For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Khadi Service 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

Khadi Service and Mahatma Gandhi

It has been complained that, whereas there are many Hindus in the khadi service, there are but few Mussalmans. Therefore, the Maulana wants me to declare this also that all such Mussalmans whose hearts are pure and who are industrious had got their place in it. But they who want to come into it must obey its laws. Hindus, Mussalmans, Christians, Parsis, Jews and all have their place in this A.I.S.A., if they believe in khadi. 1

The thing is that khadi service has not yet become a popular service. There is not much money to be had for service. In the figures I analyzed some time ago the highest pay given was Rs. 150/- per month. That was paid to a very able organizer. The best khaddar workers are all volunteers everywhere. The terms of service must necessarily be stiff. You cannot have whole-time khaddar workers who do not themselves spin or habitually wear khaddar. I would love to have many Mussalmans of the right stamp offering their services. Let them all apply to the Maulana Saheb. He has undertaken to examine every case personally and make his recommendation to the Council. But I give due warning to all concerned whether Mussalmans, Christians, Parsis or Jews, that they must not blame the Council if the khaddar service becomes a Hindu preserve for want of efforts, ability or love for khaddar on the part of the others. 2

More young men and women are earning their livelihood as khadi organizers than in any other national department. Khadi service is an ever-growing service. Its capacity for paying a decent salary to honest, intelligent, and industrious workers is almost limitless. Khadi claims also the largest number of unpaid national workers. Above all it has now become an established fact that khadi work cannot be done without an efficient organization exclusively devoted to it and commanding the services paid and unpaid, of an army of able workers. Its technical department is responsible for several important inventions, as for instance, an improved yarn press for pressing and baling small quantities of yarn. It examines samples of khadi, samples of yarn and detects spurious khadi. It trains also students as organized or workers in their own homes. It has been carrying on experiments in dyeing and introducing waterproof khadi. And both of these experiments have met with considerable success. Let the sceptic verify the facts for himself by securing a copy of the report, and if he is satisfied, let him join the Association, or if he cannot yet fulfil the conditions, help it with such work as he can do, or with such funds as he can spare. 3

I hope therefore that, in spite of the weaknesses that you may detect in yourself, you will not refuse to render khadi service so long as the weaknesses do not interfere with that service. Thus a man who has the weakness of dishonesty or drunken nesses or the like is naturally unfit for that service. But a man who in spite of strenuous effort is unable (say) to regulate himself with his wife as if he was her brother is not unfit for service. 4 The Council of the All-India Spinners’ Association that was held recently, discussing the desirability of announcing a definite Khadi Service, appointed a small committee to draft the constitution and circulate it for opinion among khadi workers. The best and cheapest method of circulating the constitution is through the medium of the Press. The draft constitution is published below. I hope that all those who are interested in khadi will send their considered opinion as early as possible. I invite specially the opinion of teachers and students in national educational institutions. There is in this Khadi Service almost limitless scope. Those who are satisfied with mere livelihood derived from service of the millions will find this Khadi Service to be attractive and all satisfying. The opinion of teachers and students will be most valuable in enabling the Council to fix an acceptable constitution. The following is the translation of the draft constitution. There shall be under the All-India Spinners’ Association a service called the ‘Khadi Service’. No one shall in future be accepted as a member of that service who does not hold a certificate from the Technical Department of the Association at present situated at the Satyagraha Ashram, Sabarmati. 5

The opinion of teachers has been invited in order to make it easy for pupils in national schools to join Khadi Service. For the time being, training will be given by the Satyagraha Ashram itself. Experience shows that all processes up to weaving and keeping of accounts cannot be taught in one year. We have refrained from mentioning the amount of salary so as to enable every friend to state his own independent opinion. After joining Khadi Service, one is required to work for eight hours daily. While under training, the pupil has to work according to the Ashram rules. Poor pupils are paid enough to cover their expenses, including that on clothes. 6 He can then earn from eight annas to a rupee per day from ginning and carding. But, presently there will be the Khadi Service. One who is poor but willing can sustain oneself even whilst qualifying for the Service. There is illimitable scope for those honest men and women who do not mind toiling with their bodies and would be satisfied with a simple sustenance wage and have no ambition for riches or fame. 7

The Council of the All-India Spinners’ Association, after most careful and exhaustive discussion and after considering all the opinions that had been received upon the draft published some time ago in these pages, has recast the rules which the reader will find published elsewhere. Forms of application and contract of service are also published. This service provides those who want to serve the cause of khadi an opportunity of so doing and, at the same time, a modest remuneration for them. The Board of Studies will also be the Examination Board. It does not mean necessarily that all the Examiners will examine all the candidates. But the various examinations required under the rules will be conducted by one or more of the examiners selected by the Chairman of the Board. Suggestions were received that the course which extends to 3 years is altogether too long for the remuneration promised. But all the members came to the conclusion that 3 years were none too long for the subjects to be studied and the practical work to be done. Experience gained during the last five years has shown that continued practice is necessary to learn the various arts that are included in the course.

