{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_41954/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_41954","id":"gutenberg_41954","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41954","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Politics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Hand spinning -- India","India -- Economic conditions","Manufactures -- India"],"text":"TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:\n\n\nThe author often uses the South Asian numbering system where, besides\nthe three least significant digits of the integer part, a comma divides\nevery two rather than every three digits (for example 10,00,000 instead\nof 1,000,000). Italic text has been marked with _underscores_.\nInconsistencies in hyphenation and spelling have not been corrected. A\nlist of corrections to the text can be found at the end of the document.\n\n\n\n\n  THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE\n\n\n\n\n  Freedom's Battle\n  Swaraj in One Year\n  Indian Home Rule\n\n  Mahatma Gandhi\n    His Life writings and speeches\n    Foreword by Mrs. Sarojini Naidu\n    3rd Edition. Revised and Enlarged\n\n\n\n\n  THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE\n\n  BY\n  MAHATMA GANDHI\n\n  Appreciation by\n  DWIJENDRANATH TAGORE\n\n\n  MADRAS\n  GANESH & CO.\n  1922\n\n\n\n\n  THE CAMBRIDGE\n  PRESS, MADRAS.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                          Page.\n  Dawn of a New Era                          ix\n\n  SWADESHI\n  Non-Co-operation Programme                  1\n  Khilafat and Swadeshi                       5\n  The Secret of Swaraj                        8\n  Swadeshi                                   16\n  Swadeshi in the Punjab                     26\n  Swadeshi Stores                            31\n  Indian Economics                           34\n  How to Boycott Foreign Cloth               44\n\n  SPINNING\n  The Music of the Spinning Wheel            53\n  \"Handlooms or Powermills?\"                 58\n  Hand-spinning and Hand-weaving             64\n  Hand-spinning again                        71\n  A Plea for Spinning                        76\n  The Duty of Spinning                       80\n  The Duty of Spinning                       83\n  The Doctrine of Charka                     85\n  The Message of the Charka                  87\n  The Charka in the Gita                     93\n  Spinning as Famine Relief                  97\n  The Potency of the Spinning Wheel         107\n  The Wheel of Fortune                      110\n  The Spinning Wheel                        116\n\n  APPENDICES\n  I.  A Model Weaving-school                123\n      Spinning Department                   133\n      The Advantage of the thin spindle     136\n      Hand-Looms                            140\n      What Kind of Loom?                    144\n      Sizing Handspun Yarn                  146\n  II. The Wheel of Fortune                  156\n\n\n\n\nDAWN OF A NEW ERA\n\n\nMany critics and some friends of Mahatma Gandhi have found fault with\nhis desire to introduce simpler methods of spinning and weaving and to\ndo away with much of the complicated machinery of Modern Civilisation.\nThe reason why they object is that they fear such methods mean not\nprogress towards a higher state but relapse into a primitive condition\nof civilisation or even of barbarism. His denunciation of the age of\nmachinery and of the Industrial System has been criticised by many as\nthe ravings of a visionary and of one who is merely an impracticable\nidealist. This is a strange criticism to come from those who give their\nallegiance to a form of civilisation or 'Culture' which has led to the\nunprecedented horrors of the late European War and the century-old\ndisgraces of the Industrial System. Is this present modern civilisation\nso very desirable that we should wish it to continue in perpetuity?\nEvery civilisation in the History of Man has reached a certain point\nafter which there has been one possibility only for it and that was\nabsolute relapse into semi-darkness in order to give place to a new and\nhigher civilisation. The common starting point of all the civilisations\nis a kind of night-time. In order that the Babylonian (or Despotic)\nCivilisation might give way to the Roman (or Heroic), and the Roman give\nway to the Modern (or Intellectual) Civilisation, it was necessary for\neach in turn to sink completely into this common night-time. Without\nthis entire destruction of the ancient structure, there would have been\nonly a patchwork of the old, and not a harmonious building of the New.\nAs Christ said: \"Ye cannot put old wine into new bottles.\" The debris of\nthe Past has to be cleared away in order to make way for the structure\nof the Future. Now with regard to Modern Civilisation, all the signs of\nthe times show that it has failed lamentably and is gradually tottering\nto a dishonoured grave. Why make any attempts to prop up what Nature so\nevidently has decided to throw on the scrap-heap? Such attempts are\ncontrary to the teaching of past history. But anything, which tends to\nreach the common roots of all civilisations, should be encouraged. In\norder that the spiritual civilisation of the Future may have a real\nchance of growing in an atmosphere congenial to it, Mahatma Gandhi's\ndemonstration of the right path should be welcomed. His emphasis on\nsimplicity of life and on the simplification of the machinery of living\nmust be realised as a supremely essential condition of the coming of the\nnew Era. In the civilisation of the Future, an Era of natural harmonious\nliving will be inaugurated, and artificial, luxurious and pompous living\nwill be entirely rooted out.\n\nSimplicity of life being a condition of spiritual perfection, we may\nlook forward to an Era of Civilisation in the Future, greatly superior\nto all the civilisations of the Past, if only we accept simplicity of\nlife as the best method of living. The failure and decline of Western\nor Modern Civilisation need not alarm us; for the experience of History\nis full of similar declines of once powerful cultures. When Babylonian\nCivilisation had reached its height, it had to come down to what we may\nterm the zero-point of all civilisation from which Roman Civilisation\nhad made its start. But when Roman Civilisation had reached its zenith,\nit was much superior to the zenith Civilisation of Babylon, as the\nzenith Babylonian was superior to the zero-civilisation. And so also of\nfull-fledged Modern Civilisation. We may say that until it returns to\nthe common zero-point, there is no hope of a full and perfect\ndevelopment of a civilisation moulded by spiritual ideals.\n\nLet critics of Mahatma Gandhi then look to History before they condemn\nhim for trying to bring this much belauded Modern Civilisation down to\nthe common starting point of all great civilisations. We are at the dawn\nof a New Era, and Mahatma Gandhi is the one leader who shows to us the\nright path. He at least is watering the roots, while all others who try\nto keep alive the Civilisation of the Western nations are like foolish\ngardeners who lavish water on the withering leaves of a dying tree and\nnever think of watering its roots.\n\n\n\n\nSWADESHI\n\n\n\n\nTHE WHEEL OF FORTUNE\n\n\n\n\nBOYCOTT OF GOODS\n\n_vs._\n\nNON-CO-OPERATION PROGRAMME\n\n\nMr. Kasturi Ranga Aiyangar was pleased to answer my argument in favour\nof the details of the first stage of non-co-operation that I had the\nhonour of explaining at the great Madras Beach meeting. He expressed his\ndissent from all but the renunciation of titles. He suggested boycott of\nforeign goods in the place of the other items. Even at the risk of\nrepeating arguments familiar to the readers of \"Young India\", I must\ndeal with the question of boycott which has now received the imprimatur\nof so able a publicist as Mr. Kasturi Ranga Aiyangar.\n\nIn the first place, boycott of British goods has been conceived as a\npunishment and can have no place in non-co-operation which is conceived\nin a spirit of self-sacrifice and is a matter of sacred duty.\n\nSecondly, any measure of punishment must be swift, certain and adequate\nfor the effect intended to be produced. Resorted to by individuals,\ntherefore, boycott is ineffectual, for, it can give no satisfaction\nunless it is productive of effect, whereas every act of non-co-operation\nis its own satisfaction.\n\nThirdly, boycott of British goods is thoroughly unpractical, for, it\ninvolves sacrifice of their millions by millionaires. It is in my\nopinion infinitely more difficult for a merchant to sacrifice his\nmillions than for a lawyer to suspend his practice or for a title-holder\nto give up his title or for a parent to sacrifice, if need be, the\nliterary instruction of his children. Add to this the important fact\nthat merchants have only lately begun to interest themselves in\npolitics. They are therefore yet timid and cautious. But the class, to\nwhich the first stage of non-co-operation is intended to appeal, is the\npolitical class which has devoted years to politics and is not mentally\nunprepared for communal sacrifice.\n\nBoycott of British goods to be effective must be taken up by the whole\ncountry at once or not at all. It is like a siege. You can carry out a\nsiege only when you have the requisite men and instruments of\ndestruction. One man scratching a wall with his finger nails may hurt\nhis fingers but will produce no effect upon the walls. One title-holder\ngiving up his title has the supreme satisfaction of having washed his\nhands clean of the guilt of the donor and is unaffected by the refusal\nof his fellows to give up theirs. The motive of boycott being punitive\nlacks the inherent practicability of non-co-operation. The spirit of\npunishment is a sign of weakness. A strengthening of that spirit will\nretard the process of regeneration. The spirit of sacrifice is a\ndetermination to rid ourselves of our weakness. It is therefore an\ninvigorating and purifying process and is therefore also calculated to\ndo good both to us and to those who evoke the spirit of sacrifice in us.\nAbove all, if India has a mission of her own, she will not fulfil it by\ncopying the doubtful example of the West and making even her sacrifice\nmaterialistically utilitarian instead of offering a sacrifice spotless\nand pleasing even in the sight of God.\n\n\n\n\nKHILAFAT AND SWADESHI\n\n\nIt was not without much misgiving that I consented to include Swadeshi\nas a plank in non-co-operation. But Maulana Hasrat Mohani by his sheer\nearnestness bore me down. I fear however that his reasons for including\nSwadeshi are different from mine. He is a protagonist of boycott of\nBritish goods, I cannot reconcile myself to the doctrine as I have\nexplained elsewhere in this issue. But having failed to popularise\nboycott, Mohani Saheb has accepted Swadeshi as the lesser good. It is\nhowever necessary for me to explain how I have come to include Swadeshi\nin the programme of non-co-operation.\n\nNon-co-operation is nothing but discipline in self-sacrifice. And I\nbelieve that a nation that is capable of limitless sacrifice is capable\nof rising to limitless heights. The purer the sacrifice the quicker the\nprogress. Swadeshi offers every man, woman and child an occasion to\nmake a beginning in self-sacrifice of a pure type. It therefore presents\nan opportunity for testing our capacity for sacrifice. It is the measure\nfor gauging the depth of national feeling on the Khilafat wrong. Does\nthe nation feel sufficiently to move it to go through even the\npreliminary process of sacrifice? Will the nation revise its taste for\nthe Japanese silk, the Manchester calico or the French lace and find all\nits decoration out of hand-spun and hand-woven cloth, i.e., Khadi? If\ncrores of people will refuse to wear or use foreign cloth and be\nsatisfied with the simple cloth that we can produce in our homes, it\nwill be proof of our organising ability, energy, co-operation and\nself-sacrifice that will enable us to secure all we need. It will be a\nstriking demonstration of national solidarity.\n\nSuch a consummation cannot be achieved for the mere wish. It cannot be\nachieved by one man, no matter how capable and sincere he may be. It\ncannot be achieved by dotting India with Swadeshi stores. It can only be\nachieved by new production and judicious distribution. Production means\nlacs of women spinning in their own homes. This requires earnest men to\nbe engaged in honestly distributing carded cotton and collecting yarn\nand paying for it. It means manufacture of thousands of spinning wheels.\nIt means inducing the hereditary weavers to return to their noble\ncalling and distributing home-spun yarn amongst them and selling their\nmanufactures. It is thus only as an energising agent that I can think of\nSwadeshi as a plank in non-co-operation. But it is not to be despised in\nthat capacity. And I hope that every worker for the cause, even if he\ncan do nothing else, will have done something if he can advance Swadeshi\nfirst by increasing production and then distribution. He would be simply\nmoving in a circle if he is satisfied with distributing cloth that is\nalready being manufactured in India.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SECRET OF SWARAJ\n\n\nThe Congress resolution has rightly emphasised the importance of\nSwadeshi and the amount of greater sacrifice by merchants.\n\nIndia cannot be free so long as India voluntarily encourages or\ntolerates the economic drain which has been going on for the past\ncentury and a half. Boycott of foreign goods means no more and no less\nthan boycott of foreign cloth. Foreign cloth constitutes the largest\ndrain voluntarily permitted by us. It means sixty crores of rupees\nannually paid by us for piece-goods. If India could make a successful\neffort to stop that drain, she can gain Swaraj by that one act.\n\nIndia was enslaved for satisfying the greed of the foreign cloth\nmanufacturer. When the East India Company came in, we were able to\nmanufacture all the cloth we needed, and more for export. By processes\nthat need not be described here, India has become practically wholly\ndependent upon foreign manufacture for her clothing.\n\nBut we ought not to be dependent. India has the ability to manufacture\nall her cloth if her children will work for it. Fortunately India has\nyet enough weavers to supplement the out-turn of her mills. The mills do\nnot and cannot immediately manufacture all the cloth we want. The reader\nmay not know that, even at the present moment, the weavers weave more\ncloth than the mills. But the latter weave five crore yards of fine\nforeign counts, equal to forty crore yards of coarser counts. The way to\ncarry out a successful boycott of foreign cloth is to increase the\nout-put of yarn. And this can only be done by hand-spinning.\n\nTo bring about such a boycott, it is necessary for our merchants to stop\nall foreign importation, and to sell out, even at a loss, all foreign\ncloth already stocked in India, preferably to foreign buyers. They must\ncease to speculate in cotton, and keep all the cotton required for home\nuse. They must stop purchasing all foreign cotton.\n\nThe mill-owners should work their mills not for their profits but as a\nnational trust and therefore cease to spin finer counts, and weave only\nfor the home market.\n\nThe householder has to revise his or her ideas of fashion and, at least\nfor the time being, suspend the use of fine garments which are not\nalways worn to cover the body. He should train himself to see art and\nbeauty in the spotlessly white _khaddar_ and to appreciate its soft\nunevenness. The householder must learn to use cloth as a miser uses his\nhoard.\n\nAnd even when the householders have revised their tastes about dress,\nsomebody will have to spin yarn for the weavers. This can only be done\nby every one spinning during spare hours either for love or money.\n\nWe are engaged in a spiritual war. We are not living in normal times.\nNormal activities are always suspended in abnormal times. And if we are\nout to gain _Swaraj_ in a year's time, it means that we must\nconcentrate upon our goal to the exclusion of every thing else. I\ntherefore venture to suggest to the students all over India to suspend\ntheir normal studies for one year and devote their time to the\nmanufacture of yarn by hand-spinning. It will be their greatest act of\nservice to the motherland, and their most natural contribution to the\nattainment of _Swaraj_. During the late war our rulers attempted to turn\nevery factory into an arsenal for turning out bullets of lead. During\nthis war of ours, I suggest every national school and college being\nturned into a factory for preparing cones of yarns for the nation. The\nstudents will lose nothing by the occupation: they will gain a kingdom\nhere and hereafter. There is a famine of cloth in India. To assist in\nremoving this dearth is surely an act of merit. If it is sinful to use\nforeign yarn, it is a virtue to manufacture more Swadeshi yarn in order\nto enable us to cope with the want that would be created by the disuse\nof foreign yarn.\n\nThe obvious question asked would be, if it is so necessary to\nmanufacture yarn, why not pay every poor person to do so? The answer is\nthat hand spinning is not, and never was, a calling like weaving,\ncarpentry, etc. Under the pre-British economy of India, spinning was an\nhonourable and leisurely occupation for the women of India. It is\ndifficult to revive the art among the women in the time at our disposal.\nBut it is incredibly simple and easy for the school-goers to respond to\nthe nation's call. Let no one decry the work as being derogatory to the\ndignity of man or students. It was an art confined to the women of India\nbecause the latter had more leisure. And being graceful, musical, and as\nit did not involve any great exertion, it had become the monopoly of\nwomen. But it is certainly as graceful for either sex as is music for\ninstance. In hand-spinning is hidden the protection of women's virtue,\nthe insurance against famine, and the cheapening of prices. In it is\nhidden the secret of _Swaraj_. The revival of hand spinning is the least\npenance we must do for the sin of our forefathers in having succumbed\nto the satanic influences of the foreign manufacturer.\n\nThe school-goers will restore hand-spinning to its respectable status.