Natural Obligation and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

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

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

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Natural Obligation and Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

Swadeshi is our primary obligation because natural to us. We have forsaken this natural obligation. Because of its neglect of swadeshi, the nation has been ruined. Three crores in India, that is, a tenth of the total population of the country, get only one meal a day, just plain bread and no more. Crores of rupees are annually lost to foreign countries. If this wealth of crores could remain in the country, we would be able to save our starving countrymen. Thus, our economic well-being is also bound up with swadeshi, and in its observance there lies compassion for living beings. Moreover, swadeshi cloth is likely to be cheaper than English cloth. I submit to you that you should make your own cloth or get it made. The vow of swadeshi is not a difficult one to keep. Through it, we shall remove the hardships of our countrymen. If we work at the spinning-wheel for eight hours, we can spin one pound of yarn. The cloth being produced in India today can meet the needs of only 25 per cent of the population; we should therefore produce enough to meet the needs of the remaining 75 per cent. If, thus, people take to turning the spinning-wheel, not only we shall succeed in keeping the vow of swadeshi but shall also ensure production of cloth in plenty. 1  

A well-known Congressman for whom I have great regard and who prides himself of being a disciplinarian was found the other day not being wholly dressed in khaddar. I thought that he was fully dressed in khaddar. But the friends who lived in the same town with him knew better and asked me to persuade this friend to respect the Congress resolution. The friend frankly admitted that all the articles of his clothing were not made of khaddar, but said that, in having come to me, he was not on Congress work. This was a hair-splitter for which I was wholly unprepared, especially from a disciplinarian. I enjoyed no private relations with him. He came to discuss with me public affairs and, therefore, I thought that, in coming to see me, he had come on Congress or public work. But the friend held otherwise and said that he came to see me not on Congress business. I told him such hair splitting distinctions delayed the advent of swaraj. The Congress resolution, in my opinion, provides for exceptional circumstances in which khaddar dress may be dispensed with without the wearer forfeiting his membership. It does not absolve members from the natural obligation to wear khaddar on all occasions. If men at the top resort to fine distinctions for not wearing khaddar, it is impossible for the common folk conform to the khaddar dress unless it becomes cheaper and more easily available than foreign calico. They expect the leaders to go the whole length in order to enable them to go a quarter. 2

A fine old Mussalman friend met me at My mensing and our conversation naturally turned upon khaddar. I observed that he had not khaddar on and gently asked him whether he believed in it. “Oh yes, I do.” I then gave him my definition of khaddar. It was no use. “All cloth however and wherever manufactured between China and Mediterranean is khaddar for me. You see my swadeshi is not narrow,” retorted the friend. In vain I tried to show that his first duty lay towards India’s millions from whom he derived his livelihood that India was well able to manufacture all the cloth for her needs and that India’s teeming millions were semi-starved for want of an industry supplementary to agriculture. Like Lucy he persisted in his proposition with the fullest self-satisfaction. He had made up his mind and therefore no argument could produce any impression on him. It would have been just the same if I had told him that the English colonials, though they belonged to the same race and religion, protected their industries by imposing heavy tariffs against the sister colonies and England itself and that every man’s primary and natural obligation was to serve his needy neighbour in preference to one more remote. But I had no time. The company had to break up for another appointment. As if, however, to emphasize his point and yet to show that we were friends in spite of our differences of opinion, he smilingly put a few rupees in my hands for the furtherance of my work, all the while repeating his formula “China to Mediterranean”. If he ever sees these lines, let me tell him that, if many people were to follow his formula, the several thousands of Mussalman sisters who are today supplementing their husbands’ earnings in Bengal by hand spinning would be without that necessary addition to their all too slender resources. 3

 

References:

 

1. Gujarati, 6-7-1919
2. Young India, 7-5-1925 
3. Young India, 4-6-1925