KHADI

“KHADI : The Pride Of India”

Khadi is a cloth that is handspun and hand-woven in India. The word Khadi or ‘Khaddar’ literally means cotton according to its Sanskrit and Persian roots.

Khadi is not just a cloth. It is a movement representing freedom. In 1920s, India, a wise – and now a legendary freedom rights activist named, Mohondas Karamchand Gandhi called on his fellow citizens, to embrace the charka and made their own Khadi. This boosted rural self-employment and decreased reliance on industrially made, imported British textiles.

Khadi became an emblem of the Swadeshi, economic self-sufficiency movement, which was promoted by Gandhiji in seeking India’s Swaraj; self-governance through independence from British rule. Gandhi is revered universally for his unwavering commitment to freedom and peace through non-violent resistance. Martin Luther King, Jr. was deeply inspired by Gandhi’s ideas and methods, which played a central role in King’s advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world.

Gandhiji’s thoughts on the ‘Khadi Spirit’ :

“If we have the ‘Khadi spirit’ in us, we would surround ourselves with simplicity in every walk of life. The khadi spirit means illimitable patience. For those who know anything about the production of khadi know how patiently the spinners and the weavers have to toil at their trade, and even so must we have patience while we are spinning ‘the thread of Swaraj’.

The ‘khadi spirit’ means an illimitable faith.

It also means fellow-feeling with every human being on earth. It means a complete renunciation of everything that is likely to harm our fellow creatures, and if we but cultivate that spirit amongst the millions of our countrymen, what a land this India of ours would be!

And the more I move about the country and the more I see things for myself, the richer, the stronger is my faith growing in the capacity of the spinning wheel.”

As a fabric, Khadi has evolved and come a long way from its traditional form ‘Khaddar’ (which used to be rough) to what it is currently, as being very fine and comfortable. Moreover, it tends to get better and better as it is washed. Scientifically, Khadi as a cloth is best suited for a predominantly sub-tropical climatic condition, as it is prevalent in India. It is much better than cotton, and allows air to pass through, which helps in cooling down the body after sweating, especially during summers.

Clothes made out of Khadi, have always been associated with something that is being referred to as "Indian". For me, it is always worn with the underlying emotions and values. I wear Khadi because it is a symbol of self-esteem, self-efficacy and self-reliance. It stands out as a symbol of homogeneity, absence of status, simplicity, living so as to not hurt others, uniform clothing and forming an indissoluble bond between the rich and the poor; capital and the labour.