cotton and
0-6-0 for spinning. Thus every lb. leaves a profit of 9 pies only. The
establishment and other charges are not calculated. With the present
rate of spinning at 6 as. a lb., one spinner earns 3 as. per day by
spinning 20 to 24 tolas, more earn 2 as. a day by spinning 15 tolas and
the rest 1-1/2 as. a day for 10 tolas, the beginners excluded. The more
the spinner is used to the work, the more he will earn.
An attempt was made to prepare cloth out of the yarn and three and a
half lbs. of yarn were given to a weaver for weaving. He however charged
an exorbitant rate for weaving. He prepared nine and a half yards of
cloth and charged Rs. 3-9 for it, practically 1 rupee a lb. The cloth
cost Rs. 6-0-6 and was sold at Rs. 6-3-0, with a profit of as. 2 and
pies 6 only. To obviate the difficulty about weaving, a separate loom
with one teacher to teach weaving to local persons is urgently required.
Many local people wish to learn this art. A separate loom will reduce
the cost of the cloth prepared on it below the prevailing market rate.
About 6 lbs. of yarn are given to different weavers to ascertain the
exact charges, but all this difficulty can only be removed by having a
special loom.
When there was a shortage of cotton and the workers had no work, wool
was introduced for spinning till cotton was ready. This work was
willingly taken up by the Dhangar. They were however required to spin
finer thread of wool than they usually prepared. They took some time to
pick up the work, and now there are 10 wool spinners working fine
thread. They are also paid at 6 as. a lb. for spinning. Wool worth
Rs. 31 @ 2 lbs. a rupee was purchased, and though the cotton was ready, the
wool spinning was continued by starting a separate department, as the
Dhangars readily took up the work. The whole process of cleaning the
wool is also done by the Dhangar women, who get an extra anna per lb.
for it. The sorting of wool is carefully looked to. The majority of wool
spinners use their own spinning wheels but a few are now asking for the
improved wheel for preparing finer threads.
Dhangar weavers being locally available blankets after the Pandharpur
and Dawangiri pattern are being prepared from this finer thread and
different designs have been suggested to them. The Dhangars being a
stubborn race do not readily adopt the new improvement. But this work
has set them to work up new designs of blankets which will permanently
help them in their own profession. They now require a broader and
improved loom and instruction in colouring wool. Efforts are made to
secure a clever full time weaver who will introduce a better method of
weaving. Two blankets were prepared and sold at cost price, one for
Rs. 5-13-6 and the other for Rs. 6-6-0. Orders are being received for
blankets now, but to continue the work would require some funds.
To keep so many persons working is not only an ideal form of famine
relief, but a means to promote village industries, and remove the
demoralising effects of successive famines. Thus stands the work of
about one month. It now requires an improved handloom, a good teacher, a
special loom for wool, more spinning wheels (which the neighbouring
villagers are also demanding) and many other things. The work is going
on vigorously and it is hoped will not be allowed to suffer for want of
funds.
_Y. I.--11th May 1921._
THE POTENCY OF THE SPINNING-WHEEL
No amount of human ingenuity can manage to distribute water over the
whole land, as a shower of rain can. No irrigation department, no rules
of precedence, no inspection and no water-cess. Every thing is done with
an ease and a gentleness that by their very perfection evade notice. The
spinning-wheel, too, has got the same power of distributing work and
wealth in millions of houses in the simplest way imaginable. Those of us
who do not know what it is to earn a livelihood by the sweat of one's
brow, may consider the three annas a day as a pittance beneath the
consideration of any man. They do not know that even in these days of
high prices, there are districts in India where even three annas a day
would be a boon to the poor. But we must not consider the question of
the spinning-wheel merely from the point of individual earnings. The
spinning-wheel is a force in national regeneration. If we wish for real
Swaraj, we must achieve economic independence. Boycott of foreign cloth
is its negative aspect. For this we must produce cloth sufficient to
clothe the country. This can only be done by hand-spinning. All the
mills that we have got, will not be able together to cope with the
situation. If all rush for the thin mill-made cloth, it will rise in
price beyond the capacity of the poor, and the experience of 1907-08
will be repeated. Moreover, the cloth best suited for the three seasons
of India is _Khadi_. Those who have used _Khadi_ during this summer,
have come to realise, that after the soft clean touch of _Khadi_ it is
impossible to use sticky Malmal or twills. _Khadi_ can enable its wearer
to withstand the cold of an average winter as even wool cannot. The
climate of India demands that clothes be washed as often as possible.
Only _Khadi_ can stand this constant wash. _Khadi_ was once the dress of
the nation at large. One must see to believe how venerable the old
Patels and Deshmukhs looked when dressed in home-spun _Khadi_. There are
instances of whole villages taking a legitimate pride in the fact that
they had to import nothing but salt in the whole round of the six
seasons. With such conditions, there could be no drain, no exploitation
and therefore no Para-raj. A little village could make terms with the
rulers of the land consistent with its self-respect, dignity and
independence. Is our love of luxury so inveterate, that we cannot
control it even for the sake of Swaraj?
