For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Handicrafts and Mahatma Gandhi

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net;

dr.yogendragandhi@gmail.com

Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

Handicrafts and Mahatma Gandhi

What I say is that as spinning is a simple and beautiful art and can be learnt easily, it can be taken up and left off at will. If our poor sisters do a little spinning in their leisure hours, they can have a little income of their own, and give an impetus to a most essential indigenous handicraft. In order to spread widely the gospel of swadeshi, women’s earnestness is very essential. Every one of you should decide henceforth to wear swadeshi clothes. To spin daily some quantity of yarn at least for the sake of your country must be your net resolve. If the women of Dohad would but make up their minds, all their clothing could be obtained from Dohad itself. Not only that the people of Dohad will be free from the trouble of importing cloth from abroad but most of the money they spend on cloth will flow into the pockets of the women and weavers of Dohad. It requires some little sacrifice to bring about this result. We shall have, for the time being at least, to rest content with coarse cloth woven by our people and be thankful to God, and banishing all idleness, should work the wheel in our moments of leisure. I hope that every woman will be interested in this work. 1

The simplest handicraft suitable for all, required for the whole of India, is undoubtedly spinning along with the previous processes. If we introduced this in our educational institutions, we should fulfil three purposes: make education self-supporting, train the bodies of the children as well as their minds, and pave the way for a complete boycott of foreign yarn and cloth. Moreover, the children thus equipped will become self-reliant and independent. I would suggest to the correspondent that he should invite all the members of his family to contribute to its upkeep by spinning or weaving. Under my scheme, no child is entitled to education that does not spin a minimum quantity of yarn. Such families will acquire a prestige for self-respect and independence not hitherto dreamt of. This scheme does not exclude a liberal education, but on the contrary brings it within the easy reach of every boy or girl, and restores literary training to its original dignity by making it primarily a means of mental and moral culture, and only secondarily and indirectly a means of livelihood. 2 Another handicraft introduced was that of carpentry. Having founded a sort of village we needed all manner of things large and small from benches to boxes, and we made them all ourselves. The selfless carpenters already referred to helped us for several months. Mr. Kallenbach was the head of the carpentry department, and as such every moment gave us the evidence of his mastery and exactitude. 3

An English friend sends me a cutting from the Scotsman of 21st April. It is entitled “Value of Rhythm”. It is an account of a spinning demonstration at the Easter Conference held at Edinburgh under the auspices of the Institute of Handicraft Teachers. Dr. John Gunn presided at the meeting. The lecture demonstration was given by Mr. William Kinkiness F. S. A. (Scot). I quote below verbatim the interesting report from the Scotsman. 4 I had the pleasure of seeing the very different processes through which he passed his cotton before he could draw his thread so fine as the threads from which this khadi piece is woven. And if you had witnessed his handicraft you would have envied with me and with me you would have also been proud of his art. I cannot make any personal use of so fine a piece of muslin. If therefore I cannot evoke your love of local art and love of the country, I must take this piece away and put it among the exhibits of the All-India Spinners’ Association. But I would really like you to possess this piece of cloth. If you will do so, you have to pay a fancy price for it. Works of art all the world over carry always fancy prices and I have fixed the reserve price of this piece of cloth at Rs. 1,000; but you may, if you wish, ask what is the artistic value about this piece of cloth or in other words you may, if you wish, enquire why is it that I value khadi so much as I do.