\nThey will hasten the process of making _Khaddar_ fashionable. For no\nmother, or father, worth the name will refuse to wear cloth made out of\nyarn spun by their children. And the scholars' practical recognition of\nart will compel the attention of the weavers of India. If we are to wean\nthe Punjabi from the calling not of a soldier but of the murderer of\ninnocent and free people of other lands, we must give back to him the\noccupation of weaving. The race of the peaceful Julahis of the Punjab is\nall but extinct. It is for the scholars of the Punjab to make it\npossible for the Punjabi weaver to return to his innocent calling.\n\nI hope to show in a future issue how easy it is to introduce this change\nin the schools and how quickly, on these terms, we can nationalise our\nschools and colleges. Everywhere the students have asked me what new\nthings I would introduce into our nationalised schools. I have\ninvariably told them I would certainly introduce spinning. I feel, so\nmuch more clearly than ever before that during the transition period, we\nmust devote exclusive attention to spinning and certain other things of\nimmediate national use, so as to make up for past neglect. And the\nstudents will be better able and equipped to enter upon the new course\nof studies.\n\nDo I want to put back the hand of the clock of progress? Do I want to\nreplace the mills by hand-spinning and hand-weaving? Do I want to\nreplace the railway by the country cart? Do I want to destroy machinery\naltogether? These questions have been asked by some journalists and\npublic men. My answer is: I would not weep over the disappearance of\nmachinery or consider it a calamity. But I have no design upon machinery\nas such. What I want to do at the present moment is to supplement the\nproduction of yarn and cloth through our mills, save the millions we\nsend out of India, and distribute them in our cottages. This I cannot do\nunless and until the nation is prepared to devote its leisure hours to\nhand-spinning. To that end we must adopt the methods I have ventured to\nsuggest for popularising spinning as a duty rather than as a means of\nlivelihood.\n\n\n\n\nSWADESHI\n\n\nIn criticising my article entitled 'The Music of the Spinning Wheel!'\nthe \"Leader\" the other day attributed to me the ideas that I have never\nentertained. And it is necessary for the purpose of understanding the\ntrue value of Swadeshi, to correct some of the current fallacies. The\n_Leader_ considers that I am putting back the hands of the clock of\nprogress by attempting to replace mill-made cloth and mill-spun yarn by\nhand-woven and hand-spun yarn. Now, I am making no such attempt at all.\nI have no quarrel with the mills. My views are incredibly simple. India\nrequires nearly 13 yards of cloth per head per year. She produces, I\nbelieve, less than half the amount. India grows all the cotton she\nneeds. She exports several million bales of cotton to Japan and\nLancashire and receives much of it back in manufactured calico although\nshe is capable of producing all the cloth and all the yarn necessary for\nsupplying her wants by hand-weaving and hand-spinning. India needs to\nsupplement her main occupation, agriculture, with some other employment.\nHand-spinning is the only such employment for millions. It was the\nnational employment a century ago. It is not true to say that economic\npressure and modern machinery destroyed hand-spinning and hand-weaving.\nThis great industry was destroyed or almost destroyed by extraordinary\nand immoral means adopted by the East India Company. This national\nindustry is capable of being revived by exertion and a change in the\nnational taste without damaging the mill industry. Increase of mills is\nno present remedy for supplying the deficiency. The difficulty can be\neasily supplied only by hand-spinning and hand-weaving. If this\nemployment were revived, it would prevent sixty million rupees from\nbeing annually drained from the country and distribute the amount among\nlacs of poor women in their own cottages. I therefore consider Swadeshi\nas an automatic, though partial, solution of the problem of India's\ngrinding poverty. It also constitutes a ready-made insurance policy in\ntimes of scarcity of rain.\n\nBut two things are needful to bring about the needed revival--to create\na taste for Khaddar and to provide an organisation for the distribution\nof carded cotton and collection of yarn against payment.\n\nIn one year, by the silent labour of a few men, several thousand rupees\nhave been distributed in Gujarat among several thousand poor women who\nare glad enough to earn a few pice per day to buy milk for their\nchildren, etc.\n\nThe argument does not apply to the sugar industry as the \"Leader\" has\nattempted. There is not sufficient cane grown in India to supply India's\nwants. Sugar was never a national and supplementary industry. Foreign\nsugar has not supplanted Indian sugar. India's wants of sugar have grown\nand she therefore imports more sugar. But this importation does not\ninstitute a drain in the sense in which importation of foreign cloth\ndoes. Production of more sugar means more scientific agriculture, more\nand better machinery for crushing and refining. The sugar industry\ntherefore stands on a different platform. Swadeshi in sugar is\ndesirable, Swadeshi in cloth is an urgent necessity.\n\nThe Swadeshi propaganda has been going on in a more or less organised\nmanner now for the past eighteen months. Some of its results are\nsurprising and gratifying. It has taken a fairly firm hold in the\nPunjab, Madras and the Bombay Presidency. Hand spinning and hand-weaving\nare steadily increasing in these parts. Several thousand rupees have\nbeen distributed in homes where women never did any work before. And if\nmore work of this kind has not been done, it is due to want of workers.\n\nThis is however written more to note the mistakes of the past than to\nsum up the bright side. My observations lead me to the conclusion that\nwhilst the inauguration of the three vows and Swadeshi stores have\ngreatly stimulated the Swadeshi spirit, it is no longer possible to\nadvocate the taking of any of the three vows or the opening of new\nSwadeshi stores for the sale of mill-made cloth. The result of the\npropaganda has been to send up the prices of yarn and cloth rather than\nincrease production. It is clear that the purpose of Swadeshi is not\nserved until the quantity of yarn and cloth produced is increased. The\ngain therefore is merely moral and not material. The people have begun\nto perceive the desirability of wearing only Swadeshi cloth if the real\ninterest of the country is to be advanced.\n\nBut it is clear that we must take practical steps for meeting the\ngrowing demand for Swadeshi cloth. One way, no doubt, is to increase the\nmills. But it is obvious that capitalists do not need popular\nencouragement. They know that India needs much more cloth than is\nmanufactured by our mills. But mills do not spring up like mushrooms. It\nis a matter of getting machinery from outside, let alone the difficulty\nof getting labour. And after all, India cannot become truly and\neconomically independent so long as she must rely on the supply of\nmachinery from outside for the manufacture of her cloth.\n\nThe cleanest and the most popular form of Swadeshi, therefore, is to\nstimulate hand-spinning and hand-weaving and to arrange for a judicious\ndistribution of yarn and cloth so manufactured. With a little talent and\na little industry this thing is easy. Even as each home cooks its own\nfood without difficulty, so may each home weave its own yarn. And just\nas in spite of every home having its own kitchen, restaurants continue\nto flourish, so will mills continue to supply our additional wants. But\neven as because of our private kitchens we would not starve if every\nrestaurant was through some accident closed, so would we, by reason of\ndomestic spinning, not have to be naked even if every mill, by a\nblockade from the west, had to stop work. Not long ago, we knew this\nsecret of our own economic independence and it is possible for us to\nregain that independence by a little effort, a little organising agency\nand a little sacrifice.\n\nTherefore true Swadeshi consists in introducing the spinning wheel in\nevery household and every household spinning its own yarn. Many a\nPunjabi woman does it to-day. And though we may not supply our own cloth\nentirely, we shall be saving yearly crores of rupees. In any event there\nis no other Swadeshi than increased manufacture by hand-spinning and\nhand-weaving. Whether we take up hand-spinning and hand-weaving or we do\nnot, it is at least necessary to understand what true Swadeshi is.\n\n_How to kill swadeshi_--We are familiar with the official ban put upon\nthe _Khadi_ cap in various parts of India. In Bihar, I heard that a\nmagistrate actually sent hawkers to sell foreign cloth. Mr. Painter of\nDharwar fame has gone one better, and has issued an official circular in\nwhich he says:\n\n\"All officers subordinate to the Collector and District Magistrate are\ndesired to take steps to make people realise, that in as much as India\nproduces less than her population requires, a boycott of foreign cloth\nand its destruction or export must inevitably lead to a serious rise in\nprices, which may lead to a serious disorder and looting, and that these\nconsequences will be the result, not of any action on the part of\nGovernment but of Mr. Gandhi's campaign.\"\n\nIn two other paragraphs means are indicated of combating the Swadeshi\npropaganda _i.e._ by holding meetings, and by dealers who are opposed to\nboycott attending the Collector's office at stated hours. The Madras\nGovernment have issued a still more pedantic circular. The meaning of\nthese circulars is obvious. Pressure is to be put upon the dealers and\nothers not to countenance boycott. The subordinate officials will take\nliberties which the authors of circulars may not even have contemplated.\nFortunately for the country, these threats now produce little or no\nimpression upon the public, and the Swadeshi movement will go on in the\nteeth of the official opposition, be it secret or open, unscrupulous or\nhonourable.\n\nThe officials are so ignorant and obstinate, that they will not take the\nonly effective course for avoiding the feared 'disorders and looting,'\n_viz._ making common cause with the public and stimulating production.\nInstead of recognising the agitation against foreign cloth as desirable\nand necessary, they regard it as an evil to be put down. And then it is\ncomplained, that I call a system which seeks to thwart healthy public\nagitation, satanic. Why should there be any dearth of indigenous cloth?\nIs there not enough cotton in India? Are there not enough men and women\nwho can spin and weave? Is it not possible to manufacture all the\nrequired number of wheels in a few days? Why should not each home\nmanufacture its own cloth, even as it cooks its own food? Is it not\nenough in times of famine to distribute uncooked grain among the\nfamine-striken? Why should it not be enough to distribute raw cotton\namong those who need clothing? Why this hypocritical or false alarm\nabout the dearth of cloth, when it is possible in India to manufacture\nenough for India's needs in a month even without the aid of the mills?\nThe people have been purposely or ignorantly kept in the dark hitherto.\nThey have been wrongly taught to believe, that all the cloth needed\ncannot be manufactured in India's homes as of yore. They have been\nfiguratively amputated and then made to rely upon foreign or mill-made\ncloth. I wish the people concerned will give the only dignified answer\npossible to these circulars. They will forthwith burn or send out all\ntheir foreign cloth, and courageously make up their minds to spin and\nweave for their own requirements. It is incredibly easy for every one\nwho is not an idler.\n\n     _Y. I.--18th Aug, 1920._\n\n\n\n\nSWADESHI IN THE PUNJAB\n\n\nThe Joint Secretaries of the Bharat Stri Maha Mandal, Punjab Branch,\nsend a report of the Swadeshi activities of Shrimati Saraladevi\nChaudhrani ever since her return to Lahore from Bombay. Miss Roy and\nMrs. Roshandal, the Secretaries, state that meetings of women were held\nrespectively on the 23rd, 24th and 25th June at three different places\nin Lahore. All the meetings were attended by hundreds of women who were\ndeeply interested in what Shrimati Saraladevi had to say. The burden of\nher discourses was India's deep poverty. She traced the causes and\nproved that our poverty was primarily due to the abandonment of Swadeshi\nby the people. The remedy therefore lay in reverting to Swadeshi.\n\nSaraladevi herself writes to say that her Khaddar Sari impressed her\naudiences more than her speeches, and her songs came next, her speeches\nlast. The good ladies of Lahore flocked round her and felt her coarse\nbut beautifully white Sari and admired it. Some took pity on her that\nshe who only the other day was dressed in costly thin silk Saris now\ndecked herself in hand-woven Swadeshi Khaddar. Saraladevi wanted no pity\nand retorted that their thin foreign scarves lay heavier on their\nshoulders with the weight of their helpless dependence on foreign\nmanufacture whereas her coarse Khaddar lay light as a feather on her\nbody with the joy of the knowledge that she was free because she wore\ngarments in the manufacture of which her sisters and her brothers had\nlaboured. This statement so pleased her audience that most of the women\npresent resolved to discard foreign clothes. Saraladevi has now been\ncharged by these ladies to open a shop where they could buy Swadeshi\ngoods. She has since addressed more audiences. She spoke at the District\nConference at Sialkot and to a meeting exclusively devoted to ladies\nnumbering over one thousand. I hope that the men of Punjab will help\nSaraladevi in her self-imposed mission. They may harness her talents and\nher willingness in founding Swadeshi Sabha and organising Swadeshi\npropaganda on a sound basis. Both men and money are needed to make the\nwork a success.\n\nSwadeshi is more than reforms. There is much waste over reforms. There\nis none in Swadeshi. Every yard of yarn spun is so much labour well\nspent and so much wealth added to the national treasury. Every drop\ncounts. Swadeshi spells first production and then distribution.\nDistribution without production means the raising of prices without any\ncorresponding benefit. For to-day demand exceeds the supply. If we will\nnot manufacture more cloth, more foreign imports must continue a painful\nand sinful necessity.\n\nPunjab has a great opportunity. Punjab grows splendid cotton. The art of\nspinning has not yet died out. Almost every Punjabi woman knows it. This\nsacred haunt of the Rishis of old has thousands of weavers. Only the\nleaders need to have faith in their women and themselves. When\nSaraladevi wrote to me that she might want goods from Bombay, I felt\nhurt. The Punjab has all the time and all the labour and the material\nnecessary for producing her own cloth. She has brave merchants. She has\nmore than enough capital. She has brains. Has she the will? She can\norganise her own Swadeshi in less than a year, if the leaders will work\nat this great cause. It is playing with Swadeshi for the Punjab to have\nto import cloth from Bombay.\n\nThe Punjab has to right herself by putting her Swadeshi on a proper\nbasis and by ridding herself of Messrs. Bosworth Smith and Company. She\nwill then be both economically and politically sound. Geographically she\nstands at the top. She led the way in the older times. Will she again do\nso? Her men are virile to look at. Have they virility enough to secure\nwithout a moment's delay purity of administration? I have not strayed\nfrom Swadeshi to politics. My Swadeshi spirit makes me impatient of\ngarments that denude India of her wealth and equally impatient of the\nSmiths, the O'Briens, the Shri Rams and the Maliks who denude her of her\nself-respect and insolently touch women's veils with their sticks, chain\ninnocent men as if they were beasts, or shoot them from armoured cars or\notherwise terrorise people into subjection.\n\n     _Y. I.--7th July 1920._\n\n\n\n\nSWADESHI STORES\n\n\nIn a previous issue I endeavoured to show how stores for the sake of\nselling mill-manufactures did not advance Swadeshi in any way whatsoever\nbut on the contrary, tended to send up the price of cloth. I propose to\nshow in this article how with a small capital, it is possible to advance\ntrue Swadeshi and earn a modest livelihood.\n\nSuppose that there is a family consisting of husband, wife and two\nchildren one of whom is ten years old and the other five. If they have a\ncapital of Rs. 500 they can manage a Khaddar Bhandar in a small way.\nThey can hire, say in a place with a population of 20,000 inhabitants a\nshop with dwelling rooms for Rs. 10 per month. If they sell the whole of\nthe stock at 10 p.c. profit they can have Rs. 50 per month. They have no\nservants. The wife and the children in their spare time would be\nexpected to help in keeping the shop tidy and looking after it when the\nhusband is out. The wife and children can also devote their spare time\nto spinning.\n\nIn the initial stages the Khaddar may not sell at the shop. In that case\nthe husband is expected to hawk the Khaddar from door to door and\npopularise it. He will soon find a custom for it.\n\nThe reader must not be surprised at my suggesting 10 p.c. profits. The\nKhaddar Bhandars are not designed for the poorest. The use of Khaddar\nsaves at least half the cost not necessarily because the Khaddar is more\ndurable (though that it certainly is) but because its use revolutionises\nour tastes. I know what saving of money its use has meant to me. Those,\nwho buy Khaddar from patriotic motives merely, can easily afford to pay\n10 p.c. profits on Khaddar. Lastly the popularising of Khaddar means\nmuch care, devotion and labour. And the owner of a Khaddar Bhandar does\nnot buy it at a wholesale shop but he must wander to get the best\nKhaddar, he must meet the local weavers and induce them to weave hand\nspun yarn. He must stimulate in his own district hand spinning among its\nwomen. He must come in touch with the carders and get them to card\ncotton. All this means intelligence, organisation and great ability. A\nman who can exhibit these qualities has a right to take 10 p.c. profits.\nAnd a Swadeshi Bhandar conducted on these lines becomes a true centre of\nSwadeshi activity. I commend my remarks to the attention of the managers\nof Swadeshi stores that are already in existence. They may not\nrevolutionise their method at once but I have no doubt that they will\nadvance Swadeshi only to the extent that they sell Khaddar.\n\n     _Y. I.