FOREIGN-CLOTH BOYCOTT

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

E-mail- [e-mail];[e-mail]

 

 

 

FOREIGN-CLOTH BOYCOTT

 

 

 

 It is a matter of great pleasure to me as I hope it is to every nationalist that Sjt. Jairamdas has been able promptly to respond to my call on behalf of the Foreign-Cloth Boycott Committee to take up its Secretaryship and as a necessary corollary to give up his seat in the Bombay Legislative Council. Jairamdas is not a man to take up a cause he does not believe in His coming therefore as a whole-time worker is in my opinion a great gain to the movement. If the public will similarly respond to the call that will be made upon them from time to time by the Foreign-Cloth Boycott Committee, the country should be able to show a definite advance inside of a few months. Given popular determination boycott is a matter of careful organization. Two things will have to go together, sale and production of khadi. The moment there is a real intention on the part of the public for boycott of foreign cloth, there will be a great rush for khadi. If production does not anticipate the demand for khadi, there is danger of a severe disappointment and a consequent loss of faith in the possibility of boycott for mere want of khadi. It is therefore necessary for the public not to purchase more khadi than they need.

They should try to cut down their rations as far as possible. I am studiously silent about the indigenous mills. It is my firm belief that mills, by reason of the limitations under which they must work, will fail us in the end if we rely upon them. Then they, being concerns predominantly for making profits irrespective of national considerations, will not scruple to exploit the public and even to sell foreign cloth as swadeshi. I have already exposed in these pages the fraudulent sale of mill-cloth under the name of khadi. Lastly all mills are not swadeshi because they have their habitation in India as the existing Government is not swadeshi for the mere fact of its habitation being in India. Some of them are foreign in every sense of the term. They are administered by foreigners on behalf exclusively of foreign shareholders with foreign capital. They are here merely to exploit the resources of the country. The only thing they reluctantly contribute is to employ the cheap labour of the country and make a gullible public believe that these are swadeshi concerns. But this does not mean that the mills will play no part in the boycott campaign. They will, but it will be involuntary and fortuitous. Congressmen will not be able at once to reach every village of India. We will reach the towns and the villages surrounding them. The mills reach every village of India.

The atmosphere created in the country will throw the villagers into the arms of the mill-owners’ agents and they will buy whatever is given to them by the mills under the name of swadeshi. Congressmen will have to be on the watch regarding their operations. There are some patriotic mills which will refuse to betray the country if they cannot by reason of their limitations give active support. My conviction is that a time must come and that within a few months when the mills will have to make their choice and accept the terms that were offered to them last year. But it will wholly depend upon the determination of the people to boycott foreign cloth at any cost and replace it by genuine khadi. Khadi has no limits. For we have millions of human spindles and lakhs of human looms. The one thing needful is the will to do it.