 | THE DUTY OF SPINNING Swaraj in one year |  |
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
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. Anyone 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
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.
| THE DUTY OF SPINNING Swaraj in one year | |