--7th July, 1920._\n\n\n\n\nINDIAN ECONOMICS\n\n\nA friend has placed in my hands a bulletin on Indian Piece Goods Trade\nprepared by Mr. A. C. Coubrough C. B. E. by order of the Government of\nIndia. It contains the following prefatory note: 'The Government of\nIndia desire it to be understood that the statements made and the views\nexpressed in this bulletin are those of the author himself.' If so, why\nhas the Government of India burdened the tax-payer with the expense of\nsuch bulletins? The one before me is 16th in the series. Do they publish\nboth the sides of the question?\n\nThe bulletin under review is intended to be an answer to the Swadeshi\nmovement. It is an elaborate note containing a number of charts showing\nthe condition of imports and home manufacture of piece goods including\nhand-woven. But it does not assist the reader in studying the movement.\nThe painstaking author has bestowed no pains upon a study of the\npresent movement or its scope. That the Government of India treats the\ngreatest constructive and co-operative movement in the country with\nsupreme contempt and devotes people's money to a vain refutation instead\nof a sympathetic study and treatment is perhaps the best condemnation\nthat can be pronounced upon the system under which it is carried.\n\nThe author's argument is:\n\n(1) The movement if successful will act not as a protective but a\nprohibitive tariff.\n\n(2) This must result in merely enriching the Indian capitalist and\npunishing the consumer.\n\n(3) The imports are non-competitive in that the bulk of the kind of\npiece goods imported are not manufactured in India.\n\n(4) The result of boycotting such piece goods must be high prices\nwithout corresponding benefit.\n\n(5) The boycott therefore being against the law of supply and demand and\nagainst the consumer must fail in the end.\n\n(6) The destruction of hand spinning which I have deplored is due to\nnatural causes, _viz._ the invention of time-saving appliances and was\ntherefore inevitable.\n\n(7) The Indian farmer is responsible for his own ruin in that he has\nindolently neglected cotton culture which was once so good.\n\n(8) The best service I can render is therefore to induce the\nagriculturist to improve the quality of cotton.\n\n(9) The author concludes, 'If instead of filling homes with useless\n_Charkhas_ he were to start a propaganda for the more intensive\ncultivation of cotton and particularly for the production of longer\nstaple cotton, his influence would be felt not only at the present day\nbut for many generations to come.'\n\nThe reader will thus see, that what I regard as the supreme necessity\nfor the economical salvation of India, the author considers to be rank\nfolly. There is therefore no meeting ground here. And in spite of the\nprefatory note of the Government of India reproduced by me, the author\ndoes represent the Government attitude. I have invited them and the\nco-operators definitely to make common cause with the people in this\nmovement at any rate. They may not mind its political implications\nbecause they do not believe in them. And surely they need not feel sorry\nif contrary to their expectation, the rise of the _Charkha_ results in\nan increase in the political power of the people. Instead of waging war\nagainst _Khadi_, they might have popularised its use and disarmed the\nterrible suspicion they labour under of wishing to benefit the foreign\nmanufacturer at the expense of the Indian cultivator. My invitation is\nopen for all time. I prophesy that whatever happens to the other parts\nof the national programme, Swadeshi in its present shape will bide for\never and must if India's pauperism is to be banished.\n\nEven though I am a layman, I make bold to say that the so-called laws\nlaid down in books on economics are not immutable like the laws of Medes\nand Persians, nor are they universal. The economics of England are\ndifferent from those of Germany. Germany enriched herself by bounty-fed\nbeet sugar. England enriched herself by exploiting foreign markets. What\nwas possible for a compact area is not possible for an area 1,900 miles\nlong and 1,500 broad. The economics of a nation are determined by its\nclimatic, geological and temperamental conditions. The Indian conditions\nare different from the English in all these essentials. What is meat for\nEngland is in many cases poison for India. Beef tea in the English\nclimate may be good, it is poison for the hot climate of religious\nIndia. Fiery whisky in the north of the British Isles may be a\nnecessity, it renders an Indian unfit for work or society. Fur-coats in\nScotland are indispensable, they will be an intolerable burden in India.\nFree trade for a country which has become industrial, whose population\ncan and does live in cities, whose people do not mind preying upon other\nnations and therefore sustain the biggest navy to protect their\nunnatural commerce, may be economically sound (though as the reader\nperceives, I question its morality). Free trade for India has proved\nher curse and held her in bondage.\n\nAnd now for Mr. Coubrough's propositions.\n\n(1) The movement is intended to serve the purpose of a voluntary\nprohibitive tariff.\n\n(2) But it is so conceived as neither unduly to benefit the capitalist\nnor to injure the consumer. During the very brief transition stage the\nprices of home manufactures may be, as they are, inflated. But the rise\ncan only be temporary as the vast majority of consumers must become\ntheir own manufacturers. This cottage manufacture of yarn and cloth\ncannot be expensive even as domestic cookery is not expensive and cannot\nbe replaced by hotel cookery. Over twenty-five crores of the population\nwill be doing their own hand-spinning and having yarn thus manufactured\nwoven in neighbouring localities. This population is rooted to the soil\nand has at least four months in the year to remain idle.\n\nIf they spin during those hours and have the yarn woven and wear it, no\nmill-made cloth can compete with their _Khadi_. The cloth thus\nmanufactured will be the cheapest possible for them. If the rest of the\npopulation did not take part in the process, it could easily be supplied\nout of the surplus manufactured by the twenty-five crores.\n\n(3) It is true that non-competitive imports are larger than those that\ncompete with the manufactures of Indian mills. In the scheme proposed by\nme the question does not arise, because the central idea is not so much\nto carry on a commercial war against foreign countries as to utilise the\nidle hours of the nation and thus by natural processes to help it to get\nrid of her growing pauperism.\n\n(4) I have already shown that the result of boycott cannot in the end be\na rise in the price of cloth.\n\n(5) The proposed boycott is not against the law of supply and demand,\nbecause it does away with the law by manufacturing enough for the\nsupply. The movement does require a change of taste on the part of those\nwho have adopted finer variety and who patronise fantastic combinations\nof colours and designs.\n\n(6) I have shown in these pages, that the destruction of hand-spinning\nwas designed and carried out in a most inhuman manner by the agents of\nthe East India Company. No amount of appliances would ever have\ndisplaced this national art and industry but for this artificial and\nsystematically cruel manner of carrying out the destruction.\n\n(7) I am unable to hold the Indian farmer responsible for the\ndeterioration in cotton culture. The whole incentive was taken away when\nhand-spinning was destroyed. The State never cared for the cultivator.\n\n(8) My activity, I am proud to think, has already turned the\ncultivator's attention to the improvement of cotton. The artistic sense\nof the nation will insist on fine counts for which long staple is a\nnecessity. Cotton culture by itself cannot solve the problem of India's\npoverty. For it will still leave the question of enforced idleness\nuntouched.\n\n(9) I therefore claim for the _Charkha_ the honour of being able to\nsolve the problem of economic distress in a most natural, simple,\nunexpensive and business-like manner. The _Charkha_, therefore, is not\nonly not useless as the writer ignorantly suggests, but it is a useful\nand indispensable article for every home. It is the symbol of the\nnation's prosperity and therefore, freedom. It is a symbol not of\ncommercial war but of commercial peace. It bears not a message of\nill-will towards the nations of the earth but of good-will and\nself-help. It will not need the protection of a navy threatening a\nworld's peace and exploiting its resources, but it needs the religious\ndetermination of millions to spin their yarn in their own homes as\nto-day they cook their food in their own homes. I may deserve the curses\nof posterity for many mistakes of omission and commission but I am\nconfident of earning its blessings for suggesting a revival of the\n_Charkha_. I stake my all on it. For every revolution of the wheel spins\npeace, good-will and love. And with all that, inasmuch as the loss of\nit brought about India's slavery, its voluntary revival with all its\nimplications must mean India's freedom.\n\n     _Y. I.--8th Dec. 1921._\n\n\n\n\nHOW TO BOYCOTT FOREIGN CLOTH\n\n\nIt is needless to say at this time of the day, that the proposed boycott\nof foreign cloth is not a vindictive measure, but is as necessary for\nnational existence as breath is for life. The quicker, therefore, it can\nbe brought about, the better for the country. Without it, Swaraj cannot\nbe established or retained after establishment. It is of the highest\nimportance to know how it can be brought about even before the first day\nof August next.\n\nTo arrive at the boycott quickly, it is necessary (1) for the\nmill-owners to regulate their profits and to manufacture principally for\nthe Indian market, (2) for importers to cease to buy foreign goods. A\nbeginning has already been made by three principal merchants, (3) for\nthe consumers to refuse to buy any foreign cloth and to buy _Khadi_\nwherever possible, (4) for the consumers to wear only _Khadi_ cloth,\nmill cloth being retained for the poor who do not know the distinction\nbetween Swadeshi and Pardeshi, (5) for the consumers to use, till Swaraj\nis established and _Khadi_ manufacture increased, _Khadi_ just enough\nfor covering the body, (6) for the consumers to destroy Pardeshi cloth,\nas they would destroy intoxicating liquors on taking the vow of\nabstinence, or to sell it for use abroad, or to wear it out for all\ndirty work or during private hours.\n\nIt is to be hoped that all the parties referred to in the foregoing\nclauses will respond well and simultaneously. But in the end success\ndepends upon the persistent determination of the consumer. He has simply\nto decline to wear the badge of his slavery.\n\n_Abusing the khaddar_--A friend draws attention to the fact that many\nwho have adopted the _khaddar_ costume are using it as a passport for\narrogance, insolence, and, what is worse, fraud. He says that they have\nneither the spirit of non-co-operation in them nor the spirit of truth.\nThey simply use the _khaddar_ dress as a cloak for their deceit. All\nthis is likely, especially during the transition stage, i.e., whilst\n_khaddar_ is beginning to become fashionable. I would only suggest to my\ncorrespondent that such abuse of _khaddar_ must not even unconsciously\nbe allowed to be used as an argument against its use. Its use to-day is\nobligatory on those who believe that there is not sufficient Indian\nmill-made cloth to supply the wants of the nation, that the wants must\nbe supplied in the quickest way possible by increasing home manufacture,\nand that such manufacture is possible only by making home-spinning\nuniversal. The use of _khaddar_ represents nothing more than a most\npractical recognition of the greatest economic necessity of the country.\nEven a scoundrel may recognise this necessity, and has therefore a\nperfect right to wear it. And if a Government spy wore it to deceive\npeople, I would welcome his use of _khaddar_ as so much economic gain to\nthe country. Only I would not give the wearer of the _khaddar_ more than\nhis due. And I would therefore not ascribe to him any piety or special\nvirtue. It follows, therefore, that co-operationists or government\nservants may wear _khaddar_ without incurring the danger of being\nmistaken for non-co-operationists. We may no more shun _khaddar_, than a\ndevout church-goer may renounce his church because bad characters go to\nit for duping gullible people. I recall the name of an M. P. who\nsuccessfully cloaked many of his vices by pretending to be a staunch\ntemperance man. Not very long ago a bold and unscrupulous speculator\nfound entry into most respectable circles by becoming a temperance\nadvocate. Well has a poet said that 'hypocricy is an ode to virtue.'\n\n_Some 'ifs'_--If you are a _weaver_ feeling for the country, the\nKhilafat and the Punjab,\n\n(1) You should weave only hand-spun yarn, and charge so as to give you a\nliving. You should overcome all the difficulties of sizing and adjusting\nyour loom to the requirements of coarse yarn.\n\n(2) If you cannot possibly tackle hand-spun yarn for warp, you must use\nIndian mill-spun yarn for it and use hand-spun for woof.\n\n(3) Where even the second alternative is not possible, you should use\nmill-spun yarn for both warp and woof.\n\nBut you should henceforth cease to use any foreign yarn, whether it is\nsilk or cotton.\n\nIf you are a _Congress official or worker_, you should get hold of the\nweavers within your jurisdiction, and place the foregoing propositions\nbefore them for acceptance and help them to the best of your ability.\n\nIf you are a _buyer_, insist upon the first class of cloth, but if you\nhave not the sense or the courage to do so, take up the second or the\nthird, but on no account purchase foreign cloth or cloth woven in India\nbut made of foreign yarn.\n\nIf you are a _householder_,\n\n(1) You should make a fixed determination henceforth not to buy any\nforeign cloth.\n\n(2) You should interview the weaver in your neighbourhood, and get him\nto weave for you enough _khadi_ out of home-spun and failing that to\nweave out of Indian mill-spun yarn.\n\n(3) You should deliver to the Congress Committee all your foreign cloth\nfor destruction or sending to Smyrna or elsewhere outside India.\n\n(4) If you have not the courage to give up your foreign cloth, you may\nwear it out at home for all dirty work, but never go out in foreign\ncloth.\n\n(5) If you have any leisure, you should devote it to learning the art of\nspinning even, properly-twisted yarn for the sake of the nation.\n\nIf you are a _schoolboy or schoolgirl_, you should consider it a sin to\nreceive literary training, before you have spun, carded or woven for the\nnation for at least four hours per day till the establishment of Swaraj.\n\n     _Y. I.--6th July 1921._\n\n\n\n\nSPINNING\n\n\n\n\nTHE MUSIC OF THE SPINNING WHEEL\n\n\nSlowly but surely the music of perhaps the most ancient machine of India\nis once more permeating society. Pandit Malaviyaji has stated that he is\nnot going to be satisfied until the Ranis and the Maharanis of India\nspin yarn for the nation, and the Ranas and the Maharanas sit behind the\nhandlooms and weave cloth for the nation. They have the example of\nAurangzeb who made his own caps. A greater emperor--Kabir--was himself a\nweaver and has immortalised the art in his poems. The queens of Europe,\nbefore Europe was caught in Satan's trap, spun yarn and considered it a\nnoble calling. The very words, spinster and wife, prove the ancient\ndignity of the art of spinning and weaving. 'When Adam delved and Eve\nspan, who was then a gentleman,' also reminds one of the same fact. Well\nmay Panditji hope to persuade the royalty of India to return to the\nancient calling of this sacred land of ours. Not on the clatter of arms\ndepends the revival of her prosperity and true independence. It depends\nmost largely upon re-introduction, in every home, of the music of the\nspinning wheel. It gives sweeter music and is more profitable than the\nexecrable harmonium, concertina and the accordian.\n\nWhilst Panditji is endeavouring in his inimitably suave manner to\npersuade the Indian royalty to take up the spinning wheel, Shrimati\nSarala Devi Chaudhrani, who is herself a member of the Indian nobility,\nhas learnt the art and has thrown herself heart and soul into the\nmovement. From all the accounts received from her and others, Swadeshi\nhas become a passion with her. She says she feels uncomfortable in her\nmuslin saris and is content to wear her _khaddar_ saris even in the hot\nweather. Her _khaddar_ saris continue to preach true Swadeshi more\neloquently than her tongue. She has spoken to audiences in Amritsar,\nLudhiana and elsewhere and has succeeded in enlisting the services, for\nher Spinning Committee at Amritsar, of Mrs. Ratanchand and Bugga\nChowdhry and the famous Ratan Devi who during the frightful night of the\n13th April despite the Curfew Order of General Dyer sat, all alone in\nthe midst of the hundreds of the dead and dying, with her dead husband's\ncold head in her lap. I venture to tender my congratulations to these\nladies. May they find solace in the music of the spinning wheel and in\nthe thought that they are doing national work. I hope that the other\nladies of Amritsar will help Sarala Devi in her efforts and that the men\nof Amritsar will realise their own duty in the matter.\n\nIn Bombay the readers are aware that ladies of noted families have\nalready taken up spinning. Their ranks have been joined by\nDr. Mrs. Manekbai Bahudarji who has already learnt the art and who is\nnow trying to introduce it in the Sevasadan. Her Highness the Begum\nSaheba of Janjira and her sister Mrs. Atia Begum Rahiman, have also\nundertaken to learn the art. I trust that these good ladies will,\nhaving learnt spinning, religiously contribute to the nation their daily\nquota of yarn.\n\nI know that there are friends who laugh at this attempt to revive this\ngreat art. They remind me that in these days of mills, sewing machines\nor typewriters, only a lunatic can hope to succeed in reviving the\nrusticated spinning wheel. These friends forget that the needle has not\nyet given place to the sewing machine nor has the hand lost its cunning\nin spite of the typewriter. There is not the slightest reason why the\nspinning wheel may not co-exist with the spinning mill even as the\ndomestic kitchen co-exists with the hotels. Indeed typewriters and\nsewing machines may go, but the needle and the reed pen will survive.\nThe mills may suffer destruction. The spinning wheel is a national\nnecessity. I would ask sceptics to go to the many poor homes where the\nspinning wheel is again supplementing their slender resources and ask\nthe inmates whether the spinning wheel has not brought joy to their\nhomes.