_Y. I.--6th July 1921._
THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
[A certain correspondent from Sindh writing to Mahatma Gandhi puts the
question, "Will the spinning wheel solve the problem of India's poverty?
If it will, how?" Here is his answer.]
I am more than ever convinced that without the spinning wheel the
problem of India's poverty cannot be solved. Millions of India's
peasants starve for want of supplementary occupation. If they have
spinning to add to their slender resources, they can fight successfully
against pauperism and famine. Mills cannot solve the problem. Only
hand-spinning--and nothing else--can. When India was forced to give up
hand-spinning, she had no other occupation in return. Imagine what would
happen to a man who found himself suddenly deprived of a quarter of his
bare livelihood. Over eighty-five percent of Her population have more
than a quarter of their time lying idle. And, therefore, even apart from
the terrible drain rightly pointed out by the Grand Old Man of India,
she has steadily grown poorer because of this enforced idleness. The
problem is how to utilise these billions of hours of the nation without
disturbing the rest. Restoration of the spinning wheel is the only
possible answer. This has nothing to do with my special views on
machinery or with the boycott of foreign goods in general, India is
likely to accept the answer in full during this year. It is madness to
tinker with the problem. I am writing this in Puri in front of the
murmuring waves. The picture of the crowd of men, women, and children,
with their fleshless ribs under the very shadow of Jagannath, haunts me.
If I had the power, I would suspend every other activity in schools, and
colleges, and everywhere else, and popularise spinning; prepare out of
these lads and lasses spinning teachers: inspire every carpenter to
prepare spinning wheels; and ask the teachers to take these life-going
machines to every home, and teach them spinning. If I had the power, I
would stop an ounce of cotton from being exported and would have it
turned into yarn in these homes. I would dot India with depots for
receiving this yarn and distributing it among weavers. Given sufficient
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.
(5) No machine is properly made unless it manufactures in the
hands of a practised spinner at least 2-1/2 tolas of even and
properly twisted yarn of six counts in an hour. I know a
youngster, who has not had more than perhaps three months'
practice, having been able to spin 2-1/2 tolas of the above
quality of yarn in 35 minutes. No machine should be given
until it has been worked at least full one hour in the manner
suggested and found satisfactory.
_Y. I.--6th April 1921._
THE SPINNING WHEEL
[On February 15, 1922, Mahatma Gandhi has addressed the following letter
to Sir Daniel Hamilton from Bardoli on the Spinning Wheel.]
DEAR SIR,
Mr. Hodge writes to me to say that you would like to have an hour's chat
with me, and he has suggested that I should open the ground which I
gladly do. I will not take up your time by trying to interest you in any
other activity of mine except the spinning wheel. Of all my outward
activities, I do believe that the spinning wheel is of the most
permanent and the most beneficial. I have abundant proof now to support
my statement that the spinning wheel will solve the problem of economic
distress in millions of India's homes, and it constitutes an effective
insurance, against famines.
You know the great Scientist Dr. P. C. Ray, but you may not know that he
has also become an enthusiast on behalf of the spinning wheel. India
does not need to be industrialized in the modern sense of the term. It
has 7,50,000 villages scattered over a vast area 1,900 miles long, 1,500
miles broad. The people are rooted to the soil, and the vast majority
are living a hand-to-mouth life. Whatever may be said to the contrary,
having travelled throughout the length and breadth of the land with eyes
open, and having mixed with millions, there can be no doubt that
pauperism is growing. There is no doubt also that the millions are
living in enforced idleness for at least 4 months in the year.
Agriculture does not need revolutionary changes. The Indian peasant
requires a supplementary industry. The most natural is the introduction
of the spinning wheel, not the hand-loom. The latter cannot be
introduced in every home, whereas the former can, and it used to be so
even a century ago. It was driven out not by economic pressure but by
force deliberately used as can be proved from authentic records. The
restoration, therefore, of the spinning wheel solves the economic
problem of India at a stroke. I know that you are a lover of India, that
you are deeply interested in the economic and moral uplift of my
country. I know too that you have great influence. I would like to
enlist it on behalf of the spinning wheel. It is the most effective
force for introducing successful Co-Operative Societies. Without honest
co-operation of the millions, the enterprise can never be successful,
and as it is already proving a means of weaning thousands of women from
a life of shame, it is as moral an instrument as it is economic.
I hope you will not allow yourself to be prejudiced by anything you
might have heard about my strange views about machinery. I have nothing
to say against the development of any other industry in India by means
of machinery but I do say that to supply India with cloth manufactured
either outside or inside through gigantic mills is an economic blunder
of the first magnitude just as it would be to supply cheap bread
through huge bakeries established in the chief centres in India and to
destroy the family stove.
Yours faithfully,
M. K. GANDHI.
APPENDICES
BY
MAGANLAL K. GANDHI
I
A MODEL WEAVING-SCHOOL
All the external activities of Satyagrahashram in connection with
Swadeshi have for some time now been taken over by the Gujarat
Provincial Congress Committee. People, who are in need of or wish to
know anything about ginning-wheels, spinning-wheels, looms and Khadi,
are requested to correspond with the Secretary of the Khadi department
of that Committee. The Ashram now only conducts a weaving-school, which
teaches all the processes from ginning right up to weaving. The boys of
the Ashram school are at present taking the full course of instruction
here, and we have not the room to take up students from outside. Some
description of the work done is given here in the hope, that it may
perhaps furnish suggestions to outside students and to schools desirous
of having spinning-classes attached to them.
