 | THE SECRET OF SWARAJ Swaraj in one year |  |
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 piecegoods. 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 output 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 horde.
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 now living in abnormal 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
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 not one decry the work as
being derogatory to the dignity of men or
students. It was an art confined to the women
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
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
present moment is to supplement the production
of yarn and cloth through our mill, 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.
| THE SECRET OF SWARAJ Swaraj in one year | |