[A certain correspondent from Sindh writing to Mahatma Gandhi puts the
question, "Will the spinning wheel solve the problem of India's poverty?
If it will, how?" Here is his answer.]
I am more than ever convinced that without the spinning wheel the
problem of India's poverty cannot be solved. Millions of India's
peasants starve for want of supplementary occupation. If they have
spinning to add to their slender resources, they can fight successfully
against pauperism and famine. Mills cannot solve the problem. Only
hand-spinning--and nothing else--can. When India was forced to give up
hand-spinning, she had no other occupation in return. Imagine what would
happen to a man who found himself suddenly deprived of a quarter of his
bare livelihood. Over eighty-five percent of Her population have more
than a quarter of their time lying idle. And, therefore, even apart from
the terrible drain rightly pointed out by the Grand Old Man of India,
she has steadily grown poorer because of this enforced idleness. The
problem is how to utilise these billions of hours of the nation without
disturbing the rest. Restoration of the spinning wheel is the only
possible answer. This has nothing to do with my special views on
machinery or with the boycott of foreign goods in general, India is
likely to accept the answer in full during this year. It is madness to
tinker with the problem. I am writing this in Puri in front of the
murmuring waves. The picture of the crowd of men, women, and children,
with their fleshless ribs under the very shadow of Jagannath, haunts me.
If I had the power, I would suspend every other activity in schools, and
colleges, and everywhere else, and popularise spinning; prepare out of
these lads and lasses spinning teachers: inspire every carpenter to
prepare spinning wheels; and ask the teachers to take these life-going
machines to every home, and teach them spinning. If I had the power, I
would stop an ounce of cotton from being exported and would have it
turned into yarn in these homes. I would dot India with depots for
receiving this yarn and distributing it among weavers. Given sufficient
steady and trained workers, I would undertake to drive pauperism out of
India during this year. This undoubtedly requires a change in the angle
of vision and in the national taste. I regard the Reforms and everything
else in the nature of opiates to deaden our conscience. We must refuse
to wait for generations to furnish us with a patient solution of a
problem which is ever-growing in seriousness. Nature knows no mercy in
dealing stern justice. If we do not wake up before long, we shall be
wiped out of existence. I invite the sceptics to visit Orissa, penetrate
its villages, and find out for themselves where India stands. They will
then believe with me that to possess, or to wear, an ounce of foreign
cloth is a crime against India and humanity. I am able to restrain
myself from committing suicide by starvation, only because I have faith
in India's awakening, and her ability to put herself on the way to
freedom from this desolating pauperism. Without faith in such a
possibility, I should cease to take interest in living. I invite the
questioner, and every other intelligent lover of his country, to take
part in this privileged national service in making spinning universal by
introducing it in every home, and make it profitable for the nation by
helping to bring about a complete boycott of foreign cloth during this
year. I have finished the questions and endeavoured to answer them. The
most important from the practical stand-point was the one regarding
spinning. I hope, I have demonstrated the necessity of home-spinning as
the only means of dealing with India's poverty. I know, however, that
innumerable difficulties face a worker in putting the doctrine into
execution. The most difficult, perhaps, is that of getting a proper
wheel. Save in the Punjab where the art is still alive, the difficulty
is very real. The carpenters have forgotten the construction and the
innocent workers are at their wit's end. The chief thing undoubtedly,
therefore, is for the worker to make himself acquainted with the art and
the handling of spinning wheels. I lay down some simple tests for
testing them. No machine that fails to satisfy the tests should be
accepted or distributed.
(1) The wheel must turn easily, freely, and noiselessly.
(2) The turning handle must be rigidly fixed to the axle.
(3) The post must be properly driven home and joints
well-fixed.
(4) The spindle must turn noiselessly and without a throb in
its holders. Jarring sound cannot be avoided unless the
holders are made of knit straw as in the Punjab, or of tough
leather.
(5) No machine is properly made unless it manufactures in the
hands of a practised spinner at least 2-1/2 tolas of even and
properly twisted yarn of six counts in an hour. I know a
youngster, who has not had more than perhaps three months'
practice, having been able to spin 2-1/2 tolas of the above
quality of yarn in 35 minutes. No machine should be given
until it has been worked at least full one hour in the manner
suggested and found satisfactory.
_Y. I.--6th April 1921._