Forty-nine spinning wheels are here regularly at work, over and above
twenty-five others which are reserved for beginners. All these are
worked three to six hours per day. Some are worked for even seven or
eight hours. After a month's training, a friend worked twelve to
fourteen hours daily for a number of days and thus proved the
possibility of earning three annas a day. Another, a sister, spun nine
to ten hours daily for some days after finishing her round of domestic
business. In a month and a half, she had spun enough to get _sadlas_ and
other cloth woven out of yarn spun by herself, and actually began
wearing these things. She is now-a-days spinning at the rate of eight
hours a day. One day there was something wrong with this lady's
_rentia_. She referred the matter to the present writer who set it
right. But she was not satisfied. She complained again, and again was
the _rentia_ operated upon. But the wheel apparently suffered from some
occult malady, which she was at a loss to diagnose. Every time its
spinning power would get enfeebled. At last the poor lady lost all
patience and was almost ready to weep. This was reported to me, and this
time I examined the wheel very critically and effected a perfect cure.
It now moved merrily, and merrily did the sister proceed with her work.
It is very desirable that all the wheels in a spinning-class be kept in
a perfect condition. When that is the case, the spinner does not tire
and works cheerfully and speedily. Our class is attended by five ladies,
who spin five or six hours every day, and by twenty-three students of
the Ashram school, of whom eighteen are boys and five are girls. The
conduct of this class is not an easy job. Their spirits are in continual
need of cheering. Some of them spin very rapidly. But sometimes there is
a grievous attack of head-ache, at other times the still more grievous
attack of idleness. Sometimes the hand is fatigued, at other times the
wheel gets out of repair.
We are now replacing the thick by a thin spindle. It is true that with
the slightest interference or rough handling, this thin spindle bends
and begins to wobble. But it makes the movement of the wheel very smooth
and easy, and also adds to its speed, as the revolutions are doubled
from the fifty of the thick spindle to a hundred in the thin spindle
following from one revolution of the large wheel. The doubling of
revolutions does not mean a double output, but there is certainly a
considerable increase. With the thick spindle, the wheel must go through
8 or 10 revolutions for the drawing and winding of one length of yarn;
with the thin spindle, the revolutions of the wheel needed for that
purpose are reduced to 4 or 5. Hence with the thin spindle, there is an
economy of labour. The speed of drawing the yarn by the hand is clearly
limited, so that 200 or 300 revolutions of the spindle instead of 100
would not double or treble the speed or the output. Advanced students
draw and wind two feet to two feet and a half of yarn every five
seconds. This comes to 8 to 10 yards a minute. If the sliver is good and
the student in a spinning-mood, there is less breakage of yarn. Even
considering the time lost on account of breakage and joining, some
students are easily able to spin 400 to 500 yards of yarn of about 12
counts, fit for warp. This approximates to the speed of a mill spindle,
and is therefore quite satisfactory. When the work is over, the student
removes the spindle from the wheel and keeps it in good preservation.
Yet accidents do occur. The class master must know how to repair a
spindle which has thus gone wrong. He must also know how to put the
wheel in good working order. The string which makes the spindle revolve
often breaks, but if it is well-twisted, treated with wax, and then
rubbed well with a piece of cloth, it becomes more durable and lasts for
a number of days.
The students generally like to work on the _rentia_. But the moment it
gets a little wrong and cannot be soon corrected, they rise and flee.
Not only the beginners but even advanced scholars are sometimes
confused, when called upon to set right such a simple machine as the
spinning-wheel. A veteran leader who set the non-co-operating students
of engineering at work upon the spinning-wheel, made the remark that
English education has incapacitated our young men. It was with great
pain that he said this. And it is the simple truth of the matter. We can
clearly see, that as a result of this education, we have not only lost
the power of our hands and feet, but we also lack in patience and
perseverance. We cannot bear to take the trouble of correcting anything
that is wrong. Newspaper leader-writers question the educative value of
spinning and doubt its efficacy in driving away poverty from our midst.
Their doubts would vanish if ever they tried and saw for themselves what
children gain from the spinning-wheel. But these writers are themselves
the product of English education. To expect them to be patient, is to
forget the character of the discipline to which they have been subject.
There is no better test than the spinning-wheel, if we wish to
ascertain whether our children are educated in the real and the proper
sense of that term.
Many people still question the economic value of hand spinning. But I
believe that the results of our experiments may perhaps lead them to
reconsider their views. I will here put down the statistics of our own
class. Among our students there are five playful children, who spin only
when the spirit possesses them. But all of them spin good yarn fit for
warp. Hardly any spin yarn below 10 counts. Many spin yarn of about 15
counts. Now-a-days the boys are giving four hours to spinning. Formerly
they used to work six hours daily, but then there was a tendency to
occasional slackness. Now we have ruled that when once a student has
spun a length of 1000 yards, he may be allowed to leave the spinning
class, and learn carding etc. This arrangement has had excellent
efforts. All spin without losing a moment and spin 1000 yards in two to
four hours according to the skill acquired. And the yarn thus produced
is pretty uniform, well twisted, and fit for warp. We have fixed a round
wire frame on the axle of the wheel just near the handle, with a
circumference of 4 feet. This frame is used for opening the cone into a
hank. 750 revolutions of this mean a thousand yards of yarn. Most
students count the revolutions, while they are moving the frame, and
hence do not take much additional time for calculations. Some are not
able to practice this, and they count the length after they have
prepared the hank.
