Reading cloth:khadi

Khadi is hand spun and hand woven cloth.It can be cotton, silk or wool. Khadi is the cloth- and home-industry that M. Gandhi, during the independence-war, fiercely protected against the cheaper, imported cloth from England,the world’s textile giant of the time and colonizer of India.I am trying to study about Khadi because I had been to Sevagram recently and I actually saw how Khadi cloth is woven into different forms and how people over there regularly do the activity of Charkha atleast once in a day for sure.It is really interesting to read this cloth because Mahatma Gandhi began promoting the spinning of khadi for rural self-employment and self-reliance in 1920s India, thus making khadi an integral part and icon of the Swadeshi movement.Every village shall plant and harvest its own raw-materials for yarn, every woman and man shall engage in spinning and every village shall weave whatever is needed for its own use.

   In the first half of this century, and in many parts even now, farmers have not enough work to earn their living through out the year. About four months they may be idle due to the rainless dry season. Spinning would thereby supply the readiest occupation; it can easily be learnt. It requires practically no outlay or capital, even an improved spinning wheel can be easily and cheaply made. Gandhi saw it as the end of dependency on foreign materials symbolizing foreign rule and thus giving a first lesson or real independence. Raw materials at that time were entirely exported to England and then re-imported as costly finished cloth, depriving the local population of work and profits on it. Gandhi also felt that in a county where manual labor was looked down upon, it was an occupation to bring high and low,rich and poor together, to show them the dignity of hand-labor. What I understood is,cotton is first hand picked and the fibers are separated from the seeds by a sharp comb-like object.It is then ginned into slivers. These are spun into yarn on a spinning wheel.

    It was this hand-cranked spinning wheel called charkha that became a symbol of a free India.The spun yarn is wound onto reels which then go to the weavers. Handlooms are used to weave the yarn into fabric. The making of khadi is eco-friendly since it does not rely on electric units and the manufacturing processes do not generate any toxic waste products.It is light and soft making it comfortable to wear.Its weave creates air pockets which make it cool in summers and warm in winters.It has a handcrafted self-texture making each khadi cloth unique and expensive.Its inherent strength makes it highly durable. Khadi has to be dry cleaned or washed in cold water with mild soap.It has to be starched to prevent it from crumbling.Dark colors tend to run so have to be washed separately.Certain fine khadi, such as mulmul has a translucent quality.Khadi silk which has upto 50% silk is priced for it richness and sheen.It was for economic, cultural and social reasons and not merely political that Gandhi established the Khadi Movement.Thus Khadi is not mere a piece of cloth but a way of life. The freedom struggle revolved around the use of khadi fabrics and the dumping of foreign-made clothes. Thus it symbolized the political ideas and independence itself, and to this day most politicians in India are seen only in khadi clothing.The khadi fabric is slowly disappearing in India if it were not for a few innovative designers who try to give it a new life.