Peter N. Herndon
Gandhi believed that hand spinning, combined with weaving on hand looms, was the only logical way for the people of India to become self-sufficient and independent. He claimed that if India employed his methods, poverty would be greatly reduced if not totally eliminated. He said, “I feel convinced that the revival of hand-spinning and hand-weaving will make the largest contribution to the economic and the moral regeneration of India.” (Young India, July 21, 1920). Consider the fact that at the time Gandhi returned to India in 1914 most of India’s farmers were idle for four months of the year, a factor which greatly contributed to their poverty and hopelessness. Gandhi believed that if the poor people of India would learn to spin thread from cotton or flax at home and diligently applied these newly learned skills they could overcome many of their economic and social ills. Among Gandhi’s arguments for home spinning were these:
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1. it is easily learnt;
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2. it requires practically no outlay of capital;
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3. the wheels can be easily and cheaply made.Most of us do not yet know that spinning can be done even with a piece of tile and splinter;
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4. it alone can stop the drain of wealth which goes outside India in the purchase of foreign cloth;
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5. it automatically distributes the millions thus saved among the deserving poor;
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6.
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it is the most potent instrument of securing cooperation among the people.
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(Young India, December, 8, 1921)
Gandhi realized early on that there were many obstacles to his program. First, the middle classes would also have to take up this cause in order to recruit the numbers necessary to supply the need for domestic cloth. Second, the people would have to be convinced to wear a rougher type of cloth than the fine mill cloth already available. Third, there were huge logistical problems pertaining to training, manufacture and distribution. Could enough people be found who were willing to volunteer their time to help alleviate the poverty of others? Could a sufficient market for homespun Indian cloth be created? It would take a major effort from students and members of India’s middle class to instruct and organize the poor villagers so that the country as a whole would benefit. Yet Gandhi’ logic was simple and difficult to refute:
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Is it waste of energy for young men to be going to the villages, studying their wants, feeling for them and helping them onward? Is it waste of energy for thousands of well-to-do young men and women to think of the poor half-fed millions and for their sake to set apart half an hour religiously to spinning on their behalf? . . . If one man or woman spins as a sacrifice, it is also much gain. If there is one activity in which it is all gain and no loss, it is hand spinning.” (Young India, August, 21 1924)
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Sacrifice would be the key for Gandhi. Sacrifice and organization. Mobilize the people. Give them a cause worth fighting for and he believed they would respond. He saw idleness as a great evil which was destroying the will and initiative of the Indian people. In addition to helping to alleviate poverty and end idleness, Gandhi saw that the spinning movement would help to organize the people in villages, give them a sense of hope and help to instill a sense of community across barriers of class and caste. He believed with all his soul that India could turn its winter of despair into a “sunshine of hope” through the life-giving wheel, the Charka.
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What Gandhi called “Khadi economics” was unique in several ways. The home-spinning movement was rooted in people’s need for cloth and clothing, but with no sense of competition with other villages or even the making of profits beyond paying for materials and a living wage to the workers. The spinners and weavers were not producing for export, but primarily to meet the immediate needs of a local geographical area. A major key to success, according to Gandhi, was to convince the local people of the importance of wearing articles of homespun (khadi) so that production efforts met local needs in response to local styles and preferences. The temptation to produce for profit at any level, whether it be cotton growers or cloth distributors had to be balanced with the overall goal of keeping the khadi cloth prices at the lowest possible level. Again, Gandhi’s emphasis on the principle of self-sacrifice was paramount.
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For Gandhi, spinning was a universal cure for suffering and poverty. It was also a means of uplifting a nation that was under the heel of a foreign power, England. Gandhi saw himself as a man with a vision, but also a man who had an obligation to communicate by deed as well as word. For Gandhi the activity of spinning was much more than an economic exercise, it had moral and spiritual implications as well.
I think of the poor of India every time that I draw a thread on the wheel. For a person suffering from the pangs of hunger, and desiring nothing but to fill his belly, his belly is his God. To him anyone who gives him bread is his master. Through him he many even see God. . . . Therefore I have described my spinning (a daily activity) as a penance or sacrament. And, since I believe that where there is pure and active love for the poor there is God also, I see God in every thread that I draw on the spinning wheel. (Khadi, pages 110-111)
By “penance” Gandhi meant a duty or sacrifice to make up for years of neglect and exploitation by the upper and middle classes which resulted in the widespread poverty of the lower classes. He believed that it was the moral duty of all middle and upper class people to devote time to help India’s Harijans, or outcasts.
Gandhi widely promoted the idea that if everyone in India devoted just a half-hour each day to what he called “sacrificial” or voluntary spinning, this effort would provide the poor weavers with enough yarn to make a decent living and also create a spiritual revolution in India. Gandhi called his vision for India “illimitable faith.” Just as the spinner had to believe that his small contribution of yarn, when pooled together with others’ contributions, would be enough to clothe all of India, Gandhi asked of all citizens to have the faith that truth and non-violence would eventually overcome all obstacles, providing that the leaders and disciples of the home spinning movement continually devoted themselves to principles of truth and purity.
According to Gandhi, the Indian people’s proper attitude toward hand spinning was inexorably linked to one’s ability to put aside one’s own personal needs and desires and replace them with a love for others, particularly the poor. For Gandhi, to achieve this attitude was impossible without a belief in the unconditional power of the love of God working within a person’s heart.
You might ask how it is possible to find God through the spinning wheel. . . . One has to learn to efface self or the ego voluntarily and as a sacrifice in order to find God. The spinning wheel rules out exclusiveness. It stands for all, including the poorest. It, therefore, requires us to be humble and to cast away pride completely. When self is shed the change will be reflected in our outward behavior. . . . Everything we do will be undertaken not for little self but for all. (Khadi, page 115)
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The activity of the wheel allowed the spinner precious time to reflect and think, even meditate or pray. The repetitive spinning of the wheel was an activity that, once initiated, had no real beginning or end, and perhaps reminded the operator of things eternalthe nature of God , the eternal nature of poverty and suffering, or the continuous cycle of birth and rebirth. During this process the mind was free to dwell on things other than one’s personal worries and cares. Gandhi believed to the extent that the spinner was able to turn away from self-centered thoughts and became more others-centered he or she would reach a higher sense of purpose and become more aware of God and His purposes. Pride would be replaced with compassion for the poor. With an attitude of what Gandhi called “penance” the operator’s mind would be renewed as he or she became more and more aware of the small but important part he or she was playing in a greater Plan.
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To find God one need not go out anywhere. He resides in our hearts. But if we install self or ego there we dethrone God. . . . Although He is the King of kings, Most High, Almighty, yet He is at the beck and call of anyone who has reduced himself to zero and turns to Him in uttermost humility of spirit. Let us
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then become poor in spirit and find Him within ourselves. (Khadi, page 115)
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