1000 yards of yarn of six counts weigh 8 _tolas_. (840 yards make a
hank. If six such hanks weigh a pound, the yarn is of 6 counts. Hence
840 yards of six count of yarn weigh 6-2/3 _tolas_.) 4 annas is a quite
proper wage for spinning one pound of six-count yarn of a standard
quality. This means a wage of nine pies and a half for spinning 8
_tolas_. But most of our students spin yarn of 12 to 15 counts, and even
finer. And this is quite good and fit for weaving. The wage for a
thousand yards of finer yarn must be proportionately higher; as the
finer the yarn, the greater the number of twists to be given to it.
Twelve-count yarn requires nearly half as much twisting again as
six-count yarn. Hence the wage of a thousand yards of twelve-count yarn
must be half as much again as that of the same length of six-count yarn.
But this proportionately higher wage makes the hand-spun yarn much
dearer than the mill-made yarn of the same count. If we take 8 and 12
annas to be the wage for spinning a pound of yarn of 12 and 16 counts
respectively, the wage for spinning a length of 1000 yards of the same
counts will be 10 or 11 pies. One student spins this amount in 2 hours,
several in 3 hours and the rest in 4.
On the last _Amavasya_ it was twenty two days since the students set
regularly to work after the _vaishaka_ vacation. Deducting three
holidays on Sundays and three half-holidays on Wednesdays, we get
seventeen and a half working days. There was an average attendance of
twenty two students out of twenty three. Twenty two students spun in
seventeen days and a half twenty four _shers_ and a half of yarn of
about fourteen counts. If we take ten annas to be the average wage for
spinning a _sher_, this comes to fifteen rupees and four annas. This is
exclusive of Rs. 1-11-0 which is the wage of 18 pounds of cotton carded
and made into slivers by one student in 12 days, calculated at an anna
and a half per pound. It is also exclusive of the extra work put in by
students on five or six days after finishing their daily quota of 1000
yds. of yarn by way of carding and opening yarn for weaving tapes and
carpets. These students gave some of their private time also to this
work.
There is no doubt, that the figures will mount higher when the students
acquire the habit of methodical work. But whatever the pecuniary value
of their work might be, method in work itself will be an acquisition
beyond all price.
So much for the spinning department. I hope to be able to deal with the
weaving department on another occasion.
_Y. I.--21st July 1921_.
SPINNING DEPARTMENT
I should like to add a few more facts about the spinning department,
before I come to weaving.
In _Ashadha_ the students were more energetic than before. The number of
regular students was 21, and these in 23 working days (there being six
holidays in the month) spun 30 pounds and 24 _tolas_ of yarn of about 12
counts on the average, fit for warp. At ten annas a pound, this means a
wage of Rs. 19-2-0. The total number of hours of spinning was 1337. At 4
hours a day it should have been 1932 (23 number of days × 21 number of
students × 4). This deficiency is not due to idleness, nor to headache.
Complaints of idleness have now quite ceased. And students now
understand that headache may prevent one from reading or working sums
but not from spinning. They have also realised that if the arms are
fatigued by fetching water or swimming, there is nothing like spinning
for removing the fatigue. The thing is that those students who have
mastered spinning were engaged in carding and other process. If full
time had been given to spinning, we would have turned out a
proportionately bigger quantity of yarn.
The spinning power of the students is increasing every day. The student
who spun 7 _tolas_ an hour during the Satyagraha week is now no longer a
prodigy and others are fast overtaking him. One day a girl spun 9
_tolas_ of uniform and well-twisted 12-count yarn in 6 hours. At the
above rate this means a wage of 2 annas 3 pies. For 8 hours therefore
the wage would be 3 annas, for 12 hours 4 annas 6 pies, for 14 hours 5
annas 3 pies. But it is hardly necessary to emphasise the pecuniary
value of the work, so far as schools are concerned. The point is that by
constituting spinning as a permanent part of our school curricula we
provide manual training of the highest kind and at the same time prepare
for the re-advent of a day when spinning will be as much a part of our
domestic economy as say cooking.
_Y. I.--11th Aug. '21_.
THE ADVANTAGE OF THE THIN SPINDLE
Since we introduced the thin Spindle, we have been keeping a number of
them in reserve. When a student has his spindle bent, it is not
corrected there and then but he is at once given one of the spare good
ones, so there is no delay. Afterwards all the spindles that have gone
wrong are collected and corrected together.
