Part 5 (2/2)
_Y. I.--11th May 1921._
THE POTENCY OF THE SPINNING-WHEEL
No amount of human ingenuity can manage to distribute water over the whole land, as a shower of rain can. No irrigation department, no rules of precedence, no inspection and no water-cess. Every thing is done with an ease and a gentleness that by their very perfection evade notice. The spinning-wheel, too, has got the same power of distributing work and wealth in millions of houses in the simplest way imaginable. Those of us who do not know what it is to earn a livelihood by the sweat of one's brow, may consider the three annas a day as a pittance beneath the consideration of any man. They do not know that even in these days of high prices, there are districts in India where even three annas a day would be a boon to the poor. But we must not consider the question of the spinning-wheel merely from the point of individual earnings. The spinning-wheel is a force in national regeneration. If we wish for real Swaraj, we must achieve economic independence. Boycott of foreign cloth is its negative aspect. For this we must produce cloth sufficient to clothe the country. This can only be done by hand-spinning. All the mills that we have got, will not be able together to cope with the situation. If all rush for the thin mill-made cloth, it will rise in price beyond the capacity of the poor, and the experience of 1907-08 will be repeated. Moreover, the cloth best suited for the three seasons of India is _Khadi_. Those who have used _Khadi_ during this summer, have come to realise, that after the soft clean touch of _Khadi_ it is impossible to use sticky Malmal or twills. _Khadi_ can enable its wearer to withstand the cold of an average winter as even wool cannot. The climate of India demands that clothes be washed as often as possible.
Only _Khadi_ can stand this constant wash. _Khadi_ was once the dress of the nation at large. One must see to believe how venerable the old Patels and Deshmukhs looked when dressed in home-spun _Khadi_. There are instances of whole villages taking a legitimate pride in the fact that they had to import nothing but salt in the whole round of the six seasons. With such conditions, there could be no drain, no exploitation and therefore no Para-raj. A little village could make terms with the rulers of the land consistent with its self-respect, dignity and independence. Is our love of luxury so inveterate, that we cannot control it even for the sake of Swaraj?
_Y. I.--6th July 1921._
THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
[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 la.s.ses 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._
THE SPINNING WHEEL
[On February 15, 1922, Mahatma Gandhi has addressed the following letter to Sir Daniel Hamilton from Bardoli on the Spinning Wheel.]
DEAR SIR,
Mr. Hodge writes to me to say that you would like to have an hour's chat with me, and he has suggested that I should open the ground which I gladly do. I will not take up your time by trying to interest you in any other activity of mine except the spinning wheel. Of all my outward activities, I do believe that the spinning wheel is of the most permanent and the most beneficial. I have abundant proof now to support my statement that the spinning wheel will solve the problem of economic distress in millions of India's homes, and it const.i.tutes an effective insurance, against famines.
You know the great Scientist Dr. P. C. Ray, but you may not know that he has also become an enthusiast on behalf of the spinning wheel. India does not need to be industrialized in the modern sense of the term. It has 7,50,000 villages scattered over a vast area 1,900 miles long, 1,500 miles broad. The people are rooted to the soil, and the vast majority are living a hand-to-mouth life. Whatever may be said to the contrary, having travelled throughout the length and breadth of the land with eyes open, and having mixed with millions, there can be no doubt that pauperism is growing. There is no doubt also that the millions are living in enforced idleness for at least 4 months in the year.
Agriculture does not need revolutionary changes. The Indian peasant requires a supplementary industry. The most natural is the introduction of the spinning wheel, not the hand-loom. The latter cannot be introduced in every home, whereas the former can, and it used to be so even a century ago. It was driven out not by economic pressure but by force deliberately used as can be proved from authentic records. The restoration, therefore, of the spinning wheel solves the economic problem of India at a stroke. I know that you are a lover of India, that you are deeply interested in the economic and moral uplift of my country. I know too that you have great influence. I would like to enlist it on behalf of the spinning wheel. It is the most effective force for introducing successful Co-Operative Societies. Without honest co-operation of the millions, the enterprise can never be successful, and as it is already proving a means of weaning thousands of women from a life of shame, it is as moral an instrument as it is economic.
I hope you will not allow yourself to be prejudiced by anything you might have heard about my strange views about machinery. I have nothing to say against the development of any other industry in India by means of machinery but I do say that to supply India with cloth manufactured either outside or inside through gigantic mills is an economic blunder of the first magnitude just as it would be to supply cheap bread through huge bakeries established in the chief centres in India and to destroy the family stove.
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