\n\nThank God, the reward issued by Mr. Rewashanker Jagjiwan bids fair to\nbear fruit. In a short time India will possess a renovated spinning\nwheel--a wonderful invention of a patient Deccan artisan. It is made out\nof simple materials. There is no great complication about it. It will be\ncheap and capable of being easily mended. It will give more yarn than\nthe ordinary wheel and is capable of being worked by a five years old\nboy or girl. But whether the new machine proves what it claims to be or\nit does not, I feel convinced that the revival of hand-spinning and\nhand-weaving will make the largest contribution to the economic and the\nmoral regeneration of India. The millions must have a simple industry to\nsupplement agriculture. Spinning was the cottage industry years ago and\nif the millions are to be saved from starvation, they must be enabled to\nreintroduce spinning in their homes, and every village must repossess\nits own weaver.\n\n     _Y. I.--21st July 1920._\n\n\n\n\n\"HANDLOOMS OR POWERMILLS?\"\n\n\nWhenever an attempt has been made, as it is being made to-day, to\nencourage the use and production of hand-spun and hand-woven cloth, many\nhave looked askance whether it is intended in this age of mechanical\nindustrialism to supplant the latter by medieval handlooms. The issue is\nplaced between the hand power and the power mill. A correspondent of the\n_Janmabhumi_ falls into this common error. Apparently agitated at the\nidea of reviving the home industries, he exclaims, \"The real question\nfor consideration with us or with any people to-day is not whether the\nhandloom will or will not be able to hold its own against the power\nloom, or whether it cannot feed millions of families or clothe millions\nmore in home-made dress; but which will contribute to the economic and\npolitical power of a nation or country, whether it is the handloom or\nthe power-mill? Handicrafts or machine industries--that is the real\nissue.\"\n\nIt is not quite clear from the above what the notions of the\ncorrespondent are about the economic and political power of this\ncountry. We cannot imagine him to seriously believe--though his argument\nruns as if he does--that that power can be achieved without feeding and\nclothing the millions of our half-starving and half-naked men, women and\nchildren. The political and economic power of a nation depends even in\nthis \"age of mechanical industrialism,\" not on its powerful machines but\non its powerful men. Germany was equipped with the best and most\npowerful and modern machinery, but it failed because at the last moment\nthe power of its nation failed. We want to organise our national power.\nThis can be done not by adopting the best methods of production only but\nby the best method of _both_ the production and the distribution.\nProduction that is the manufacture of cloth in this particular instance\ncan be brought about in two ways; (1) by establishing new mills and\nincreasing the output or producing capacity of each mill and (2) by\nincreasing the number of hand-looms and improving them. All these\nactivities can go together. The notion of a competition between the\nhand-loom and the power mill has been shown by such an eminent economist\nas Prof. Radha Kamal Mukerjea to be \"altogether wrong.\" Says\nMr. Mukerjea in his _Foundations of Indian Economics_:\n\n\"The hand-loom does not compete with the mill, it supplements it in the\nfollowing way:\n\n(1) It produces special kinds of goods which cannot be woven in the\nmills.\n\n(2) It utilizes yarn below and above certain counts which cannot at\npresent be used on the power-mill.\n\n(3) It will consume the surplus stock of Indian spinning mills which\nneed not then be sent out of the country.\n\n(4) Being mainly a village-industry, it supplies the local demand, at\nthe same time gives employment to small capitalists, weavers and other\nvillage workmen and\n\n(5) lastly it will supply the long-felt want of, and honest field of,\nwork and livelihood for educated Indians.\"\n\nBut even this is not all that can be said in favour of hand-loom\nindustry. Mill industry no doubt can be a powerful aid to the promotion\nof Swadeshi. But apart from the bitter struggle, strife and\ndemoralisation of the capitalist and the workman (as explained by the\neminent scholar, administrator and economist, the late Mr. Romesh\nChundra Dutt) it has led to, the question is: Can it solve the problem\nwhich pure Swadeshi is designed and sought to do and which arises only\nbecause of its abandonment? Every writer of note on the industries of\nIndia, whatever his ideas and conclusions about the future of Indian\nIndustrialism may be, has shown that there was a time and that was even\ntill the Early British Rule in India--where spinning and weaving, only\nnext to agriculture, were the great national industries of India, when\nall the cotton was spun by hand and every portion of the work was done\nby the farming population which augmented its resources by spinning and\nweaving. Mr. Dutt has given extracts from the statistical observations\nof Dr. Francis Buchanan's economic enquiries in Southern and Northern\nIndia, conducted between 1798 and 1814. They show how many hundreds of\nthousands of our men, women and children worked on this industry--mostly\nin their leisure time--each day and earned crores of rupees annually.\n\nHow our home-industries came to the sad plight they are in to-day is an\nopen secret, admitted by all authorities and need not be repeated here.\nSuffice it to say that the problem to-day is not to bring about that\npolitical and economic re-organisation of our country, which disturbs\nthe West to-day--an organisation which has led to the breaking up of the\nsociety by ceaseless struggles, bitterness and rupture between Capital\nand Labour. We want to work out the real political and economic\nregeneration of the country by Swadeshi. And the problem of the Swadeshi\nis the problem of 80 per cent. of our population who spend more than six\nmonths of the year in enforced idleness, eking, throughout the year, a\nmiserable, half-starving and half-naked existence. We must find out\nsuitable work for them during their idle hours. We must make them a real\nasset and power to the nation. Pure Swadeshi alone can do it.\n\n     _Y. I.--28th July 1920._\n\n\n\n\nHAND-SPINNING AND HAND-WEAVING\n\n\nSome people spurn the idea of making in this age of mechanism\nhand-spinning and hand-weaving a national industry, but they forget\nthere are millions of their countrymen in this age who, for want of\nsuitable occupation, are eking out a most miserable existence, and\nthousands who die of starvation and underfeeding every year, whereas\nonly a hundred years ago hand-spinning and hand-weaving proved an\ninsurance against a pauper's death. The extent to which relief was\nprovided by this industry is recorded by Mr. Dutt in his \"History of\nIndia: Victorian age\" from the investigations conducted by Dr. Buchanan\nfor seven years, 1813-1820. Dr. Buchanan travelled throughout of the\nwhole country. And his observations and statistics convinced him that\nnext to agriculture, hand-spinning and hand-weaving were the great\nnational industries. We make no apology for giving some of the facts and\nfigures collected by Dr. Buchanan:\n\nIn the districts of Patna and Behar with a population of 3,364,420\nsouls, the number of spinners was 330,426. \"By far the greater part of\nthese,\" observed Dr. Buchanan, \"spin only a few hours in the afternoon,\nand upon the average estimate the whole value of the thread that each\nspins in a year is worth Rs. 7-2-8 giving a total annual income of\nRs. 23,67,277 and by a similar calculation the raw material at the retail\nprice will amount to Rs. 12,86,272, leaving a profit of Rs. 10,81,005\nfor the spinners or Rs. 3-4-0 per spinner....\"\n\nIn the district of Shahbad, spinning was the chief industry. 159,500\nwomen were employed in spinning and spun yarn to the value of\nRs. 12,50,000 a year. Deducting the value of cotton each woman had some\nthing left to her to add to the income of the family to which she\nbelonged.\n\nIn the Bhagalpur district (with a population of 2,019,900) where all\ncastes were permitted to spin, 160,000 women spent a part of their time\nin spinning and each made an annual income of Rs. 4-1/2 after deducting\nthe cost of cotton. This was added to the family income. In the\nGorakhpur district (population 1,385,495) 175,600 women found employment\nin spinning and made an annual income of Rs. 2-1/2 per head. In the\nDinjapur district (with a population of 300,000) cotton-spinning which\nwas the principal manufacture occupied the leisure hours 'of all women\nof higher rank and of the greater part of the farmers' wives.' Three\nrupees was the annual income each woman made by spinning in her\nafternoon hours.\n\nIn the Purniya district (population 2,904,380) all castes considered\nspinning honourable and a very large population of women of the district\ndid some spinning in their leisure hours.\n\nIn eastern Mysore women of all castes except Brahmans bought cotton and\nwool at weekly markets, spun at home, and sold the thread to weavers.\nMen and women thus found a profitable occupation. In Coimbatore, the\nwives of all the low class cultivators were great spinners.\n\nThe statistics of weavers show that they also were as numerous as the\nspinners. In the Patna city and Behar district, the total number of\nlooms employed in the manufacture of chaddars and table cloths was 750,\nand the value of the annual manufactures was Rs. 5,40,000 leaving a\nprofit of Rs. 81,400, deducting the value of thread. This gave a profit\nof Rs. 108 for each loom worked by three persons or an income of Rs. 36\na year for each person. But the greater part of the cloth-weavers made\ncoarse cloth for country use to the value of Rs. 24,386,621 after\ndeducting the cost of thread. This gave a profit of Rs. 28 for each\nloom.\n\nIn Shahabad weavers worked in cotton only. 7,025 houses of weavers\nworked in cotton and had 7,950 looms. Each loom made an annual income of\nRs. 20-3/4 a year and each loom required the labour of a man and his\nwife as well as one boy or girl. But as a family could not be supported\nfor less than Rs. 48 a year, Dr. Buchanan suspected that the income of\neach loom given above was understated.\n\nIn the Bhagalpur district some worked in silk alone. A great many near\nthe town made Tasar fabrics of silk and cotton intermixed; 3,275 looms\nwere so employed that the annual profit of each weaver employed in the\nmixed silk and cotton industry was calculated to be Rs. 46 besides what\nthe woman made.\n\nFor the weaving of cotton-cloth, there were 7,279 looms. Each loom\nyielded a profit of Rs. 20 a year. But by another calculation, Dr.\nBuchanan estimated it to be Rs. 32 a year.\n\nIn the Gorakhpur district there were 5,434 families of weavers\npossessing 6,174 looms and each loom brought an income of Rs. 23-1/2.\nDr. Buchanan thought this was too low an estimate and believed that each\nloom brought an income of Rs. 88 in the year.\n\nIn the Dungarpur district \"Maldai\" cloth was manufactured. It consisted\nof silk warp and cotton woof. 4,000 looms were employed in this work\nand it was said that each loom made Rs. 20 worth of cloth in a month,\nwhich Dr. Buchanan considered too high an estimate. About 800 looms were\nemployed in making larger pieces in the form of Elachis.\n\nIn the Purniya district weavers were numerous.... In Eastern Mysore\ncotton-weavers made cloth for home-use as silk weavers produced a strong\nrich fabric. Workmen who made cloth with silk borders earned As. 6 a day\nand those who made silk cloth earned As. 4.\n\nThus we see that crores of rupees were earned by these spinners and\nweavers by following their noble and honest calling. The\ndecentralisation of the industry--every village, town and district\nhaving always at its command as much supply as it needed--automatically\nfacilitated its distribution and saved the consumer from Railway Excise\nand all sorts of tariffs and middlemen's profits that he is a victim to\nto-day. If we cannot return to these days--though there is no reason,\nexcept our own bias and doubt why we should not--can we not at least so\norganise our industries as to do away without much delay with the\nforeign cloth with which our markets are being dumped to-day?\n\n     _Y. I.--15th Sep. 1920._\n\n\n\n\nHAND-SPINNING AGAIN\n\n\n_The Servant of India_ has a fling too at spinning and that is based as\nI shall presently show on ignorance of the facts. Spinning does protect\na woman's virtue, because it enables women, who are to-day working on\npublic roads and are often in danger of having their modesty outraged,\nto protect themselves, and I know no other occupation that lacs of women\ncan follow save spinning. Let me inform the jesting writer that several\nwomen have already returned to the sanctity of their homes and taken to\nspinning which they say is the one occupation which means so much\n_barkat_ (blessing). I claim for it the properties of a musical\ninstrument, for whilst a hungry and a naked woman will refuse to dance\nto the accompaniment of a piano, I have seen women beaming with joy to\nsee the spinning wheel work, for they know that they can through that\nrustic instrument both feed and clothe themselves.\n\nYes, it does solve the problem of India's chronic poverty and is an\ninsurance against famine. The writer of the jests may not know the\nscandals that I know about irrigation and relief works. These works are\nlargely a fraud. But if my wise counsellors will devote themselves to\nintroducing the wheel in every home, I promise that the wheel will be an\nalmost complete protection against famine. It is idle to cite Austria. I\nadmit the poverty and limitations of my humanity. I can only think of\nIndia's _Kamadhenu_, and the spinning wheel is that for India. For India\nhad the spinning wheel in every home before the advent of the East India\nCompany. India being a cotton growing country, it must be considered a\ncrime to import a single yard of yarn from outside. The figures quoted\nby the writer are irrelevant.\n\nThe fact is that in spite of the manufacture of 62.7 crores pounds of\nyarn in 1917-18 India imported several crore yards of foreign yarn\nwhich were woven by the mills as well as the weavers. The writer does\nnot also seem to know that more cloth is to-day woven by our weavers\nthan by mills, but the bulk of it is foreign yarn and therefore our\nweavers are supporting foreign spinners. I would not mind it much if we\nwere doing something else instead. When spinning was almost compulsorily\nstopped nothing replaced it save slavery and idleness. Our mills cannot\nto-day spin enough for our wants, and if they did, they will not keep\ndown prices unless they were compelled. They are frankly money-makers\nand will not therefore regulate prices according to the needs of the\nnations. Hand-spinning is therefore designed to put millions of rupees\nin the hands of poor villagers. Every agricultural country requires a\nsupplementary industry to enable the peasants to utilise the spare\nhours. Such industry for India has always been spinning. Is it such a\nvisionary ideal--an attempt to revive an ancient occupation whose\ndestruction has brought on slavery, pauperism and disappearance of the\ninimitable artistic talents which was once all expressed in the\nwonderful fabric of India and which was the envy of the world?\n\nAnd now a few figures. One boy could, if he worked say four hours daily,\nspin 1/4 lb. of yarn. 64,000 students would, therefore, spin 16,000 lbs.\nper day, and therefore feed 8,000 weavers if a weaver wove two lbs. of\nhand-spun yarn. But the students and others are required to spin during\nthis year of purification by way of penance in order to popularise\nspinning and to add to the manufacture of hand-spun yarn so as to\novertake full manufacture during the current year. The nation may be too\nlazy to do it. But if all put their hands to this work, it is incredibly\neasy, it involves very little sacrifice and saves an annual drain of\nsixty crores even if it does nothing else. I have discussed the matter\nwith many mill-owners, several economists, men of business and no one\nhas yet been able to challenge the position herein set forth. I do\nexpect the 'Servant of India' to treat a serious subject with\nseriousness and accuracy of information.\n\n     _Y. I.--16th Feb. 1921._\n\n\n\n\nA PLEA FOR SPINNING\n\n\nA determined opposition was put up against the conditions regarding\nSwadeshi that were laid down in the civil disobedience resolution passed\nby the All-India Congress Committee at Delhi. It was directed against\ntwo requirements, namely, that the civil resister offering resistance in\nterms of that resolution was bound to know hand-spinning and use only\nhand-spun and hand-woven _khadi_; and that in the event of a district or\ntahsil offering civil disobedience _en masse_ the district or the tahsil\nconcerned must manufacture its own yarn and cloth by the hand. The\nopposition betrayed woeful ignorance of the importance of hand-spinning.\nNothing but hand-spinning can banish pauperism from the land. Paupers\ncannot become willing sufferers. They have never known the pain of\nplenty to appreciate the happiness of voluntarily suffering hunger or\nother bodily discomfort. Swaraj for them can only mean ability to\nsupport themselves without begging. To awaken among them a feeling of\ndiscontent with their lot without providing them with the means of\nremoving the cause thereof is to court certain destruction, anarchy,\noutrage and plunder in which they themselves will be the chief victims.\nHand-spinning alone can possibly supply them with supplementary and\nadditional earnings. Hand-weaving for many and carding for a limited\nnumber can provide complete livelihood. But hand-weaving is not a lost\nart. Several million men know hand-weaving. But very few know\nhand-spinning in the true sense of the term. Tens of thousands are, it\nis true, turning the wheel to-day but only a few are spinning yarn. The\ncry all over is that hand-spun yarn is not good enough for warp. Just as\nhalf-baked bread is no bread, even so ill-spun weak thread is no yarn.