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.
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.