Those who have gone out to organize khadi work in the different villages with less experience and knowledge have found themselves handicapped. The science of hand-spinning is capable of progressive improvement. Researches that are being made from time to time show that there is room for the best among us to apply them to the development of the art so that without extra effort or time the income of the millions, for whom hand-spinning is designed, may be almost doubled. It is an unfortunate fact that in our schools and colleges handicrafts find no place. All the knowledge, therefore, gained in the schools and colleges are of little use for the training required for khadi service. Therefore a graduate has to start almost on equal terms with a raw youth. Indeed, it is possible for the former even to labour under a handicap, if he has developed, as many do develop, repugnance towards physical exertion. The second question that came up for anxious consideration was that of remuneration. The Khadi Service is designed for meeting the need of paupers. It is impossible to hold out bright pecuniary prospects in such a service. I have no doubt whatsoever that the scale of salaries devised by the Government is out of all proportion to the condition of India’s masses. It has relation to the requirements of the inhabitants of a rich island and therefore means an almost unbearable burden upon the poor millions.

Let no one; therefore, compare the remuneration offered under the Khadi Service with that obtainable under the Government service. At the same time, I make bold to say that the start offered is as good as that offered by the Government. Where the Khadi Service fails in comparison is in the ultimate prospect. The maximum attainable under the Government may reach four figures whereas Khadi Service offers an increase amounting to Rs. 20 at the most. For those, therefore, who have received an English education to enter this service is undoubtedly a sacrifice. But is it too much to ask the English-educated youths of the country to make what after all is a very small sacrifice? I consider it to be very small, for it should be remembered that they have received their English education at the expense of the masses. It is an exclusive education which the masses can never get. And it is an education which, if it has given us a few self-sacrificing patriots, has also produced many more men who have been willing accomplices with the Government in holding India in bondage. It will also be noted that to the poor and deserving, the service offers a suitable scholarship and at the end of the training, while the rules bind the Association to keep those who may be found properly qualified employed for 10 years, they leave it open for them to serve the Association or to seek prospects elsewhere. This relaxation has been purposely made in order to induce young men to come and learn the art of spinning and all it means even though they may not join the Service. 8

The All-India Spinners’ Association has been set up only to collect funds for khadi and use them to organize work. Accounts of its funds are being maintained to a pie and everyone has a right to inspect them. The Association has an executive committee, auditors and inspectors. This Association has now placed before the country a scheme for an organization of khadi service. You will ask what effective work this association can do, paying as it will be only thirty rupees a month to each worker. Of course, ours is a poor Association, for it has been established with money collected from the poorest of the poor. It is not another Indian Civil Service, so that it can afford to pay salaries of thousands of rupees. The Indian Civil Service is maintained with taxes paid by the people and is meant to rule the people; our poor little association is meant to serve them. 9

I evidently did not make myself sufficiently understood about making a living from khadi. I did not suggest that you should set up your own khadi business at present. What I suggested was that you might come into the khadi service, become a technical expert and so indispensable to that service. But that service could not give you more than Rs. 100 or 125 at the outside per month. It must remain a poor service. And what I meant about the members of the family was that all young men and women might do something or other in connection with khadi so that all would feel that they were contributing to the family till. Several workers are trying to remodel their life in accordance with this pattern. But I say that this may be too much for you, and if it is too much, that is no reflection upon you, After all mental adjustments cannot take place at will, and mental adjustments take practical shape only after they have saturated our being and become part of it, I have therefore thrown out the suggestions. Let them work their way in your mental laboratory. 10

About the unemployment, I don’t know what I can do from here beyond saying that you should send all the likely names to the Technical Department. Personally I think that every willing worker can be accommodated in the Khadi Service. But I cannot give that faith to all the co-workers. And for such practical work, therefore, it is best for the present to treat me as dead. If I come to life again and plunge into practical work, you will certainly come to me. But, for the present, you have to go to Mr. Banker. Frame a policy and then see whether many can be accommodated. Do not give up the hope or the work on behalf of the unemployed fit men because you can no longer rely upon me. 11