I was told by one who has lived in your midst for years that there are in Chettinad many people who do not understand the message of the spinning-wheel nor do they understand how all these purses are to be utilized. I propose to devote a few sentences by way of explanation of the message of the spinning wheel. It is designed to provide work for millions of starving men and women who are living in the seven hundred thousand villages of the land. Everyone who knows anything about India has testified that they have no work for nearly six months in the year and apart from the spinning-wheel it is impossible to find work for these millions of people, and so, through the spinning-wheel we can produce sufficient cloth to cover the whole of India. And I venture to suggest that anything produced by the hands of starving millions such as this muslin is necessarily a work of art. All art that is true and living must have some correspondence to the life that we live. True art must not debase life but it must sustain and ennoble life. And now you understand why I prize khadi so much. But it would be valueless if you and I do not wear khadi. 5 As far as possible the address should be written on handmade paper. Such paper can be secured if an attempt is made to obtain it. Granted that hand-made paper cannot compare with machine-made paper, even so we should not let this handicraft die. The survival of such handicrafts depends on the patriotism of the rich and the wise. Then again we have handloom weaving. Coarse khadi was manufactured in Gujarat by Harijan weavers only. The industry was almost on the verge of destruction, and many weavers were compelled to take up scavenging for a living. But now there has been a revival of this handicraft. 6

Substantial improvement of these, the lowest strata of society, must include that of the whole of society. Moreover, the ordinary peasant is by no means neglected. For instance, the All-India Spinners’ Association is solely engaged in bettering the peasant’s economic condition by educating him to add a handicraft to husbandry and thus have an automatic insurance against famine and always a substantial addition to his scanty income. 7 Not necessarily. I should examine each one of them, find out their place in the economy of the village life and, if I see that they must be encouraged because of inherent merit, I should do so. Now, for instance, I should be loath to allow the village broom to be replaced by the modern broomstick or brush. I would ask Mrs. Gandhi and other women of the household to tell me about the relative merits of both. Mind you, I would consider the advantages from all points of view. Thus, the village broom, I should think, must be preferred because it indicates tenderness and kindness to small life, whereas the brush makes a clean sweep of those things. Thus, I should see a whole philosophy behind the broom, for I do not think the Creator makes any distinction between minute insects and (in His estimation) minute men. Thus I should pick up all kinds of village crafts and industries which are about to die and deserve revival, both because of their intrinsic merit and their other useful aspects, and I should thus go on making discoveries. Take our trifling tooth-sticks, for instance.

I am quite sure, if you were to deprive the bulk of the Bombay citizens of their tooth-sticks, their teeth would suffer. I cannot contemplate with equanimity the modern tooth-brush replacing the tooth-stick. These brushes are unhygienic. Once used, they deserve to be thrown away. However much disinfectants you may use to sterilize them, they can never be as good as fresh ones. But the babul or neem tooth-stick is used once for all and has highly astringent properties. Again, it serves the purpose of a tongue scraper. The West has yet to discover anything as hygienic as the Indian tooth-stick. You may not know that a doctor in South Africa claimed to have controlled tuberculosis among the Bantu miners by insisting on the regular use by them of these tooth-sticks. I would be no party to the advertisement of modern tooth-brushes even when they are made in India. I should declare my preference for the tooth-stick. This is sent per cent swadeshi. If I take care of it, the rest will take care of itself. Ask me to define the right angle and I should do it easily, but do not ask me to define the angles between the acutest and the most obtuse you can make. If I have the definition of a right angle, I can make whatever angle I need. Though swadeshi is eloquent enough as its own definition, I have called mine cent per cent swadeshi, because swadeshi is in danger of being watered down. Cent per cent swadeshi gives sufficient scope for the most insatiable ambition for service and can satisfy every kind of talent. 8

The remedy lies in his unlearning many things. He must revise his ideas of education. His sisters ought not to repeat the expensive education that he had. They can develop their intelligence through learning some handicraft in a scientific manner. The moment they do so, they have development of the mind side by side with that of the body. And if they will learn to regard themselves as servants of humanity rather than its exploiters, they will have development of the heart, i.e., the soul as well. And they will become equal earners of bread with their brother. 9