The _sadi_, i.e. the wrapping on the spindle which serves as a pulley,
is often cut by itself and has sometimes to be cut off in order to
correct the spindle. A new _sadi_ has to be wrapped and for this a
bottle of thick gum is kept ready at hand. It must be made of fine
strong yarn, and be wrapped very tight. If it is loose, the string which
revolves the spindle (_mala_) sinks in it and cuts it asunder, and at
once the spindle stops. If the _sadi_ is made of coarse yarn, it
becomes rough, and so the _mala_ does not run smoothly, and the spindle
throbs and causes breakage of the yarn while it is being spun.
Pairs of _chamarakhan_ (leather-bearing) also are kept in reserve. When
these become too soft by an excess of oiling or by rough handling, they
must be changed. Now-a-days we make them from raw hides and not from
leather or bamboo, and so they keep longer.
Formerly a round piece of wood or cardboard used to serve as a rest for
winding the cone. But now we have substituted a piece of horn which is
more durable. Wax is kept in stock for treating the _mala_. Besides
these things we have a small oil-can, a pen-knife, a hammer, a chisel,
and a small anvil.
The students bring the hank twisted hard in the shape of a stick. The
hank weighs two _tolas_, which is the standard weight of the sliver
provided. A bigger hank causes trouble while we open it, and the yarn is
spoilt. The yarn spun by each student is kept separate with his name
upon a wooden tag attached to it. Every student is asked to stick to
one particular count all along till he has spun out enough for a length
of warp; and then the yarn is sent to the weaving department. Every one
is anxious to see when his yarn is sent out for weaving. Three such
lengths of warp are being woven at present. About seven are ready
waiting to be woven. An eleven year old girl will soon get a piece 20
yards long and 42 inches wide out of yarn spun by herself in the course
of three months. This will provide her with two suits of clothing of two
small _sadis_, 2 blouses and 2 petticoats. Her father had put in a pound
of yarn spun by himself, to finish up the piece, and in return for this,
she is going to spare a _dhoti_ for him too. She is as much pleased to
see the cloth woven from her own yarn as most girls would be to see
brocade. Two other girls have combined their stock of yarn and are daily
asking for it to be woven. Those students who have passed out from the
spinning class are engaged in other departments, and have not much time
to spare for spinning; so they work on holidays and prepare woof for
their own warps, which are waiting to be woven. So in the second month,
the spinning department is in full swing.
_Y. I.--18th Aug. 1921._
HAND-LOOMS
The working of the spinning class having been fully described in the
first two articles, the process next to be taken up is carding; but
having received a number of queries as to the working of hand-looms, I
propose to deal with this before going into intermediate processes.
Questions are asked as to which will be the most useful loom for weaving
hand-spun yarn. Some want our opinion about the automatic looms; others
insist upon the necessity of inventing a new swift-working machine,
while still others ask for monetary help to prepare such after their own
designs.
My humble but firm opinion is that the old pit-loom is the best,
especially for weaving hand-spun yarn. No doubt it is the slowest
working instrument but is the surest of all, and just as our old
spinning-wheel in spite of its being the slowest instrument is
absolutely capable of spinning out all the cotton that India produces
to-day, so the old pit-loom is perfectly capable of weaving out all the
yarn that India can produce by means of the spinning wheels and the
mills.
This is not the time to enter into the figures in support of my
statement. I shall only try to show the usefulness of the pit-loom. The
fly-shuttle loom has its place in the sphere of home industry as well as
of the factory, but the automatic looms have no room in this industry.
Its drawbacks can only be realized by a study of the facts and figures
regarding concerns which employ such looms. People who newly take up
this industry should beware of flashy advertisements. They should not be
misled by professed calculations of the working of such looms.
The fly-shuttle looms have varying adjustments. In the Muzzaffarpur
spinning and weaving exhibition held in May last, a party from this
school was present with its wheel and loom. Of all the fly-shuttle
looms exhibited, the one from this school was selected as the simplest
and lightest of all. It is all made of wood, with the exception of nails
and screws required for joining. The pickers are also made entirely of
wood. The shuttle and perns are home-made. Other looms had iron bars in
their boxes, were operated with foreign shuttles, and their perns were
unwieldy. Our loom is modelled upon a type of looms working in thousands
in the Madras Presidency. The whole loom with a wooden frame to fit on a
pit, with the exception of the shields and reed costs Rs. 45. These
latter things are not supplied, as there is no fixed standard of the
yarn to be used on it.
I wish some public spirited person or firm will come forward in Madras
or elsewhere in that presidency and undertake to supply the fly-shuttle
loom as described above promptly and at reasonable rates. Any one
desirous of taking up this work may correspond with the head of the
_Khadi_ Department, Gujarat Provincial Congress Committee Ahmedabad.
Thus far as regards the fly-shuttle looms. I suggest to new
manufacturers that they cannot do better than start with the old
fashioned pit-looms. It is our experience that on account of less
breakage of yarn, especially hand-spun yarn, the output of a pit-loom
almost equals and in some cases even exceeds that of the fly-shuttle
loom. In weaving broader width, however, the fly-shuttle is certainly
more convenient. And when the hand-spun yarn is of good test, it enjoys
a decided advantage over the old loom in point of swiftness. But we have
to remember that we have got to deal with hand-spun yarn which is not
likely to have a good test for some time to come. It is therefore that
the old loom is the safest and surest weaving instrument to go on with
for the present.