I must now come to the spinning-wheel. I am glad that you are, as much as you can, supporting the spinning-wheel. I am glad that there is no difference of opinion about the necessity of the spinning wheel. You have got in your midst the Saurashtra weavers. Your capacity for khadi service is limitless. But it is not enough that you give me some money when I appear before you. It is not enough that some of you wear khadi on occasions; but it is necessary if you have real fellow-feeling for these starving millions of India, you all throw away you foreign cloth and take to khadi to ward off suffering and poverty. It is equally your duty to see that this curse of drunkenness is removed from this country. If we would but take personal interest in the welfare of our brethren who are given to drink, you should insist upon total prohibition and, to my mind, the day is not far off when India would become dry. 12

It is satisfactory to note that whilst there is improvement in the quality, the prices have undergone steady reduction. The following information about the special khadi service furnished by the Technical Department will be read with interest: I must skip over the other instructive paragraphs of the report. I hope I have given sufficient information to what the appetite of the reader for possessing the report itself which can be had at the office of the All-India Spinners’ Association, Mirzapur, Ahmadabad, for 4 annas worth of postage stamps. 13 If we have graduates’ associations, civil service associations and the like, why not Khadi Service Association or Khadi Sevak Sangh? This service, if it is to succeed, should certainly be the most numerous in the world if not even the most important. It is true that it will never bring the same remuneration as the other services which are only so-called but which are based more or less, perhaps more rather than less, upon exploitation. Khadi Service is a purely philanthropic agency and the servants are merely maintained on the principle that a labourer is worthy of his hire. But in Khadi Service there is a higher satisfaction than that of pecuniary reward. The satisfaction lies in the knowledge that the servant ministers to the needs of the neediest, the most helpless and the most numerous class of men in the country. As this truth is being realized, khadi servants begin also to plan ways and means of consolidating their trust. Hence at the usual weekly meeting of the Khadi Service candidates who are undergoing training at the Udyoga Mandir, late Satyagraha Ashram, the question of forming a Khadi Service Association was seriously discussed and it was resolved to form such an association. To that end I invite all those who have received training at any of the institutions recognized by the All-India Spinners’ Association to send to the Secretary, Udyoga Mandir, the following particulars: name in full, present address, age, whether married or single, children if any, where trained for Khadi Service, previous qualifications, present occupation, wages and such other information as may be useful for the proposed Association. An early opportunity will be taken to form a provisional body and frame a provisional constitution. The object of this body should be:

1. to promote contact and co-operation among the men and women belonging to the Service,

2. to encourage them to make researches in khadi work in all its branches,

3. to help the needy members,

4. to attract new members,

5. to hold periodical conferences with a view to compare notes and exchange experiences,

6. to devise methods of making khadi more popular from the Service standpoint.

These are only suggestions thrown out at random. The first step will be to publish a directory of names and addresses of such servants. The number of persons trained at the Ashram to date already comes up to 445. There is, no doubt, a large number trained by the other khadi organizations. It will not be therefore an unpretentious directory by any means. In sending names care, I hope, will be taken to send only those who are or were doing khadi work and have received adequate training and who have sought this service as volunteers, i.e., from the strictly philanthropic motive. The desire of the promoters of the idea is to make the proposed association an efficient organization of true servants. Writers will send their suggestions as to the condition of membership, objects, etc. 14

A barber is now undergoing a khadi service course at the Udyoga Mandir though he has not abandoned his calling. I wish that these examples will prove far more contagious than they have hitherto done. It is not enough that stray lawyers and doctors spin and weave, or stray barbers and tailors do national service, but thousands of professional men, artisans and agriculturists should, whilst following their callings, render national service by qualifying themselves, the literary professions by realizing the dignity of labour and the labouring professions by realizing the dignity of literature, and all doing everything to uplift the nation and refraining from doing anything that would degrade it. As to the khadi service, the correspondent’s complaint is wholly unjustified. Those who are engaged in khadi service may not very well be expected to give their time to Harijan service. But I know that the vast majority of them have no untouchability in their breasts and that they never miss an opportunity of rendering whatever personal service they can to Harijans. There is no bar to taking Harijans in Khadi service. Lastly I may state that several thousand Harijan families are being supported through the khadi organizations dotted over the whole country. 15

In order that it may fulfil this mission, it has to be self-sustained and its use must spread in the villages. Just as the villagers cook their own roti or rice so must they make their own khadi for personal use? The surplus, if any, they may sell. This mission cannot be delivered unless the khadi service changes its complexion and the Spinners’ Association its policy. Every member of the khadi service should know the processes through which cotton passes before it becomes khadi. When emphasis is put on self-sufficient khadi, commercial production will be restricted to the real wants of townspeople. It will then pass into the hands of private businessmen instead of being centralized in the hands of the Association. 16

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