“Clothing for Liberation”

Khadi was used by Gandhiji less as a garment but more as a message to Indians and British. Against the British, khadi was used as a symbol of unity, absence of status, and sign of simplicity, and uniform clothing of unity.

Gandhiji, had anticipated the impact of large-scale industrialisation and market economy that fed the Indians. He felt that such economic ethics would divide economic life and the Indian morals, and would make the chase of wealth the ultimate human goal and disturbed the man and nature; thus dividing the Indians into classes. He, therefore, supported the fact of minimum wants and insisted on; a need-based as in opposition to greed-based life. Gandhiji created the idea of “consume only what you can produce”. And he believed that production of a home spun cloth was an ideal medium for this to begin. It was a symbol for political agendas during the fight for independence in India against the British rule.  As it was primarily means to provide employment to the unemployed rural population of India at that time. They had also insisted to make the Indian flag from khadi material. Thus it holds national importance; and thus we could call it the national fabric of India.

Gandhi’s Khadi movement was the first social movement in modern India that brought poverty to centre stage of Indian consciousness and made livelihood rights an issue of mass production. Gandhiji presented khadi as a symbol of nationalism, equality and self-reliance. He believed that modernization of the society and effective Satyagraha against the foreign rule can be possible only through khadi. According to him there could be no swaraj without universal and voluntary acceptance of khadi.

Present Day Khadi

Khadi is sustainable not only because it doesn’t harm the environment, but also because it provides employment. The logic of shifting to khadi may be convincing, but its adoption has not been easy due to the reasons cited earlier. Unlike other fabrics, khadi has stood as a testament of India’s past and is proof that ‘old is truly gold’. Despite the competition from other fabrics, khadi has survived. There is often an incorrect theory that links khadi with other handloom products. What classifies khadi from handloom is that khadi is hand-spun with the help of a charkha (spinning wheel),whereas handloom yarn, on the other hand, is processed in the mill. Also khadi has a unique aspect as it keeps the wearer warm in winter and cool in summer.

Yesterday it was politics and manure; today it was spinning and textiles.

This is slow textile in the classic sense of “slow” as a response to the quick mass production of goods under globalization.