\nThousands of men must know hand-spinning to be able in their respective\ndistricts to improve the quality of the yarn that is now being spun in\nthe country. Therefore those who offer civil disobedience for the sake\nof establishing Swaraj must know hand-spinning. Mark, they are not\nrequired to turn out yarn every day. It would be well if they did. But\nthey must know how to spin even properly twisted yarn. It was a happy\nomen to me, that in spite of the opposition the amendment was rejected\nby a large majority. One argument advanced in favour of rejection was,\nthat the Sikh men considered it an undignified occupation to spin and\nlooked down upon hand-weaving. I do hope that the sentiment is not\nrepresentative of the brave community. Any community that despises\noccupations that bring an honest livelihood is a community going down an\nincline. If spinning has been the speciality of women, it is because\nthey have more leisure and not because it is an inferior occupation. The\nunderlying suggestion that a wielder of the sword will not wield the\nwheel is to take a distorted view of a soldier's calling. A man who\nlives by the sword does _not_ serve his community even as the soldiers\nin the employ of the Government do not serve the country. The wielding\nof the sword is an unnatural occupation resorted to among civilized\npeople only on extraordinary occasions and only for self-defence. To\nlive by hand-spinning and hand-weaving is any day more _manly_ than to\nlive by killing. Aurangzeb was not the less a soldier for sewing caps.\nWhat we prize in the Sikhs is not their ability to kill. The late Sardar\nLachman Singh will go down to posterity as a hero, because he knew how\nto die. The Mahant of Nankhana Saheb will go down to posterity as a\nmurderer. I hope therefore that no man will decline to learn the\nbeautiful life-giving art of hand-spinning on the ground of its supposed\ninferiority.\n\n     _Y. I.--10th Nov. 1921._\n\n\n\n\nTHE DUTY OF SPINNING\n\n\nIn \"The Secret of Swaraj\" I have endeavoured to show what home spinning\nmeans for our country. In any curriculum of the future, spinning must be\na compulsory subject. Just as we cannot live without breathing and\nwithout eating, so is it impossible for us to attain economic\nindependence and banish pauperism from this ancient land without\nreviving home-spinning. I hold the spinning wheel to be as much a\nnecessity in every household as the hearth. No other scheme that can be\ndevised will ever solve the problem of the deepening poverty of the\npeople.\n\nHow then can spinning be introduced in every home? I have already\nsuggested the introduction of spinning and systematic production of yarn\nin every national school. Once our boys and girls have learnt the art\nthey can easily carry it to their homes.\n\nBut this requires organisation. A spinning wheel must be worked for\ntwelve hours per day. A practised spinner can spin two tolas and a half\nper hour. The price that is being paid at present is on an average four\nannas per forty tolas or one pound of yarn _i.e._, one pice per hour.\nEach wheel therefore should give three annas per day. A strong one costs\nseven rupees. Working, therefore, at the rate of twelve hours per day it\ncan pay for itself in less than 38 days. I have given enough figures to\nwork upon. Any one working at them will find the results to be\nstartling.\n\nIf every school introduced spinning, it would revolutionize our ideas of\nfinancing education. We can work a school for six hours per day and give\nfree education to the pupils. Supposing a boy works at the wheel for\nfour hours daily, he will produce every day 10 tolas of yarn and thus\nearn for his school one anna per day. Suppose further that he\nmanufactures very little during the first month, and that the school\nworks only twenty six days in the month. He can earn after the first\nmonth Rs. 1-10 per month. A class of thirty boys would yield, after the\nfirst month, an income of Rs. 48-12 per month.\n\nI have said nothing about literary training. It can be given during the\ntwo hours out of the six. It is easy to see that every school can be\nmade self supporting without much effort and the nation can engage\nexperienced teachers for its schools.\n\nThe chief difficulty in working out the scheme is the spinning wheel. We\nrequire thousands of wheels if the art becomes popular. Fortunately,\nevery village carpenter can easily construct the machine. It is a\nserious mistake to order them from the Ashram or any other place. The\nbeauty of spinning is that it is incredibly simple, easily learnt, and\ncan be cheaply introduced in every village.\n\nThe course suggested by me is intended only for this year of\npurification and probation. When normal times are reached and Swaraj is\nestablished one hour only may be given to spinning and the rest to\nliterary training.\n\n     _Y. I.--2nd Feb. 1921._\n\n\n\n\nTHE DUTY OF SPINNING\n\n\n[Speaking at a monster meeting of students held in Mirzapur Park,\nCalcutta, Mahatma Gandhi appealed to them to withdraw from educational\ninstitutions. In the course of that speech he spoke on the duty of\nspinning, which portion is printed here.]\n\nOur education has been the most deficient in two things. Those who\nframed our education code neglected the training of the body and the\nsoul. You are receiving the education of the soul but the very fact of\nnon-co-operation for non-co-operation is nothing less and nothing more\nthan withdrawing from participation in the evil that this Government is\ndoing and continuing to do. And if we are withdrawing from evil\nconscientiously, deliberately, it means that we are walking with our\nface towards God. That completes or begins the soul training. But\nseeing that our bodily education has been neglected, and seeing that\nIndia has become enslaved because India forgot the spinning wheel, and\nbecause India sold herself for a mess of pottage, I am not afraid to\nplace before you, the young men of Bengal, the spinning wheel for\nadoption. And let a training in spinning and production of as much yarn\nas you can ever do constitute your main purpose and your main training\nduring this year of probation. Let your ordinary education commence\nafter Swaraj is established, but let every young man, and every girl, of\nBengal consider it to be their sacred duty to devote all their time and\nenergy to spinning. I have drawn attention to the parallel, that\npresents itself before us, from the war.\n\n     _Y. I.--2nd Feb. 1921._\n\n\n\n\nTHE DOCTRINE OF CHARKA\n\n\n[The opening session of the National College, Calcutta, under the\nauspices of the Board of Education, formed by Srijuts Chittaranjan Das,\nJitendralal Banerjee and other non-co-operation leaders, took place on\nFriday the 4th February 1921. In opening this College, Mahatma Gandhi\naddressed the students and professors, from which the following is\nculled.]\n\nWe have sufficiently talked about Charka and how it is going to free\nIndia--how a nation that came through the Charka to this country as\ntraders, merchants and travellers settled themselves down as rulers with\nour co-operation, and how non-co-operation and by means of that very\nIndian _Charka_ they will go back to their own country if they cannot\nlive as fellow-citizens in India.\n\nThere are peoples who say--\"how can you expect the Mahomedans to be\nnon-violent.\" How, I do not want to speak out. I want the _Charka_\nitself to speak out. The whole Europe will know when we place these\nCharkas in our mosques. Something like 800 Charkas had been ordered for\nthe mosques so that the people who come there should be able to produce\nIndian yarn with which Indian clothes should be woven by Indian hands in\nIndian homes to clothe our nakedness or at least to provide home-spun\nshrouds for us. Thus every revolution of the _Charka_ I can assure you,\nwill bring the success of this bloodless revolution the nearer every\nday. That is the doctrine of _Charka_. Therefore I ask you to work up\nthis doctrine which will be a great advertisement both of our\ndetermination to win freedom, and if possible, through peaceful means.\n\nIf you are determined to have the freedom of your country, if you want\nto see the cessation of our slavery in which we are living for close\nupon two centuries, it requires from you a peaceful battle--the battle\nof the _Charka_.\n\n     _Y. I.--9th Feb. 1921._\n\n\n\n\nTHE MESSAGE OF THE CHARKA\n\n\nThe _Indian Social Reformer_ has published a note from a correspondent\nin praise of the spinning-wheel. The correspondent in the course of his\nremarks hopes, that the movement will be so organised that the spinners\nmay not weary of it. Mr. Amritlal Thakkar in his valuable note\n(published in the _Servant of India_) on the experiment which he is\nconducting in Kathiawad, says that the charkha has been taken up by the\npeasant women. They are not likely to weary, for to them it is a source\nof livelihood to which they were used before. It had dried up, because\nthere was no demand for their yarn. Townspeople who have taken to\nspinning may weary, if they have done so as a craze or a fashion. Those\nonly will be faithful, who consider it their duty to devote their spare\nhours to doing what is to-day the most useful work for the country. The\nthird class of spinners are the school-going children. I expect the\ngreatest results from the experiment of introducing the charkha in the\nNational Schools. If it is conducted on scientific lines by teachers who\nbelieve in the charkha as the most efficient means of making education\navailable to the seven and a half lacs of villages in India, there is\nnot only no danger of weariness, but every prospect of the nation being\nable to solve the problem of financing mass education without any extra\ntaxation and without having to fall back upon immoral sources of\nrevenue.\n\nThe writer in the _Indian Social Reformer_ suggests, that an attempt\nshould be made to produce finer counts on the spinning-wheel. I may\nassure him that the process has already begun, but it will be some time\nbefore we arrive at the finish of the Dacca muslin or even twenty\ncounts. Seeing that hand-spinning was only revived last September, and\nIndia began to believe in it somewhat only in December, the progress it\nhas made may be regarded as phenomenal.\n\nThe writer's complaint that hand-spun yarn is not being woven as fast as\nit is spun, is partly true. But the remedy is not so much to increase\nthe number of looms, as to persuade the existing weavers to use\nhand-spun yarn. Weaving is a much more complex process than spinning. It\nis not, like spinning, only a supplementary industry, but a complete\nmeans of livelihood. It therefore never died out. There are _enough\nweavers and enough looms in India to replace the whole of the foreign\nimport of cloth_. It should be understood that our looms--thousands of\nthem in Madras, Maharashtra and Bengal--are engaged in weaving the fine\nyarn imported from Japan and Manchester. We _must_ utilize these for\nweaving hand-spun yarn. And for that purpose, the nation has to revise\nits taste for the thin tawdry and useless muslins. I see no art in\nweaving muslins, that do not cover but only expose the body. Our ideas\nof art must undergo a change. But even if the universal weaving of thin\nfabric be considered desirable in normal conditions, at the present\nmoment whilst we are making a mighty effort to become free and\nself-supporting, we must be content to wear the cloth that our hand-spun\nyarn may yield. We have therefore to ask the fashionable on the one hand\nto be satisfied with coarser garments; we must educate the spinners on\nthe other hand to spin finer and more even yarn.\n\nThe writer pleads for a reduction in the prices charged by mill-owners\nfor their manufactures. When lovers of Swadeshi begin to consider it\ntheir duty to wear khaddar, when the required number of spinning-wheels\nare working and the weavers are weaving hand-spun yarn, the mill-owners\nwill be bound to reduce prices. It seems almost hopeless merely to\nappeal to the patriotism of those whose chief aim is to increase their\nown profits.\n\nIncongruities pointed out by the writer such as the wearing of khaddar\non public occasions and at other times of the most fashionable English\nsuits, and the smoking of most expensive cigars by wearers of khaddar,\nmust disappear in course of time, as the new fashion gains strength. It\nis my claim that as soon as we have completed the boycott of foreign\ncloth, we shall have evolved so far that we shall necessarily give up\nthe present absurdities and remodel national life in keeping with the\nideal of simplicity and domesticity implanted in the bosom of the\nmasses. We will not then be dragged into an imperialism, which is built\nupon exploitation of the weaker races of the earth, and the acceptance\nof a giddy materialistic civilization protected by naval and air forces\nthat have made peaceful living almost impossible. On the contrary, we\nshall then refine that imperialism, into a common wealth of nations\nwhich will combine, if they do, for the purpose of giving their best to\nthe world and of protecting, not by brute force but by self-suffering,\nthe weaker nations or races of the earth. Non-co-operation aims at\nnothing less than this revolution in the thought-world. Such a\ntransformation can come only after the complete success of the\nspinning-wheel. India can become fit for delivering such a message,\nwhen she has become proof against temptation and therefore attacks from\noutside, by becoming self-contained regarding two of her chief\nneeds--food and clothing.\n\n     _Y. I.--29th June 1921._\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHARKA IN THE GITA\n\n\nIn the last issue I have endeavoured to answer the objections raised by\nthe Poet against spinning as a sacrament to be performed by all. I have\ndone so in all humility and with the desire to convince the Poet and\nthose who think like him. The reader will be interested in knowing, that\nmy belief is derived largely from the Bhagavadgita. I have quoted the\nrelevant verses in the article itself. I give below Edwin Arnold's\nrendering of the verses from his Song Celestial for the benefit of those\nwho do not read Sanskrit.\n\n    Work is more excellent than idleness;\n      The body's life proceeds not, lacking work.\n    There is a task of holiness to do,\n      Unlike world-binding toil, which bindeth not\n    The faithful soul; such earthly duty do\n      Free from desire, and thou shalt well perform\n    Thy heavenly purpose. Spake Prajapati\n      In the beginning, when all men were made,\n    And, with mankind, the sacrifice--\"Do this!\n      Work! Sacrifice! Increase and multiply\n    With sacrifice! This shall be Kamadhuk,\n      Your 'Cow of Plenty', giving back her milk\n    Of all abundance. Worship the gods thereby;\n      The gods shall yield ye grace. Those meats ye crave\n    The gods will grant to Labour, when it pays\n      Tithes in the altar-flame. But if one eats\n    Fruits of the earth, rendering to kindly heaven,\n      No gift of toil, that thief steals from his world.\"\n    Who eat of food after their sacrifice\n      Are quit of fault, but they that spread a feast\n    All for themselves, eat sin and drink of sin.\n      By food the living live; food comes of rain.\n    And rain comes by the pious sacrifice,\n      And sacrifice is paid with tithes of toil;\n    Thus action is of Brahma, who is one,\n      The Only, All--pervading; at all times\n    Present in sacrifice. He that abstains\n      To help the rolling wheels of this great world,\n    Glutting his idle sense, lives a lost life,\n      Shameful and vain.\n\nWork here undoubtedly refers to physical labour, and work by way of\nsacrifice can only be work to be done by all for the common benefit.\nSuch work--such sacrifice can only be spinning. I do not wish to\nsuggest, that the author of the Divine Song had the spinning wheel in\nmind. He merely laid down a fundamental principle of conduct. And\nreading in and applying it to India I can only think of spinning as the\nfittest and most acceptable sacrificial body labour. I cannot imagine\nanything nobler or more national than that for say one hour in the day\nwe should all do the labour that the poor must do, and thus identify\nourselves with them and through them with all mankind. I cannot imagine\nbetter worship of God than that in His name I should labour for the poor\neven as they do. The spinning wheel spells a more equitable distribution\nof the riches of the earth.\n\n     _Y. I.--20th Oct. 1921._\n\n\n\n\nSPINNING AS FAMINE RELIEF\n\n\nMrs. Jaiji Petit has sent the following notes of an experiment being\nconducted in spinning among the famine-stricken people at Miri near\nAhmednagar. I gladly publish the notes as the experiment is being\nconducted under the supervision of an Englishwoman. The reader will not\nfail to observe the methodical manner in which the work is being done.\nAll the difficulties have been met and provided for. Even the very small\nexperiment shows what a potent instrument the spinning wheel is for\nfamine relief. Properly organised it cannot but yield startling\nresults.--M. K. G.\n\nIn the month of August 1920, when the severity of the famine was being\nfelt, the idea of introducing spinning as a famine relief to respectable\nmiddle class people was started and Miss Latham kindly gave a spinning\nwheel to introduce the work. Attempts were made to introduce the work\nespecially among the Dhangars who were used to spinning wool but they\nproved futile. Spinning a thin thread of cotton was thought an\nimpossibility in a village which did not know anything about it. Doubts\nwere also entertained as to whether the work if taken up would be paying\nor at least helpful. In such different difficulties and objections, the\nwheel remained idle for nearly three months, and in spite of vigorous\nefforts no body seemed willing to take up the work. In December 1920,\nMiss Latham again sent four more wheels through the kindness of\nMrs. J. Petit and some cotton. They were given for trial to different\npersons. Signs now seemed a little hopeful and at last one Ramoshi woman\nwas prevailed upon to take up the work seriously. This was about the\n20th of January 1921, since when the work has assumed a different shape.\nThe example of this woman was copied by two more who undertook to take\nthe work. Through great perseverance 4 lbs. of yarn were prepared by\nthese three spinners and it was sent for sale. In the meantime many\nwomen began to make the inquiries and expressed a desire to take it up\nif it helped them financially in some way. A rate of spinning 6 as. a\nlb. was therefore fixed and it helped other spinners to join the work.\n\nHere another difficulty viz. that of funds came in the way. All the five\nwheels were engaged and five more prepared locally were also engaged.