_Y. I.--25th Aug. 1921._
WHAT KIND OF LOOM?
Questions are asked as to the production of cloths in an old-fashioned
loom from handspun yarn. The experience in our school is, that a
well-practised worker weaves on a pit-loom one yard cloth of 30 inches
width and of fairly thick texture in one hour. Cloth of greater or
smaller width varies in proportion. Our fly-shuttle pit-loom has not
exceeded this figure in handspun yarn so far. When formerly we used
mill-made yarn, it yielded about half as much cloth again as the old
pit-loom. However in weaving _dhotiyans_ and _sadis_ from handspun as
well as mill-made yarn the flyshuttle is very handy.
Then there is a question as to the necessity of beaming the yarn. We
believe, that where there is no question of room, beaming should be
dispensed with. Hand-loom weaving factories situated in thickly
populated towns where rates of house-rent are very high, have reason to
resort to beaming; but where space allows stretching of the yarn as
practised by the professional weavers, it is a time-saving method and is
artistic as well. There is an argument in favour of beaming that it
allows of the handling of warp as long as 200 or even 300 yards. But if
such length of handspun yarn can be prepared, it is equally easy, if not
easier, to stretch it in the old style.
SIZING HANDSPUN YARN
It is said, that the difficulty of sizing handspun yarn is a serious
handicap from which the movement suffers. As a matter of fact, the
method of sizing it should be no different from that of sizing mill-made
yarn. It is slipshod spinning which is at the bottom of this difficulty.
The best way out of it is to organise and improve the production of
handspun yarn. It is superstition to say that the yarn spun on the
_charkha_ cannot be strong and even. Where proper care is taken, it does
improve and even surpass mill-made yarn in some respects. Punjab and
Marwad, where spinning has been carried on from past times, have also to
improve their yarn. Not that the spinners there do not know their work,
but they as well as the merchants who purchase their yarn are careless
about the quality of the yarn turned out. Unless this work is taken up
by men imbued with the true Swadeshi spirit, the condition is not likely
to improve. The spinners should be visited at their work from time to
time, and proper instructions as to the required twist and test to be
given to the yarn should be imparted to them. The payment of a
reasonably higher wage than the present is another way of improving the
yarn. The wages we have arranged for our guidance are given below in the
form of a table. Where living is cheaper than in Gujarat, they can be
adjusted accordingly. The yarn having improved, the difficulty of sizing
will disappear.
When a country weaver shows inability to weave hand-spun yarn, it means
that he cannot weave it in the same reed space as he uses for the
mill-made yarn. This is quite evident. The hand-spun yarn not being
even, it requires wider reed space. The table given below also shows the
number of ends of different counts to be drawn in an inch of a reed.
Then if the cloth to be woven is meant for shirting or coating and not
for _dhotiyan_ or _sadi_, and if the yarn has a good test, two to four
ends can be added to the number denoted in the table.
Column headings:
C: Count.
T: Approximate twist per inch.
R: Rounds on 4 feet hank frame.
+---+------+--------+----+-----+------------+------------+--------------+
| | | | | | Number of | Number of | Rates of |
| | | Wage | | | ends in an | double | weaving per |
| C | Test.| per | T | R | inch of | ends in an | square yard. |
| | | pound. | | | reed. | inch. | Rs. A. P. |
+---+------+--------+----+-----+------------+------------+--------------+
| 6 | Warp | 0 4 0 | 10 | 96 | 24 to 28 | 18 to 22 | 0 4 0 |
| | | | | | | | |
| 6 | Weft | 0 3 0 | 8 | " | ... | ... | ... |
| | | | | | | | |
| 9 | Warp | 0 6 0 | 12 | 144 | 26 to 32 | 20 to 24 | 0 4 6 |
| | | | | | | | |
| 9 | Weft | 0 4 6 | 10 | " | ... | ... | ... |
| | | | | | | | |
|12 | Warp | 0 10 0 | 14 | 192 | 30 to 34 | 22 to 26 | 0 5 0 |
| | | | | | | | |
|12 | Weft | 0 8 0 | 12 | " | ... | ... | ... |
| | | | | | | | |
|16 | Warp | 0 12 0 | 16 | 256 | 34 to 38 | 24 to 28 | 0 5 6 |
| | | | | | | | |
|16 | Weft | 0 10 0 | 13 | " | ... | ... | ... |
| | | | | | | | |
|20 | Warp | 1 0 0 | 18 | 320 | 40 to 44 | 28 to 32 | 0 6 0 |
| | | | | | | | |
|20 | Weft | 0 13 0 | 15 | " | ... | ... | ... |
+---+------+--------+----+-----+------------+------------+--------------+
If the yarn is very weak and uneven, it should be woven with two ends in
warp as well as in weft. This will give a strong texture to the cloth,
making the process of weaving easy at the same time. The proportion in
this case of ends to be drawn in an inch of the reed space is also given
in the above table. If this course is adopted, heaps of handspun yarn
that have accumulated all over the country can be woven out without much
difficulty.