It is the grossest of superstitions for the working man to believe that he is helpless before the employers. The effort of the Labour Union in Ahmadabad is to dispel this superstition in a concrete manner. Its experiment, therefore, ought to be welcomed by all concern. Success will depend on an inflexible determination on the part of the Labour Union to follow up the good beginning that has been made, with unflagging perseverance. It must have the right sort of instructors who can arouse among the workers an intelligent interest in their work. A handicraft plied merely mechanically can be as cramping to the mind and soul as any other pursuit taken up mechanically. An unintelligent effort is like a corpse from which the sprit has departed. 10

But as a nation we are so backward in education that we cannot hope to fulfil our obligations to the nation in this respect in a given time during this generation, if the programme is to depend on money. I have therefore made bold, even at the risk of losing all reputation for constructive ability, to suggest that education should be self-supporting. By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in child and man–body, mind and spirit. Literacy is not the end of education or even the beginning. It is only one of the means whereby man and woman can be educated. Literacy in itself is no education. I would therefore begin the child’s education by teaching it a useful handicraft and enabling it to produce from the moment it begins its training. Thus every school can be made self-supporting, the condition being that the State takes over the manufactures of these schools. I hold that the highest development of the mind and the soul is possible under such a system of education. Only every handicraft has to be taught not merely mechanically as is done today but scientifically, i.e., the child should know the why and the wherefore of every process. I am not writing this without some confidence, because it has the backing of experience. This method is being adopted more or less completely wherever spinning is being taught to workers. I have myself taught sandal-making and even spinning on these lines with good results. This method does not exclude knowledge of history and geography. But I find that this is best taught by transmitting such general information by word of mouth. One imparts ten times as much in this manner as by reading and writing. The signs of the alphabet may be taught later when the pupil has learnt to distinguish wheat from chaff and when he has somewhat developed his or her tastes. This is a revolutionary proposal but it saves immense labour and enables a student to acquire in one year what he may take much longer to learn. This means all-round economy. Of course the pupil learns mathematics whilst he is learning his handicraft. 11

Of course, we have not the staff of teachers who can cope with the new method. But that difficulty applies to every new venture. The existing staff of teachers, if they are willing to learn, should be given the opportunity of doing so, and should also has the immediate prospect of a substantial increase in their salaries if they will learn the necessary subjects. It is unthinkable that for all the new subjects that are to become part of primary education separate teachers should be provided. That would be a most expensive method and so wholly unnecessary. It may be that some of the primary school teachers are so ill-equipped that they cannot learn the new subjects within a short time. But a boy who has studied up to the matriculation standard should not take more than three months to learn the elements of music, drawing, physical drill and a handicraft. If he acquires a working knowledge of these, he will be able always to add to it while he is teaching. This presupposes, no doubt, eagerness and zeal on the part of the teachers to make themselves progressively fit for the task of national regeneration. 12

Prof. Shah is well able to defend his proposition. But I would like to remind the writer that the existing teachers are not volunteers. They are hirelings (the word is used in its natural sense) working for their bread and butter. Prof. Shah’s scheme does contemplate possession of patriotism, spirit of sacrifice, a certain amount of culture, and training in a handicraft, before they are taken up. His idea is substantial, quite feasible, and deserves the greatest consideration. If we have to wait till we have born teachers, we shall have to wait till the Judgement Day for them. I submit that teachers will have to be trained on a wholesale scale during the shortest term possible. This cannot be done unless the services of the existing educated young men and women are gently impressed. It will not be unless there is a general willing response from that body. They responded, however feebly, during the civil disobedience campaign. 13 That is nothing. So far as the schools are concerned, you have to concentrate on showing that we can teach everything through the handicrafts, e.g., that of spinning. Literary education plus training in a handicraft is no novel conception. The novel conception is that of making the handicraft the principal means of imparting literary training. 14