\nThe stock of cotton was also exhausted. It seemed that the work would\nsuffer for want of funds to prepare wheels, purchase cotton, and pay the\nworkers. Rao Bahadur Chitale personally saw this difficulty and helped\nthe work with a grant of Rs. 100. Miss Latham, when she knew of this\ndifficulty, kindly sent another hundred. These two grants came at the\nright time and gave a stimulus to the work. Local gentlemen helped with\ntheir own cotton.\n\nThe demand for wheels went on increasing day by day. People being too\npoor to pay for the wheels, it became necessary to get the wheels\nprepared locally and lend them to the workers. Twenty seven more wheels\nwere prepared which also gave work to local carpenters who had no work\non account of famine. One carpenter improved the wheel by making it more\nlight and useful for finer yarn. The prices of the wheel were paid at\nRs. 3, Rs. 3-8, and Rs. 4 per wheel according to the quality. Three of\nthese wheels have been sold for Rs. 9-8. The total sum spent on these\nwheels is Rs. 103-8-0 which includes the sum for the wheels kindly sent\nby Mrs. Petit.\n\nThough local cotton was secured for the work, it proved too bad for\nbeginners. A new method therefore was introduced to improve the local\ncotton, which not only helped the work but also provided work for a few\nmore persons. Raw cotton was secured and the dirt and the dry leaves in\nit were carefully removed before it was ginned. The rate for this work\nwas fixed at one pice per lb. Any old man who did this work got an\nopportunity of earning one anna a day, by cleaning 4 lbs. of raw\ncotton. After it was thus cleaned, it was ginned with a hand-gin which\ngave work to some women who ginned, at the rate of one anna per 10 lbs.\nOne woman could thus earn 2 as. and 6 pies each day. This ginned cotton\nwas then cleaned by a _pinjari_ who charged at the rate of one anna per\npound and earned about 8 as. per day. It would have been better and\neasier too, if cotton had been purchased from the mills, but as this\ncleaning process of the local cotton provided work for a few workers, it\nwas thought the more desirable in these days. A major portion of these\ncleaning charges is however made up by the sale of cotton seed secured\nafter ginning. The following statement will show the expenses incurred\nfor this and the price of raw cotton for every 60 lbs.\n\n                                        RS. A. P.\n\n  Price of 60 lbs. of raw cotton @\n  20 Rs. a patia (240 lbs.).             5--0--0\n\n  Removal of dirt, waste and dry\n  leaves @ 1 pice per pound              0-15--0\n\n  Ginning of 52 lbs. of raw clean\n  cotton @ 1 an. per 10 lbs.             0--5--3\n\n  Cleaning the Lint (17 lbs.) by a\n  pinjari @ 1 Anna per lb.               1--1--0\n                                        --------\n                                   Total 7--4--3\n\n  Deduct price of cotton seed 35 lbs.\n  @ 20 lbs. per Re.                      1-12--0\n                                        --------\n  Net charges for 17 lbs. of clean\n  cotton                                 5--9--3\n\nThus the cost of one pound of cotton comes to 5 as. and 3 pies only. The\nproportion of waste viz. 8 lbs. in 60 lbs. of raw cotton is too high and\ncould be avoided by securing better and cleaner cotton.\n\nThere are at present 29 wheels going and there is still a great demand\nfor wheels. But the funds being limited, more wheels could not be\nprepared and provided. Spinning is done by those who absolutely knew\nnothing about it previously. Consequently the yarn is still of an\ninferior sort. It is improving day by day but if a competent teacher\ncould be secured, it would improve rapidly. Amongst the spinners, some\nare full-time workers and others are leisure-time workers.\n\nAbout two lbs. of yarn are now prepared every day and the quantity will\nincrease as the spinners get used to the work. The rate for spinning is\nfixed at 6 as. a lb., though many workers complain that it is not\nenough. As the yarn sent for sale realised a price of As. 12 a pound,\nthe spinning charges could not be increased without a loss. Every lb. of\nyarn requires Annas 11 pies 3 for expenses, as 0-5-3 for cotton and\n0-6-0 for spinning. Thus every lb. leaves a profit of 9 pies only. The\nestablishment and other charges are not calculated. With the present\nrate of spinning at 6 as. a lb., one spinner earns 3 as. per day by\nspinning 20 to 24 tolas, more earn 2 as. a day by spinning 15 tolas and\nthe rest 1-1/2 as. a day for 10 tolas, the beginners excluded. The more\nthe spinner is used to the work, the more he will earn.\n\nAn attempt was made to prepare cloth out of the yarn and three and a\nhalf lbs. of yarn were given to a weaver for weaving. He however charged\nan exorbitant rate for weaving. He prepared nine and a half yards of\ncloth and charged Rs. 3-9 for it, practically 1 rupee a lb. The cloth\ncost Rs. 6-0-6 and was sold at Rs. 6-3-0, with a profit of as. 2 and\npies 6 only. To obviate the difficulty about weaving, a separate loom\nwith one teacher to teach weaving to local persons is urgently required.\nMany local people wish to learn this art. A separate loom will reduce\nthe cost of the cloth prepared on it below the prevailing market rate.\nAbout 6 lbs. of yarn are given to different weavers to ascertain the\nexact charges, but all this difficulty can only be removed by having a\nspecial loom.\n\nWhen there was a shortage of cotton and the workers had no work, wool\nwas introduced for spinning till cotton was ready. This work was\nwillingly taken up by the Dhangar. They were however required to spin\nfiner thread of wool than they usually prepared. They took some time to\npick up the work, and now there are 10 wool spinners working fine\nthread. They are also paid at 6 as. a lb. for spinning. Wool worth\nRs. 31 @ 2 lbs. a rupee was purchased, and though the cotton was ready, the\nwool spinning was continued by starting a separate department, as the\nDhangars readily took up the work. The whole process of cleaning the\nwool is also done by the Dhangar women, who get an extra anna per lb.\nfor it. The sorting of wool is carefully looked to. The majority of wool\nspinners use their own spinning wheels but a few are now asking for the\nimproved wheel for preparing finer threads.\n\nDhangar weavers being locally available blankets after the Pandharpur\nand Dawangiri pattern are being prepared from this finer thread and\ndifferent designs have been suggested to them. The Dhangars being a\nstubborn race do not readily adopt the new improvement. But this work\nhas set them to work up new designs of blankets which will permanently\nhelp them in their own profession. They now require a broader and\nimproved loom and instruction in colouring wool. Efforts are made to\nsecure a clever full time weaver who will introduce a better method of\nweaving. Two blankets were prepared and sold at cost price, one for\nRs. 5-13-6 and the other for Rs. 6-6-0. Orders are being received for\nblankets now, but to continue the work would require some funds.\n\nTo keep so many persons working is not only an ideal form of famine\nrelief, but a means to promote village industries, and remove the\ndemoralising effects of successive famines. Thus stands the work of\nabout one month. It now requires an improved handloom, a good teacher, a\nspecial loom for wool, more spinning wheels (which the neighbouring\nvillagers are also demanding) and many other things. The work is going\non vigorously and it is hoped will not be allowed to suffer for want of\nfunds.\n\n     _Y. I.--11th May 1921._\n\n\n\n\nTHE POTENCY OF THE SPINNING-WHEEL\n\n\nNo amount of human ingenuity can manage to distribute water over the\nwhole land, as a shower of rain can. No irrigation department, no rules\nof precedence, no inspection and no water-cess. Every thing is done with\nan ease and a gentleness that by their very perfection evade notice. The\nspinning-wheel, too, has got the same power of distributing work and\nwealth in millions of houses in the simplest way imaginable. Those of us\nwho do not know what it is to earn a livelihood by the sweat of one's\nbrow, may consider the three annas a day as a pittance beneath the\nconsideration of any man. They do not know that even in these days of\nhigh prices, there are districts in India where even three annas a day\nwould be a boon to the poor. But we must not consider the question of\nthe spinning-wheel merely from the point of individual earnings. The\nspinning-wheel is a force in national regeneration. If we wish for real\nSwaraj, we must achieve economic independence. Boycott of foreign cloth\nis its negative aspect. For this we must produce cloth sufficient to\nclothe the country. This can only be done by hand-spinning. All the\nmills that we have got, will not be able together to cope with the\nsituation. If all rush for the thin mill-made cloth, it will rise in\nprice beyond the capacity of the poor, and the experience of 1907-08\nwill be repeated. Moreover, the cloth best suited for the three seasons\nof India is _Khadi_. Those who have used _Khadi_ during this summer,\nhave come to realise, that after the soft clean touch of _Khadi_ it is\nimpossible to use sticky Malmal or twills. _Khadi_ can enable its wearer\nto withstand the cold of an average winter as even wool cannot. The\nclimate of India demands that clothes be washed as often as possible.\nOnly _Khadi_ can stand this constant wash. _Khadi_ was once the dress of\nthe nation at large. One must see to believe how venerable the old\nPatels and Deshmukhs looked when dressed in home-spun _Khadi_. There are\ninstances of whole villages taking a legitimate pride in the fact that\nthey had to import nothing but salt in the whole round of the six\nseasons. With such conditions, there could be no drain, no exploitation\nand therefore no Para-raj. A little village could make terms with the\nrulers of the land consistent with its self-respect, dignity and\nindependence. Is our love of luxury so inveterate, that we cannot\ncontrol it even for the sake of Swaraj?\n\n     _Y. I.--6th July 1921._\n\n\n\n\nTHE WHEEL OF FORTUNE\n\n\n[A certain correspondent from Sindh writing to Mahatma Gandhi puts the\nquestion, \"Will the spinning wheel solve the problem of India's poverty?\nIf it will, how?\" Here is his answer.]\n\nI am more than ever convinced that without the spinning wheel the\nproblem of India's poverty cannot be solved. Millions of India's\npeasants starve for want of supplementary occupation. If they have\nspinning to add to their slender resources, they can fight successfully\nagainst pauperism and famine. Mills cannot solve the problem. Only\nhand-spinning--and nothing else--can. When India was forced to give up\nhand-spinning, she had no other occupation in return. Imagine what would\nhappen to a man who found himself suddenly deprived of a quarter of his\nbare livelihood. Over eighty-five percent of Her population have more\nthan a quarter of their time lying idle. And, therefore, even apart from\nthe terrible drain rightly pointed out by the Grand Old Man of India,\nshe has steadily grown poorer because of this enforced idleness. The\nproblem is how to utilise these billions of hours of the nation without\ndisturbing the rest. Restoration of the spinning wheel is the only\npossible answer. This has nothing to do with my special views on\nmachinery or with the boycott of foreign goods in general, India is\nlikely to accept the answer in full during this year. It is madness to\ntinker with the problem. I am writing this in Puri in front of the\nmurmuring waves. The picture of the crowd of men, women, and children,\nwith their fleshless ribs under the very shadow of Jagannath, haunts me.\nIf I had the power, I would suspend every other activity in schools, and\ncolleges, and everywhere else, and popularise spinning; prepare out of\nthese lads and lasses spinning teachers: inspire every carpenter to\nprepare spinning wheels; and ask the teachers to take these life-going\nmachines to every home, and teach them spinning. If I had the power, I\nwould stop an ounce of cotton from being exported and would have it\nturned into yarn in these homes. I would dot India with depots for\nreceiving this yarn and distributing it among weavers. Given sufficient\nsteady and trained workers, I would undertake to drive pauperism out of\nIndia during this year. This undoubtedly requires a change in the angle\nof vision and in the national taste. I regard the Reforms and everything\nelse in the nature of opiates to deaden our conscience. We must refuse\nto wait for generations to furnish us with a patient solution of a\nproblem which is ever-growing in seriousness. Nature knows no mercy in\ndealing stern justice. If we do not wake up before long, we shall be\nwiped out of existence. I invite the sceptics to visit Orissa, penetrate\nits villages, and find out for themselves where India stands. They will\nthen believe with me that to possess, or to wear, an ounce of foreign\ncloth is a crime against India and humanity. I am able to restrain\nmyself from committing suicide by starvation, only because I have faith\nin India's awakening, and her ability to put herself on the way to\nfreedom from this desolating pauperism. Without faith in such a\npossibility, I should cease to take interest in living. I invite the\nquestioner, and every other intelligent lover of his country, to take\npart in this privileged national service in making spinning universal by\nintroducing it in every home, and make it profitable for the nation by\nhelping to bring about a complete boycott of foreign cloth during this\nyear. I have finished the questions and endeavoured to answer them. The\nmost important from the practical stand-point was the one regarding\nspinning. I hope, I have demonstrated the necessity of home-spinning as\nthe only means of dealing with India's poverty. I know, however, that\ninnumerable difficulties face a worker in putting the doctrine into\nexecution. The most difficult, perhaps, is that of getting a proper\nwheel. Save in the Punjab where the art is still alive, the difficulty\nis very real. The carpenters have forgotten the construction and the\ninnocent workers are at their wit's end. The chief thing undoubtedly,\ntherefore, is for the worker to make himself acquainted with the art and\nthe handling of spinning wheels. I lay down some simple tests for\ntesting them. No machine that fails to satisfy the tests should be\naccepted or distributed.\n\n    (1) The wheel must turn easily, freely, and noiselessly.\n\n    (2) The turning handle must be rigidly fixed to the axle.\n\n    (3) The post must be properly driven home and joints\n    well-fixed.\n\n    (4) The spindle must turn noiselessly and without a throb in\n    its holders. Jarring sound cannot be avoided unless the\n    holders are made of knit straw as in the Punjab, or of tough\n    leather.\n\n    (5) No machine is properly made unless it manufactures in the\n    hands of a practised spinner at least 2-1/2 tolas of even and\n    properly twisted yarn of six counts in an hour. I know a\n    youngster, who has not had more than perhaps three months'\n    practice, having been able to spin 2-1/2 tolas of the above\n    quality of yarn in 35 minutes. No machine should be given\n    until it has been worked at least full one hour in the manner\n    suggested and found satisfactory.\n\n     _Y. I.--6th April 1921._\n\n\n\n\nTHE SPINNING WHEEL\n\n\n[On February 15, 1922, Mahatma Gandhi has addressed the following letter\nto Sir Daniel Hamilton from Bardoli on the Spinning Wheel.]\n\nDEAR SIR,\n\nMr. Hodge writes to me to say that you would like to have an hour's chat\nwith me, and he has suggested that I should open the ground which I\ngladly do. I will not take up your time by trying to interest you in any\nother activity of mine except the spinning wheel. Of all my outward\nactivities, I do believe that the spinning wheel is of the most\npermanent and the most beneficial. I have abundant proof now to support\nmy statement that the spinning wheel will solve the problem of economic\ndistress in millions of India's homes, and it constitutes an effective\ninsurance, against famines.\n\nYou know the great Scientist Dr. P. C. Ray, but you may not know that he\nhas also become an enthusiast on behalf of the spinning wheel. India\ndoes not need to be industrialized in the modern sense of the term. It\nhas 7,50,000 villages scattered over a vast area 1,900 miles long, 1,500\nmiles broad. The people are rooted to the soil, and the vast majority\nare living a hand-to-mouth life. Whatever may be said to the contrary,\nhaving travelled throughout the length and breadth of the land with eyes\nopen, and having mixed with millions, there can be no doubt that\npauperism is growing. There is no doubt also that the millions are\nliving in enforced idleness for at least 4 months in the year.\nAgriculture does not need revolutionary changes. The Indian peasant\nrequires a supplementary industry. The most natural is the introduction\nof the spinning wheel, not the hand-loom. The latter cannot be\nintroduced in every home, whereas the former can, and it used to be so\neven a century ago. It was driven out not by economic pressure but by\nforce deliberately used as can be proved from authentic records. The\nrestoration, therefore, of the spinning wheel solves the economic\nproblem of India at a stroke. I know that you are a lover of India, that\nyou are deeply interested in the economic and moral uplift of my\ncountry. I know too that you have great influence. I would like to\nenlist it on behalf of the spinning wheel. It is the most effective\nforce for introducing successful Co-Operative Societies. Without honest\nco-operation of the millions, the enterprise can never be successful,\nand as it is already proving a means of weaning thousands of women from\na life of shame, it is as moral an instrument as it is economic.\n\nI hope you will not allow yourself to be prejudiced by anything you\nmight have heard about my strange views about machinery. I have nothing\nto say against the development of any other industry in India by means\nof machinery but I do say that to supply India with cloth manufactured\neither outside or inside through gigantic mills is an economic blunder\nof the first magnitude just as it would be to supply cheap bread\nthrough huge bakeries established in the chief centres in India and to\ndestroy the family stove.\n\n     Yours faithfully,\n\n     M. K. GANDHI.