Whom Khadi Stands for

[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]

 

 

Whom Khadi Stands for

 

Mr. Edward Markham was very impressed by khadi of Mahatma Gandhi so he wrote this poem. It gives all meaning of khadi movement.

 

Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans

Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,

The emptiness of ages in his face,

And on his back the burden of the world.

Who made him dead to rapture and despair?

A thing that grieves not and that never hopes,

Staid and stunned, a brother to the Ox?

Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw?

Whose was the hand that slanted back his brow,

Whose breath blew out the light within his brain?

Oh, masters, lords and rulers in all lands,

Is this the handiwork you give to God?

This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched?

How will you ever straighten up this shape?

Touch it again with immortality,

Give it the upward looking and the light:

Rebuild in it the music and the dream?