As a fact, the method of sizing traditionally followed by the weavers
cannot be improved upon. Their selection of the sizing material is
appropriate to the climate, season and circumstances. For the most part
they use the staple corn. Jawari and maize being the cheapest are used
in many parts. In the rainy season, however, they use wheat flour as a
stronger sizing material to counteract the over-softening influence of
the moisture present in the air. In the Madras Presidency, a cereal
called _ragi_ with a yellowish flour is used for coarse counts, while
rice is used for finer counts. Rice and wheat are the best ingredients
for sizing. The proportion used is from 10 per cent required for fine
yarn to 20 per cent for coarse yarn.
Different preparations of various sizing materials are as follow:--
_Wheat_: Weigh the warp first. Then according to its fineness or
coarseness, take fine wheat flour or _Menda_ from 10 to 20 per cent of
its weight, knead it well with water to form a thin paste, taking care
that no lump remains. Boil some water just enough to soak the warp, then
add the paste previously prepared and keep on stirring till the granules
are well-cooked and the whole substance is reduced to the form of thin
gruel. To every such preparation of one pound of flour, one ounce of
sesamum or sweet oil should be added. This will give softness and
smoothness to the threads of the warp and keep them from sticking to one
another. Cocoanut or castor oil is also used as a lubricant. Any of
these is good, except only that the castor oil will give a bad odour and
a dull colour to the warp. The size thus prepared is then slowly poured
on to the warp, which is kept folded on a gunny cloth or a clean slab.
The warp is beaten with both the hands, while the process of pouring is
going on, and when it is thoroughly saturated all over, it is spread out
in the open and brushed repeatedly in one direction, often bringing the
down side up till it gets dried. One or two or more persons according to
the length of the warp are engaged in brushing, while several others are
joining broken threads and shifting the sticks in the warp from one
lease to another.
This is the most thorough of all the methods of sizing. The ends of
fibres lying loose on every thread of the warp are straightened, and
stuck fast round the thread by the process of brushing. The thread is
rendered smooth and strong like wire, and the work of weaving is made
all the easier by it. Thus swiftness in weaving is ensured. To master
this requires long practice but it is worth the while of every student
to do so. For an energetic youth about three hours' work under an expert
every morning for two months or so is sufficient. With two assistants or
more he will then be able to manage the brush-sizing himself without
the aid of an expert. A less active person will take four or six months'
practice.
The preparation of size from jawari and maize flour is just the same as
from wheat flour, except that the flour of these cereals not being so
fine as wheat flour, a larger quantity is required in their case.
Some people advise that wheat flour should be soaked for at least two
days before it is boiled with water. It is said that the adherent
quality of the flour is enhanced by this process.
_Rice._ The preparation from rice is simpler still. The required
quantity of rice is boiled well with a quantity of water larger than
that used for ordinary cooking and is allowed to remain for 12 to 24
hours. It is then strained through a piece of cloth tied over or into
the mouth of a large vessel, more water being added as required in the
process of straining. The strained matter is then reduced to consistent
thinness; then oil is added to it in proportion as described above.
Rice is sometimes preferred to wheat, as it gives besides strength a
fine gloss to the warp.
The thing to be borne in mind is that the yarn meant for preparing warp
must be made thoroughly absorbent beforehand. For this, all the hanks
must be connected in the form of one chain. It is then folded together,
placed into a big vessel, whether of earth or metal, containing water
enough to soak the yarn and then well pressed with both the feet for
some time. It is left in this condition for two or three days, during
which period it is beaten with a wooden club on a slab twice every day.
It should be remembered that, unless it is beaten, it does not soak
through for days. If it is not soaked well, it is incapable of absorbing
the sizing material, and is imperfectly sized. The cotton fibre has a
natural oily coating on it, which is removed by soaking it as described
before or by boiling it for some time. It does not become thoroughly
absorbent, till it is treated in this manner. After two or three days,
when the yarn is well soaked, the chain is opened out and dried in
shade, every hank being hung separately on a bamboo. Before it gets
completely dried, it is well shaken with both the hands twice or thrice,
so that the threads do not stick to one another. The Madrasi weavers are
used to pouring rice water (generally thrown away when the rice is
boiled) on the yarn, before it is dried out in the manner described
above. This gives greater strength to the yarn, and causes less breakage
in the process of winding and preparing it into warp.
The other method of sizing resorted to by the weavers is called
hank-sizing. It is an easy process, and though not so efficient as
brush-sizing, it answers well if carefully performed. In this case the
yarn, before it is made up into a warp, is soaked, hank by hank, into
the size prepared from wheat or rice as described above, and after
pressing off the size a little from the hank with the thumb and a
finger, the hank, wet as it is, is wound up on a bobbin. The warp is
prepared immediately while the bobbin is wet, each thread drying on the
warping sticks as soon as another is drawn out. The warp thus prepared
is fit for weaving.
We have tried hank-sizing in a weak solution of ordinary gum. It works
well in dry season, but makes the yarn moist in wet season on account of
its absorbent quality.
II
THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
Mr. Gandhi during his visit to Assam and Eastern Bengal has observed,
that the type of _charkha_ in use in those parts is deficient in many
ways. The same is perhaps the case in other provinces. As we believe
that the _charkha_ in the Satyagrahashram is a model of its kind, we
give below a diagram with measurements of all its parts with an
explanation of their relative functions.