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDICES\n\nBY\n\nMAGANLAL K. GANDHI\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nA MODEL WEAVING-SCHOOL\n\n\nAll the external activities of Satyagrahashram in connection with\nSwadeshi have for some time now been taken over by the Gujarat\nProvincial Congress Committee. People, who are in need of or wish to\nknow anything about ginning-wheels, spinning-wheels, looms and Khadi,\nare requested to correspond with the Secretary of the Khadi department\nof that Committee. The Ashram now only conducts a weaving-school, which\nteaches all the processes from ginning right up to weaving. The boys of\nthe Ashram school are at present taking the full course of instruction\nhere, and we have not the room to take up students from outside. Some\ndescription of the work done is given here in the hope, that it may\nperhaps furnish suggestions to outside students and to schools desirous\nof having spinning-classes attached to them.\n\nForty-nine spinning wheels are here regularly at work, over and above\ntwenty-five others which are reserved for beginners. All these are\nworked three to six hours per day. Some are worked for even seven or\neight hours. After a month's training, a friend worked twelve to\nfourteen hours daily for a number of days and thus proved the\npossibility of earning three annas a day. Another, a sister, spun nine\nto ten hours daily for some days after finishing her round of domestic\nbusiness. In a month and a half, she had spun enough to get _sadlas_ and\nother cloth woven out of yarn spun by herself, and actually began\nwearing these things. She is now-a-days spinning at the rate of eight\nhours a day. One day there was something wrong with this lady's\n_rentia_. She referred the matter to the present writer who set it\nright. But she was not satisfied. She complained again, and again was\nthe _rentia_ operated upon. But the wheel apparently suffered from some\noccult malady, which she was at a loss to diagnose. Every time its\nspinning power would get enfeebled. At last the poor lady lost all\npatience and was almost ready to weep. This was reported to me, and this\ntime I examined the wheel very critically and effected a perfect cure.\nIt now moved merrily, and merrily did the sister proceed with her work.\nIt is very desirable that all the wheels in a spinning-class be kept in\na perfect condition. When that is the case, the spinner does not tire\nand works cheerfully and speedily. Our class is attended by five ladies,\nwho spin five or six hours every day, and by twenty-three students of\nthe Ashram school, of whom eighteen are boys and five are girls. The\nconduct of this class is not an easy job. Their spirits are in continual\nneed of cheering. Some of them spin very rapidly. But sometimes there is\na grievous attack of head-ache, at other times the still more grievous\nattack of idleness. Sometimes the hand is fatigued, at other times the\nwheel gets out of repair.\n\nWe are now replacing the thick by a thin spindle. It is true that with\nthe slightest interference or rough handling, this thin spindle bends\nand begins to wobble. But it makes the movement of the wheel very smooth\nand easy, and also adds to its speed, as the revolutions are doubled\nfrom the fifty of the thick spindle to a hundred in the thin spindle\nfollowing from one revolution of the large wheel. The doubling of\nrevolutions does not mean a double output, but there is certainly a\nconsiderable increase. With the thick spindle, the wheel must go through\n8 or 10 revolutions for the drawing and winding of one length of yarn;\nwith the thin spindle, the revolutions of the wheel needed for that\npurpose are reduced to 4 or 5. Hence with the thin spindle, there is an\neconomy of labour. The speed of drawing the yarn by the hand is clearly\nlimited, so that 200 or 300 revolutions of the spindle instead of 100\nwould not double or treble the speed or the output. Advanced students\ndraw and wind two feet to two feet and a half of yarn every five\nseconds. This comes to 8 to 10 yards a minute. If the sliver is good and\nthe student in a spinning-mood, there is less breakage of yarn. Even\nconsidering the time lost on account of breakage and joining, some\nstudents are easily able to spin 400 to 500 yards of yarn of about 12\ncounts, fit for warp. This approximates to the speed of a mill spindle,\nand is therefore quite satisfactory. When the work is over, the student\nremoves the spindle from the wheel and keeps it in good preservation.\nYet accidents do occur. The class master must know how to repair a\nspindle which has thus gone wrong. He must also know how to put the\nwheel in good working order. The string which makes the spindle revolve\noften breaks, but if it is well-twisted, treated with wax, and then\nrubbed well with a piece of cloth, it becomes more durable and lasts for\na number of days.\n\nThe students generally like to work on the _rentia_. But the moment it\ngets a little wrong and cannot be soon corrected, they rise and flee.\nNot only the beginners but even advanced scholars are sometimes\nconfused, when called upon to set right such a simple machine as the\nspinning-wheel. A veteran leader who set the non-co-operating students\nof engineering at work upon the spinning-wheel, made the remark that\nEnglish education has incapacitated our young men. It was with great\npain that he said this. And it is the simple truth of the matter. We can\nclearly see, that as a result of this education, we have not only lost\nthe power of our hands and feet, but we also lack in patience and\nperseverance. We cannot bear to take the trouble of correcting anything\nthat is wrong. Newspaper leader-writers question the educative value of\nspinning and doubt its efficacy in driving away poverty from our midst.\nTheir doubts would vanish if ever they tried and saw for themselves what\nchildren gain from the spinning-wheel. But these writers are themselves\nthe product of English education. To expect them to be patient, is to\nforget the character of the discipline to which they have been subject.\nThere is no better test than the spinning-wheel, if we wish to\nascertain whether our children are educated in the real and the proper\nsense of that term.\n\nMany people still question the economic value of hand spinning. But I\nbelieve that the results of our experiments may perhaps lead them to\nreconsider their views. I will here put down the statistics of our own\nclass. Among our students there are five playful children, who spin only\nwhen the spirit possesses them. But all of them spin good yarn fit for\nwarp. Hardly any spin yarn below 10 counts. Many spin yarn of about 15\ncounts. Now-a-days the boys are giving four hours to spinning. Formerly\nthey used to work six hours daily, but then there was a tendency to\noccasional slackness. Now we have ruled that when once a student has\nspun a length of 1000 yards, he may be allowed to leave the spinning\nclass, and learn carding etc. This arrangement has had excellent\nefforts. All spin without losing a moment and spin 1000 yards in two to\nfour hours according to the skill acquired. And the yarn thus produced\nis pretty uniform, well twisted, and fit for warp. We have fixed a round\nwire frame on the axle of the wheel just near the handle, with a\ncircumference of 4 feet. This frame is used for opening the cone into a\nhank. 750 revolutions of this mean a thousand yards of yarn. Most\nstudents count the revolutions, while they are moving the frame, and\nhence do not take much additional time for calculations. Some are not\nable to practice this, and they count the length after they have\nprepared the hank.\n\n1000 yards of yarn of six counts weigh 8 _tolas_. (840 yards make a\nhank. If six such hanks weigh a pound, the yarn is of 6 counts. Hence\n840 yards of six count of yarn weigh 6-2/3 _tolas_.) 4 annas is a quite\nproper wage for spinning one pound of six-count yarn of a standard\nquality. This means a wage of nine pies and a half for spinning 8\n_tolas_. But most of our students spin yarn of 12 to 15 counts, and even\nfiner. And this is quite good and fit for weaving. The wage for a\nthousand yards of finer yarn must be proportionately higher; as the\nfiner the yarn, the greater the number of twists to be given to it.\nTwelve-count yarn requires nearly half as much twisting again as\nsix-count yarn. Hence the wage of a thousand yards of twelve-count yarn\nmust be half as much again as that of the same length of six-count yarn.\nBut this proportionately higher wage makes the hand-spun yarn much\ndearer than the mill-made yarn of the same count. If we take 8 and 12\nannas to be the wage for spinning a pound of yarn of 12 and 16 counts\nrespectively, the wage for spinning a length of 1000 yards of the same\ncounts will be 10 or 11 pies. One student spins this amount in 2 hours,\nseveral in 3 hours and the rest in 4.\n\nOn the last _Amavasya_ it was twenty two days since the students set\nregularly to work after the _vaishaka_ vacation. Deducting three\nholidays on Sundays and three half-holidays on Wednesdays, we get\nseventeen and a half working days. There was an average attendance of\ntwenty two students out of twenty three. Twenty two students spun in\nseventeen days and a half twenty four _shers_ and a half of yarn of\nabout fourteen counts. If we take ten annas to be the average wage for\nspinning a _sher_, this comes to fifteen rupees and four annas. This is\nexclusive of Rs. 1-11-0 which is the wage of 18 pounds of cotton carded\nand made into slivers by one student in 12 days, calculated at an anna\nand a half per pound. It is also exclusive of the extra work put in by\nstudents on five or six days after finishing their daily quota of 1000\nyds. of yarn by way of carding and opening yarn for weaving tapes and\ncarpets. These students gave some of their private time also to this\nwork.\n\nThere is no doubt, that the figures will mount higher when the students\nacquire the habit of methodical work. But whatever the pecuniary value\nof their work might be, method in work itself will be an acquisition\nbeyond all price.\n\nSo much for the spinning department. I hope to be able to deal with the\nweaving department on another occasion.\n\n     _Y. I.--21st July 1921_.\n\n\n\n\nSPINNING DEPARTMENT\n\n\nI should like to add a few more facts about the spinning department,\nbefore I come to weaving.\n\nIn _Ashadha_ the students were more energetic than before. The number of\nregular students was 21, and these in 23 working days (there being six\nholidays in the month) spun 30 pounds and 24 _tolas_ of yarn of about 12\ncounts on the average, fit for warp. At ten annas a pound, this means a\nwage of Rs. 19-2-0. The total number of hours of spinning was 1337. At 4\nhours a day it should have been 1932 (23 number of days \u00d7 21 number of\nstudents \u00d7 4). This deficiency is not due to idleness, nor to headache.\nComplaints of idleness have now quite ceased. And students now\nunderstand that headache may prevent one from reading or working sums\nbut not from spinning. They have also realised that if the arms are\nfatigued by fetching water or swimming, there is nothing like spinning\nfor removing the fatigue. The thing is that those students who have\nmastered spinning were engaged in carding and other process. If full\ntime had been given to spinning, we would have turned out a\nproportionately bigger quantity of yarn.\n\nThe spinning power of the students is increasing every day. The student\nwho spun 7 _tolas_ an hour during the Satyagraha week is now no longer a\nprodigy and others are fast overtaking him. One day a girl spun 9\n_tolas_ of uniform and well-twisted 12-count yarn in 6 hours. At the\nabove rate this means a wage of 2 annas 3 pies. For 8 hours therefore\nthe wage would be 3 annas, for 12 hours 4 annas 6 pies, for 14 hours 5\nannas 3 pies. But it is hardly necessary to emphasise the pecuniary\nvalue of the work, so far as schools are concerned. The point is that by\nconstituting spinning as a permanent part of our school curricula we\nprovide manual training of the highest kind and at the same time prepare\nfor the re-advent of a day when spinning will be as much a part of our\ndomestic economy as say cooking.\n\n     _Y. I.--11th Aug. '21_.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ADVANTAGE OF THE THIN SPINDLE\n\n\nSince we introduced the thin Spindle, we have been keeping a number of\nthem in reserve. When a student has his spindle bent, it is not\ncorrected there and then but he is at once given one of the spare good\nones, so there is no delay. Afterwards all the spindles that have gone\nwrong are collected and corrected together.\n\nThe _sadi_, i.e. the wrapping on the spindle which serves as a pulley,\nis often cut by itself and has sometimes to be cut off in order to\ncorrect the spindle. A new _sadi_ has to be wrapped and for this a\nbottle of thick gum is kept ready at hand. It must be made of fine\nstrong yarn, and be wrapped very tight. If it is loose, the string which\nrevolves the spindle (_mala_) sinks in it and cuts it asunder, and at\nonce the spindle stops. If the _sadi_ is made of coarse yarn, it\nbecomes rough, and so the _mala_ does not run smoothly, and the spindle\nthrobs and causes breakage of the yarn while it is being spun.\n\nPairs of _chamarakhan_ (leather-bearing) also are kept in reserve. When\nthese become too soft by an excess of oiling or by rough handling, they\nmust be changed. Now-a-days we make them from raw hides and not from\nleather or bamboo, and so they keep longer.\n\nFormerly a round piece of wood or cardboard used to serve as a rest for\nwinding the cone. But now we have substituted a piece of horn which is\nmore durable. Wax is kept in stock for treating the _mala_. Besides\nthese things we have a small oil-can, a pen-knife, a hammer, a chisel,\nand a small anvil.\n\nThe students bring the hank twisted hard in the shape of a stick. The\nhank weighs two _tolas_, which is the standard weight of the sliver\nprovided. A bigger hank causes trouble while we open it, and the yarn is\nspoilt. The yarn spun by each student is kept separate with his name\nupon a wooden tag attached to it. Every student is asked to stick to\none particular count all along till he has spun out enough for a length\nof warp; and then the yarn is sent to the weaving department. Every one\nis anxious to see when his yarn is sent out for weaving. Three such\nlengths of warp are being woven at present. About seven are ready\nwaiting to be woven. An eleven year old girl will soon get a piece 20\nyards long and 42 inches wide out of yarn spun by herself in the course\nof three months. This will provide her with two suits of clothing of two\nsmall _sadis_, 2 blouses and 2 petticoats. Her father had put in a pound\nof yarn spun by himself, to finish up the piece, and in return for this,\nshe is going to spare a _dhoti_ for him too. She is as much pleased to\nsee the cloth woven from her own yarn as most girls would be to see\nbrocade. Two other girls have combined their stock of yarn and are daily\nasking for it to be woven. Those students who have passed out from the\nspinning class are engaged in other departments, and have not much time\nto spare for spinning; so they work on holidays and prepare woof for\ntheir own warps, which are waiting to be woven. So in the second month,\nthe spinning department is in full swing.\n\n     _Y. I.--18th Aug. 1921._\n\n\n\n\nHAND-LOOMS\n\n\nThe working of the spinning class having been fully described in the\nfirst two articles, the process next to be taken up is carding; but\nhaving received a number of queries as to the working of hand-looms, I\npropose to deal with this before going into intermediate processes.\n\nQuestions are asked as to which will be the most useful loom for weaving\nhand-spun yarn. Some want our opinion about the automatic looms; others\ninsist upon the necessity of inventing a new swift-working machine,\nwhile still others ask for monetary help to prepare such after their own\ndesigns.\n\nMy humble but firm opinion is that the old pit-loom is the best,\nespecially for weaving hand-spun yarn. No doubt it is the slowest\nworking instrument but is the surest of all, and just as our old\nspinning-wheel in spite of its being the slowest instrument is\nabsolutely capable of spinning out all the cotton that India produces\nto-day, so the old pit-loom is perfectly capable of weaving out all the\nyarn that India can produce by means of the spinning wheels and the\nmills.\n\nThis is not the time to enter into the figures in support of my\nstatement. I shall only try to show the usefulness of the pit-loom. The\nfly-shuttle loom has its place in the sphere of home industry as well as\nof the factory, but the automatic looms have no room in this industry.\nIts drawbacks can only be realized by a study of the facts and figures\nregarding concerns which employ such looms. People who newly take up\nthis industry should beware of flashy advertisements. They should not be\nmisled by professed calculations of the working of such looms.\n\nThe fly-shuttle looms have varying adjustments. In the Muzzaffarpur\nspinning and weaving exhibition held in May last, a party from this\nschool was present with its wheel and loom. Of all the fly-shuttle\nlooms exhibited, the one from this school was selected as the simplest\nand lightest of all. It is all made of wood, with the exception of nails\nand screws required for joining. The pickers are also made entirely of\nwood. The shuttle and perns are home-made. Other looms had iron bars in\ntheir boxes, were operated with foreign shuttles, and their perns were\nunwieldy. Our loom is modelled upon a type of looms working in thousands\nin the Madras Presidency. The whole loom with a wooden frame to fit on a\npit, with the exception of the shields and reed costs Rs. 45. These\nlatter things are not supplied, as there is no fixed standard of the\nyarn to be used on it.\n\nI wish some public spirited person or firm will come forward in Madras\nor elsewhere in that presidency and undertake to supply the fly-shuttle\nloom as described above promptly and at reasonable rates. Any one\ndesirous of taking up this work may correspond with the head of the\n_Khadi_ Department, Gujarat Provincial Congress Committee Ahmedabad.\n\nThus far as regards the fly-shuttle looms. I suggest to new\nmanufacturers that they cannot do better than start with the old\nfashioned pit-looms. It is our experience that on account of less\nbreakage of yarn, especially hand-spun yarn, the output of a pit-loom\nalmost equals and in some cases even exceeds that of the fly-shuttle\nloom. In weaving broader width, however, the fly-shuttle is certainly\nmore convenient. And when the hand-spun yarn is of good test, it enjoys\na decided advantage over the old loom in point of swiftness. But we have\nto remember that we have got to deal with hand-spun yarn which is not\nlikely to have a good test for some time to come. It is therefore that\nthe old loom is the safest and surest weaving instrument to go on with\nfor the present.