The principle idea is to impart the whole education of the body and the mind and the soul through the handicraft that is taught to the children. You have to draw out all that is in the child through teaching all the processes of the handicraft, and all your lessons in history, geography, arithmetic will be related to the craft. If such education is given, the direct result will be that it will be self-supporting. But the test of success is not its self-supporting character, but that the whole man has been drawn out through the teaching of the handicraft in a scientific manner. In fact I would reject a teacher who would promise to make it self-supporting under any circumstances. The self-supporting part will be the logical corollary of the fact that the pupil has learnt the use of every one of his faculties. If a boy who works at a handicraft for three hours a day will surely earn his keep, how much more a boy who adds to the work a development of his mind and soul ! 15

If such education is given, the direct result will be that it will be self-supporting. But the test of success is not its self-supporting character, but that the whole man has been drawn out through the teaching of the handicraft in a scientific manner. In fact I would reject a teacher who would promise to make it self-supporting under any circumstances. The self-supporting part will be the logical corollary of the fact that the pupil has learnt the use of every one of his faculties. If a boy who works at a handicraft for three hours a day will surely earn his keep, how much more a boy who adds to the work a development of his mind and soul ! 16 The old idea was to add a handicraft to the ordinary curriculum of education followed in the schools. That is to say, the craft was to be taken in hand wholly separately from education. To me that seems a fatal mistake. The teacher must learn the craft and correlate his knowledge to the craft, so that he will impart all that knowledge to his pupils through the medium of the particular craft that he chooses. Take the instance of spinning. Unless I know arithmetic I cannot report how many yards of yarn I have produced on the takli, or how many standard rounds it will make, or what is the count of the yarn that I have spun. I must learn figures to be able to do so, and I also must learn addition and subtraction and multiplication and division. In dealing with complicated sums I shall have to use symbols and so I get my algebra. Even here, I would insist on the use of Hindustani letters instead of Roman. Take geometry next. What can be a better demonstration of a circle than the disc of the takli? I can teach all about circles in this way, without even mentioning the name of Euclid. Again, you may ask how I can teach my child geography and history through spinning. Some time ago I came across a book called Cotton the Story of Mankind. It thrilled me. It read like a romance.

It began with the history of ancient times, how and when cotton was first grown, the stages of its development, the cotton trade between the different countries, and so on. As I mention the different countries to the child, I shall naturally tell him something about the history and geography of these countries. Under whose reign the different commercial treaties were signed during the different periods? Why has cotton to be imported by some countries and cloth by others? Why can every country not grow the cotton it requires? That will lead me into economics and elements of agriculture. I shall teach him to know the different varieties of cotton, in what kind of soil they grow, how to grow them, from where to get them, and so on. Thus takli-spinning leads me into the whole history of the East India Company, what brought them here, how they destroyed our spinning industry, how the economic motive that brought them to India led them later to entertain political aspirations, how it became a causative factor in the downfall of the Moguls and the Marathas, in the establishment of the English Raj, and then again in the awakening of the masses in our times. There is thus no end to the educative possibilities of this new scheme and how much quicker the child will learn all that, without putting an unnecessary tax on his mind and memory. Let me further elaborate the idea. Just as a biologist, in order to become a good biologist, must learn many other sciences besides biology, the basic education, if it is treated as a science, takes us into interminable channels of learning. To extend the example of the takli, a pupil teacher, who rivets his attention not merely on the mechanical process of spinning, which of course he must master, but on the spirit of the thing, will concentrate on the takli and its various aspects?

He will ask himself why the takli is made out of a brass disc and has a steel spindle. The original takli had its disc made anyhow. The still more primitive takli consisted of a wooden spindle with a disc of slate or clay. The takli has been developed scientifically, and there is a reason for making the disc out of brass and the spindle out of steel. He must find out that reason. Then, the teacher must ask himself why the disc has that particular diameter, no more and no less. When he has solved these questions satisfactorily and has gone into the mathematics of the thing, your pupil becomes a good engineer. The takli becomes his Kamadhenus—the ‘Cow of plenty’. There is no limit to the possibilities of knowledge that can be imparted through this medium. It will be limited only by the energy and conviction with which you work. You have been here for three weeks. You will have spent them usefully if it has enabled you to take to this scheme seriously, so that you will say to yourself, ‘I shall either do or die.’ I am elaborating the instance of spinning because I know it.