[Illustration]
The rear base with mark _1_ is one foot 9 inches long, 4 inches wide and
3 inches high.
The front base with mark _2_ is 9 inches long, 4 inches wide and 3
inches high.
The long piece which joins the two bases, marked _3_, is 3 feet long
(including joints), 3 inches wide and 2 inches high.
The large uprights marked _4_ are 1 foot 6 inches long including joints,
2 inches wide, and 3 inches deep. They are fixed on the back base 9
inches apart. The holes in which the axle rests are made 2 inches below
the top. These holes contain bearings of thin iron plates to secure easy
motion of the axle. The bearings are kept open at the top to allow
access of oil through a slanting hole bored on the outward sides of both
the uprights, one inch above the axle.
The small uprights marked _5_ are 9 inches long with joints 1-1/2 inches
wide and 1-1/2 inches deep, with holes 4 inches below the top to contain
the leather bearings which bear the spindle. They are fixed 3 inches
apart on the front base and are connected together 2 inches above the
base with a piece of a wood of the same thickness. This joining piece
contains in the middle 2 sticks half an inch apart to regulate the
position of the _mala_ (the string which revolves the spindle) on the
spindle.
Another piece marked _6_ and joined parallelly to the left upright is
meant to bear a hole for leather bearing when a thin spindle is to be
used.
The drum or wheel consists of 8 planks such as the one marked _7_, each
being 2 feet long, 4 inches wide and 3/4 inch thick. They are divided in
two wings of 4 planks each, each containing two couples of planks joined
diametrically with a groove in the middle.
Both the wings are nailed on to the wooden shaft marked _8_, its size
being 4-1/2 inches long and 4 inches diameter.
Through the middle of this shaft passes a long round iron bar, which
serves as an axle. It is 19 inches long and half an inch thick. Its end,
where the handle is fixed is made square to ensure firmness of the
handle.
A wooden washer one inch thick is fixed to the axle on either side of
the drum to avoid its contact with the uprights.
The handle is shaped put of a wooden piece of 2 inches × 2 inches ×
1-1/2 feet long.
The reel noticed in the diagram between the drum and the handle is
composed of a wooden disc marked _9_ made out of 1 inch thick and 6
inches square piece of wood. Six brackets made of galvanized wire of 10
gauge radiate from the centre of the disc so as to make a circumference
of 4 feet. The brackets are fixed in the back of the disc with bent ends
and are further secured with small nails near the circumference of the
disc.
A wire noose is fixed on the back base just below the reel to regulate
the yarn when wound up on the reel from a bobbin or directly from the
spindle.
A 4 inches long bamboo pin is fixed in the inward side of the front base
parallelly to the long plank marked 3. It is meant to hold the bobbin
while opening out yarn from it. When the yarn is opened from the
spindle directly, it is held in the left hand with the point towards the
reel. The right hand is employed in turning the reel by the handle of
the _charkha_.
The figure _10_, indicates the position of the spinner.
CORRECTIONS:
Page Original Correction
---- -------- ----------
vii Indian Economics 33 Indian Economics 34
viii Hand Looms 140 Hand-Looms 140
7 and setting their manufactures and selling their manufactures
10 as a miser uses his horde. as a miser uses his hoard.
27 and left her coarse and felt her coarse
28 organasing Swadeshi propaganda organising Swadeshi propaganda
28 Every drop counts Swadeshi Every drop counts. Swadeshi
32 from patroitic motives from patriotic motives
34 expressed in this buelletin expressed in this bulletin
35 being aginst the law being against the law
36 the another does represent the author does represent
40 utlise the idle hours utilise the idle hours
44 It is needness to say It is needless to say
46 more than his due And I more than his due. And I
54 Shrimati Sarala Devi Choudhrani Shrimati Sarala Devi Chaudhrani
57 bids fare to bear fruit. bids fair to bear fruit.
69 earned As. 4 earned As. 4.
69 he is a victim to-day. he is a victim to to-day.
72 of 62·7 crores pounds of 62.7 crores pounds
81 that he maufactures that he manufactures
82 about literary trainning. about literary training.
87 Mr, Amritlal Thakkar Mr. Amritlal Thakkar
97 potent instrument, the spinning potent instrument the spinning
102 who absolutely know nothing who absolutely knew nothing
103 Rs. 3-9 for it practically Rs. 3-9 for it, practically
104 about weaving, a separate room about weaving, a separate loom
123 [missing] A MODEL I [new line] A MODEL
132 will be an acpuisition will be an acquisition
134 The students who spun [...] is The student who spun [...] is
134 for 12 hours 4 annas 6pies for 12 hours 4 annas 6 pies
136 and cuts it as under, and cuts it asunder,
138 too suits of clothing two suits of clothing
138 as most girl would be as most girls would be
139 Y.I.--18th Aug. 1921. [Y. not in italics]
142 of the hields of the shields
142 costs Rs. 45 costs Rs. 45.
142 Provincial Congress Commitee Provincial Congress Committee
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