\n\n     _Y. I.--25th Aug. 1921._\n\n\n\n\nWHAT KIND OF LOOM?\n\n\nQuestions are asked as to the production of cloths in an old-fashioned\nloom from handspun yarn. The experience in our school is, that a\nwell-practised worker weaves on a pit-loom one yard cloth of 30 inches\nwidth and of fairly thick texture in one hour. Cloth of greater or\nsmaller width varies in proportion. Our fly-shuttle pit-loom has not\nexceeded this figure in handspun yarn so far. When formerly we used\nmill-made yarn, it yielded about half as much cloth again as the old\npit-loom. However in weaving _dhotiyans_ and _sadis_ from handspun as\nwell as mill-made yarn the flyshuttle is very handy.\n\nThen there is a question as to the necessity of beaming the yarn. We\nbelieve, that where there is no question of room, beaming should be\ndispensed with. Hand-loom weaving factories situated in thickly\npopulated towns where rates of house-rent are very high, have reason to\nresort to beaming; but where space allows stretching of the yarn as\npractised by the professional weavers, it is a time-saving method and is\nartistic as well. There is an argument in favour of beaming that it\nallows of the handling of warp as long as 200 or even 300 yards. But if\nsuch length of handspun yarn can be prepared, it is equally easy, if not\neasier, to stretch it in the old style.\n\n\n\n\nSIZING HANDSPUN YARN\n\n\nIt is said, that the difficulty of sizing handspun yarn is a serious\nhandicap from which the movement suffers. As a matter of fact, the\nmethod of sizing it should be no different from that of sizing mill-made\nyarn. It is slipshod spinning which is at the bottom of this difficulty.\nThe best way out of it is to organise and improve the production of\nhandspun yarn. It is superstition to say that the yarn spun on the\n_charkha_ cannot be strong and even. Where proper care is taken, it does\nimprove and even surpass mill-made yarn in some respects. Punjab and\nMarwad, where spinning has been carried on from past times, have also to\nimprove their yarn. Not that the spinners there do not know their work,\nbut they as well as the merchants who purchase their yarn are careless\nabout the quality of the yarn turned out. Unless this work is taken up\nby men imbued with the true Swadeshi spirit, the condition is not likely\nto improve. The spinners should be visited at their work from time to\ntime, and proper instructions as to the required twist and test to be\ngiven to the yarn should be imparted to them. The payment of a\nreasonably higher wage than the present is another way of improving the\nyarn. The wages we have arranged for our guidance are given below in the\nform of a table. Where living is cheaper than in Gujarat, they can be\nadjusted accordingly. The yarn having improved, the difficulty of sizing\nwill disappear.\n\nWhen a country weaver shows inability to weave hand-spun yarn, it means\nthat he cannot weave it in the same reed space as he uses for the\nmill-made yarn. This is quite evident. The hand-spun yarn not being\neven, it requires wider reed space. The table given below also shows the\nnumber of ends of different counts to be drawn in an inch of a reed.\nThen if the cloth to be woven is meant for shirting or coating and not\nfor _dhotiyan_ or _sadi_, and if the yarn has a good test, two to four\nends can be added to the number denoted in the table.\n\n  Column headings:\n\n  C: Count.\n  T: Approximate twist per inch.\n  R: Rounds on 4 feet hank frame.\n\n  +---+------+--------+----+-----+------------+------------+--------------+\n  |   |      |        |    |     | Number of  | Number of  |   Rates of   |\n  |   |      |  Wage  |    |     | ends in an |   double   | weaving per  |\n  | C | Test.|  per   | T  |  R  |  inch of   | ends in an | square yard. |\n  |   |      | pound. |    |     |   reed.    |   inch.    | Rs.  A.  P.  |\n  +---+------+--------+----+-----+------------+------------+--------------+\n  | 6 | Warp | 0  4 0 | 10 |  96 |  24 to 28  |  18 to 22  |  0   4   0   |\n  |   |      |        |    |     |            |            |              |\n  | 6 | Weft | 0  3 0 |  8 |  \"  |     ...    |     ...    |     ...      |\n  |   |      |        |    |     |            |            |              |\n  | 9 | Warp | 0  6 0 | 12 | 144 |  26 to 32  |  20 to 24  |  0   4   6   |\n  |   |      |        |    |     |            |            |              |\n  | 9 | Weft | 0  4 6 | 10 |  \"  |     ...    |     ...    |     ...      |\n  |   |      |        |    |     |            |            |              |\n  |12 | Warp | 0 10 0 | 14 | 192 |  30 to 34  |  22 to 26  |  0   5   0   |\n  |   |      |        |    |     |            |            |              |\n  |12 | Weft | 0  8 0 | 12 |  \"  |     ...    |     ...    |     ...      |\n  |   |      |        |    |     |            |            |              |\n  |16 | Warp | 0 12 0 | 16 | 256 |  34 to 38  |  24 to 28  |  0   5   6   |\n  |   |      |        |    |     |            |            |              |\n  |16 | Weft | 0 10 0 | 13 |  \"  |     ...    |     ...    |     ...      |\n  |   |      |        |    |     |            |            |              |\n  |20 | Warp | 1  0 0 | 18 | 320 |  40 to 44  |  28 to 32  |  0   6   0   |\n  |   |      |        |    |     |            |            |              |\n  |20 | Weft | 0 13 0 | 15 |  \"  |     ...    |     ...    |     ...      |\n  +---+------+--------+----+-----+------------+------------+--------------+\n\nIf the yarn is very weak and uneven, it should be woven with two ends in\nwarp as well as in weft. This will give a strong texture to the cloth,\nmaking the process of weaving easy at the same time. The proportion in\nthis case of ends to be drawn in an inch of the reed space is also given\nin the above table. If this course is adopted, heaps of handspun yarn\nthat have accumulated all over the country can be woven out without much\ndifficulty.\n\nAs a fact, the method of sizing traditionally followed by the weavers\ncannot be improved upon. Their selection of the sizing material is\nappropriate to the climate, season and circumstances. For the most part\nthey use the staple corn. Jawari and maize being the cheapest are used\nin many parts. In the rainy season, however, they use wheat flour as a\nstronger sizing material to counteract the over-softening influence of\nthe moisture present in the air. In the Madras Presidency, a cereal\ncalled _ragi_ with a yellowish flour is used for coarse counts, while\nrice is used for finer counts. Rice and wheat are the best ingredients\nfor sizing. The proportion used is from 10 per cent required for fine\nyarn to 20 per cent for coarse yarn.\n\nDifferent preparations of various sizing materials are as follow:--\n\n_Wheat_: Weigh the warp first. Then according to its fineness or\ncoarseness, take fine wheat flour or _Menda_ from 10 to 20 per cent of\nits weight, knead it well with water to form a thin paste, taking care\nthat no lump remains. Boil some water just enough to soak the warp, then\nadd the paste previously prepared and keep on stirring till the granules\nare well-cooked and the whole substance is reduced to the form of thin\ngruel. To every such preparation of one pound of flour, one ounce of\nsesamum or sweet oil should be added. This will give softness and\nsmoothness to the threads of the warp and keep them from sticking to one\nanother. Cocoanut or castor oil is also used as a lubricant. Any of\nthese is good, except only that the castor oil will give a bad odour and\na dull colour to the warp. The size thus prepared is then slowly poured\non to the warp, which is kept folded on a gunny cloth or a clean slab.\nThe warp is beaten with both the hands, while the process of pouring is\ngoing on, and when it is thoroughly saturated all over, it is spread out\nin the open and brushed repeatedly in one direction, often bringing the\ndown side up till it gets dried. One or two or more persons according to\nthe length of the warp are engaged in brushing, while several others are\njoining broken threads and shifting the sticks in the warp from one\nlease to another.\n\nThis is the most thorough of all the methods of sizing. The ends of\nfibres lying loose on every thread of the warp are straightened, and\nstuck fast round the thread by the process of brushing. The thread is\nrendered smooth and strong like wire, and the work of weaving is made\nall the easier by it. Thus swiftness in weaving is ensured. To master\nthis requires long practice but it is worth the while of every student\nto do so. For an energetic youth about three hours' work under an expert\nevery morning for two months or so is sufficient. With two assistants or\nmore he will then be able to manage the brush-sizing himself without\nthe aid of an expert. A less active person will take four or six months'\npractice.\n\nThe preparation of size from jawari and maize flour is just the same as\nfrom wheat flour, except that the flour of these cereals not being so\nfine as wheat flour, a larger quantity is required in their case.\n\nSome people advise that wheat flour should be soaked for at least two\ndays before it is boiled with water. It is said that the adherent\nquality of the flour is enhanced by this process.\n\n_Rice._ The preparation from rice is simpler still. The required\nquantity of rice is boiled well with a quantity of water larger than\nthat used for ordinary cooking and is allowed to remain for 12 to 24\nhours. It is then strained through a piece of cloth tied over or into\nthe mouth of a large vessel, more water being added as required in the\nprocess of straining. The strained matter is then reduced to consistent\nthinness; then oil is added to it in proportion as described above.\n\nRice is sometimes preferred to wheat, as it gives besides strength a\nfine gloss to the warp.\n\nThe thing to be borne in mind is that the yarn meant for preparing warp\nmust be made thoroughly absorbent beforehand. For this, all the hanks\nmust be connected in the form of one chain. It is then folded together,\nplaced into a big vessel, whether of earth or metal, containing water\nenough to soak the yarn and then well pressed with both the feet for\nsome time. It is left in this condition for two or three days, during\nwhich period it is beaten with a wooden club on a slab twice every day.\nIt should be remembered that, unless it is beaten, it does not soak\nthrough for days. If it is not soaked well, it is incapable of absorbing\nthe sizing material, and is imperfectly sized. The cotton fibre has a\nnatural oily coating on it, which is removed by soaking it as described\nbefore or by boiling it for some time. It does not become thoroughly\nabsorbent, till it is treated in this manner. After two or three days,\nwhen the yarn is well soaked, the chain is opened out and dried in\nshade, every hank being hung separately on a bamboo. Before it gets\ncompletely dried, it is well shaken with both the hands twice or thrice,\nso that the threads do not stick to one another. The Madrasi weavers are\nused to pouring rice water (generally thrown away when the rice is\nboiled) on the yarn, before it is dried out in the manner described\nabove. This gives greater strength to the yarn, and causes less breakage\nin the process of winding and preparing it into warp.\n\nThe other method of sizing resorted to by the weavers is called\nhank-sizing. It is an easy process, and though not so efficient as\nbrush-sizing, it answers well if carefully performed. In this case the\nyarn, before it is made up into a warp, is soaked, hank by hank, into\nthe size prepared from wheat or rice as described above, and after\npressing off the size a little from the hank with the thumb and a\nfinger, the hank, wet as it is, is wound up on a bobbin. The warp is\nprepared immediately while the bobbin is wet, each thread drying on the\nwarping sticks as soon as another is drawn out. The warp thus prepared\nis fit for weaving.\n\nWe have tried hank-sizing in a weak solution of ordinary gum. It works\nwell in dry season, but makes the yarn moist in wet season on account of\nits absorbent quality.\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nTHE WHEEL OF FORTUNE\n\n\nMr. Gandhi during his visit to Assam and Eastern Bengal has observed,\nthat the type of _charkha_ in use in those parts is deficient in many\nways. The same is perhaps the case in other provinces. As we believe\nthat the _charkha_ in the Satyagrahashram is a model of its kind, we\ngive below a diagram with measurements of all its parts with an\nexplanation of their relative functions.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe rear base with mark _1_ is one foot 9 inches long, 4 inches wide and\n3 inches high.\n\nThe front base with mark _2_ is 9 inches long, 4 inches wide and 3\ninches high.\n\nThe long piece which joins the two bases, marked _3_, is 3 feet long\n(including joints), 3 inches wide and 2 inches high.\n\nThe large uprights marked _4_ are 1 foot 6 inches long including joints,\n2 inches wide, and 3 inches deep. They are fixed on the back base 9\ninches apart. The holes in which the axle rests are made 2 inches below\nthe top. These holes contain bearings of thin iron plates to secure easy\nmotion of the axle. The bearings are kept open at the top to allow\naccess of oil through a slanting hole bored on the outward sides of both\nthe uprights, one inch above the axle.\n\nThe small uprights marked _5_ are 9 inches long with joints 1-1/2 inches\nwide and 1-1/2 inches deep, with holes 4 inches below the top to contain\nthe leather bearings which bear the spindle. They are fixed 3 inches\napart on the front base and are connected together 2 inches above the\nbase with a piece of a wood of the same thickness. This joining piece\ncontains in the middle 2 sticks half an inch apart to regulate the\nposition of the _mala_ (the string which revolves the spindle) on the\nspindle.\n\nAnother piece marked _6_ and joined parallelly to the left upright is\nmeant to bear a hole for leather bearing when a thin spindle is to be\nused.\n\nThe drum or wheel consists of 8 planks such as the one marked _7_, each\nbeing 2 feet long, 4 inches wide and 3/4 inch thick. They are divided in\ntwo wings of 4 planks each, each containing two couples of planks joined\ndiametrically with a groove in the middle.\n\nBoth the wings are nailed on to the wooden shaft marked _8_, its size\nbeing 4-1/2 inches long and 4 inches diameter.\n\nThrough the middle of this shaft passes a long round iron bar, which\nserves as an axle. It is 19 inches long and half an inch thick. Its end,\nwhere the handle is fixed is made square to ensure firmness of the\nhandle.\n\nA wooden washer one inch thick is fixed to the axle on either side of\nthe drum to avoid its contact with the uprights.\n\nThe handle is shaped put of a wooden piece of 2 inches \u00d7 2 inches \u00d7\n1-1/2 feet long.\n\nThe reel noticed in the diagram between the drum and the handle is\ncomposed of a wooden disc marked _9_ made out of 1 inch thick and 6\ninches square piece of wood. Six brackets made of galvanized wire of 10\ngauge radiate from the centre of the disc so as to make a circumference\nof 4 feet. The brackets are fixed in the back of the disc with bent ends\nand are further secured with small nails near the circumference of the\ndisc.\n\nA wire noose is fixed on the back base just below the reel to regulate\nthe yarn when wound up on the reel from a bobbin or directly from the\nspindle.\n\nA 4 inches long bamboo pin is fixed in the inward side of the front base\nparallelly to the long plank marked 3. It is meant to hold the bobbin\nwhile opening out yarn from it. When the yarn is opened from the\nspindle directly, it is held in the left hand with the point towards the\nreel. The right hand is employed in turning the reel by the handle of\nthe _charkha_.\n\nThe figure _10_, indicates the position of the spinner.\n\n\n\n\nCORRECTIONS:\n\n\n  Page  Original                            Correction\n  ----  --------                            ----------\n  vii   Indian Economics  33                Indian Economics  34\n  viii  Hand Looms  140                     Hand-Looms  140\n  7     and setting their manufactures      and selling their manufactures\n  10    as a miser uses his horde.          as a miser uses his hoard.\n  27    and left her coarse                 and felt her coarse\n  28    organasing Swadeshi propaganda      organising Swadeshi propaganda\n  28    Every drop counts Swadeshi          Every drop counts. Swadeshi\n  32    from patroitic motives              from patriotic motives\n  34    expressed in this buelletin         expressed in this bulletin\n  35    being aginst the law                being against the law\n  36    the another does represent          the author does represent\n  40    utlise the idle hours               utilise the idle hours\n  44    It is needness to say               It is needless to say\n  46    more than his due And I             more than his due. And I\n  54    Shrimati Sarala Devi Choudhrani     Shrimati Sarala Devi Chaudhrani\n  57    bids fare to bear fruit.            bids fair to bear fruit.\n  69    earned As. 4                        earned As. 4.\n  69    he is a victim to-day.              he is a victim to to-day.\n  72    of 62\u00b77 crores pounds               of 62.7 crores pounds\n  81    that he maufactures                 that he manufactures\n  82    about literary trainning.           about literary training.\n  87    Mr, Amritlal Thakkar                Mr. Amritlal Thakkar\n  97    potent instrument, the spinning     potent instrument the spinning\n  102   who absolutely know nothing         who absolutely knew nothing\n  103   Rs. 3-9 for it practically          Rs. 3-9 for it, practically\n  104   about weaving, a separate room      about weaving, a separate loom\n  123   [missing] A MODEL                   I [new line] A MODEL\n  132   will be an acpuisition              will be an acquisition\n  134   The students who spun [...] is      The student who spun [...] is\n  134   for 12 hours 4 annas 6pies          for 12 hours 4 annas 6 pies\n  136   and cuts it as under,               and cuts it asunder,\n  138   too suits of clothing               two suits of clothing\n  138   as most girl would be               as most girls would be\n  139   Y.I.--18th Aug. 1921.               [Y. not in italics]\n  142   of the hields                       of the shields\n  142   costs Rs. 45                        costs Rs. 45.\n  142   Provincial Congress Commitee        Provincial Congress Committee","title":"The Wheel of Fortune","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":25511}