If I were a carpenter, I would teach my child all these things through carpentry or through cardboard work if I were a worker in cardboard. What we need are educationists with originality, fired with true zeal, who will think out from day to day what they are going to teach their pupils. The teacher cannot get this knowledge through musty volumes. He has to use his own faculties of observation and thinking and impart his knowledge to the children through his lips, with the help of a craft. This means a revolution in the method of teaching, a revolution in the teacher’s outlook. Up till now you have been guided by inspectors’ reports. You wanted to do what the inspector might like, so that you might get more money yet for your institutions or higher salaries for yourselves. But the new teacher will not care for all that. He will say, ‘I have done my duty by my pupil if I have made him a better man and in doing so I have used all my resources. That is enough for me. 17 Khadi is the chief village handicraft. Kill khadi and you must kill the villages and with them non-violence. I cannot prove this by statistics. The proof is before our eyes. 18

The true Indian civilization is in the Indian villages. The modern city civilization you find in Europe and America, and in a handful of our cities which are copies of the Western cities and which were built for the foreigner, and by him. But they cannot last. It is only the handicraft civilization that will endure and stand the test of time. But it can do so only if we can correlate the intellect with the hand. The late Madhusudan Das used to say that our peasants and workers had, by reason of working with bullocks, become like bullocks; and he was right. We have to lift them from the estate of the brute to the estate of man, and that we can do only by correlating the intellect with the hand. Not until they learn to work intelligently and make something new every day, not until they are taught to know the joy of work, can we raise them from their low estate. If you will, therefore, see the exhibition with my eyes, you will carry the gospel of khadi and the spinning-wheel to the villages, and lay the foundation of a handicraft civilization and universalize khadi and handicrafts. If you do so, I assure you there will be no necessity for civil disobedience. If you will not do so, if you do not spin, do not universalize khadi, I may go to jail and be there for a number of years, but it will be all in vain. Without khadi and without handicrafts the Congress boat, far from carrying us to the port, will sink in midstream. 19 Anything introduced in basic education can only have one end in view, i.e., the educative. The object of basic education is the physical, intellectual and moral development of the children through the medium of a handicraft.

But I hold that any scheme, which is sound from the educative point of view and is efficiently managed, is bound to be sound economically. For instance, we can teach our children to make clay toys that are to be destroyed afterwards. That too will develop their intellect. But it will neglect a very important moral principle, viz., that human labour and material should never be used in a wasteful or unproductive way. The emphasis laid on the principle of spending every minute of one’s life usefully is the best education for citizenship and incidentally makes basic education self-sufficient. 20 Who is Vinoba Bhave and why has he been selected? He is an undergraduate having left college after my return to India in 19151. He is a Sanskrit scholar. He joined the Ashram almost at its inception. He was among the first members. In order to better qualify himself he took one year’s leave to prosecute further studies in Sanskrit. And, practically at the same hour at which he had left the Ashram a year before, he walked into it without notice. I had forgotten that he was due to arrive that day. He has taken part in every menial activity of the Ashram from scavenging to cooking. Though he has a marvellous memory and is a student by nature, he has devoted the largest part of his time to spinning in which he has specialized as very few have. He believes in universal spinning being the central activity which will remove the poverty in the villages and put life into their deadness. Being a born teacher he has been of the utmost assistance to Ashadevi in her development of the scheme of education through handicrafts. Shri Vinoba has produced a text-book taking spinning as the handicraft. It is original in conception. He has made scoffers realize that spinning is the handicraft par excellence which lends itself to being effectively used for basic education. He has revolutionized takli-spinning and drawn out its hitherto unknown possibilities. For perfect spinning probably he has no rival in all India. 21

