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._