There are two schools of thought current in the world. One wants to divide the world into cities and the other into villages. The village civilization and the city civilization are totally different things. One depends on machinery and industrialization, the other rests on handicraft. We have given preference to the latter. After all, this industrialization and large-scale production are only of comparatively recent growth. We do not know how far it has contributed to our development and happiness, but we know this much that it has brought in its wake the recent world wars. This Second World War is not still over and even before it comes to an end we are hearing of a third world war. 22 I would not call agriculture a handicraft. But it is an occupation of crores of people. It does not encourage skill but it does give a lot of physical exercise. It has been accorded its rightful place after seven years. It is a sad thing that we have been divided into two groups but that is inevitable. We regard constructive work as a symbol of ahimsa while others look upon it as a means of furthering their work and that only to the extent that if they can do without it they will do so. Even if the intention is good I find lack of wisdom in such an attitude. 23

Some people ask me why agriculture could not be the centre of Nayee Talim. The answer is that through agriculture no handicraft can be taught. The function of Nayee Talim is not merely to teach an occupation, but to develop the whole man through the teaching of handicrafts. It aims at helping the students to understand the essence of life. Nayee Talim endeavours to remove the imperfections of man. 24 Then what should be done? Millions of people in the country pursue some handicraft. They cannot all be rich. Even in America everyone is not rich. True, the poverty there is of a different order but the hardships attendant on poverty are similar. In the same way various other ills widespread in India also exist there. With all their wealth and all their learning they have not been able to overcome these. I thought that if the millions were to be given education it could be done only through handicraft. If among a population of hundreds of millions a lakh or two have secured what now passes for education, what good can it do? And if everyone tried to have that education we would go bankrupt. The real system of education is one where the children of rich and poor, of king and subject, receive education through crafts. And this cannot be done unless we adhere to truth and non-violence.

It becomes a question of religion here not religion in a sectarian sense but religion in a universal sense. Such religion is eternal. It cannot change. It is for all, as much for Hindus as for Muslims. One cannot say that Hindus should speak the truth and Muslims should tell lies. It is in the interest of all to speak the truth. It is no one’s religious duty to commit violence. If someone asks me whether Sikhs and Muslims may not receive Nayee Talim I shall say that if Sikhs and Muslims both declare that they are votaries of violence then certainly Nayee Talim would not be for them. Nayee Talim is not the special province of any one sect. I have studied all religions and assimilated their essence. Muslims and Sikhs both come and sit beside me. They advocate violence only where all other methods fail. But when we initiate a child into education we should begin by teaching him how to die rather than kill. We therefore decided that if we had to conduct Nayee Talim it had to be in this way. Those carrying it on must stand by truth and non-violence. Only then can it succeed. But I do not know if it is so now. I cannot read anyone’s heart. I am also not a prophet. The reins of Nayee Talim are not in my hands.

All I can do is to offer advice when asked. True, I conceived the idea. But the organization itself was formed by the Congress. Zakir Husain is its President. If he does not hold by truth and non-violence he should resign. But I have never known him to be guilty of falsehood or violence. He is associated with me only because he does not believe in violence. The Secretaries of the Hindustani Talimi Sangh are Aryanayakam and his wife. They too are votaries of truth and non-violence. I am busy otherwise and they have to run the scheme. They are the moving spirit behind Nayee Talim. It is not even Zakir Saheb. He is only the President. If Aryanayakam and Asha Devi abandoned it the scheme would collapse. It is not an organization which can run on its own. Take the Congress for instance. I am of course out of it. But even if Jawaharlal, the Sardar and Rajendra Babu go out of it the Congress will go on. Or take the Charkha Sangh. I am its President. If I leave it, its work will go on, for it is an organization that has existed for many years. But that is not so with Nayee Talim. It has yet to establish itself well. It will be well established when those running it the qualities of the sthitaprajna have described in the Gita. We must find an activity in which everyone can participate. I want to tell you that handicrafts alone provide such activity. 25

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