India of My Dreams

Chapter 28
VILLAGE EXHIBITIONS
If we want and believe that the village should not only survive but also become strong
and flourishing, then the village perspective is the only correct view-point. If this is
true then in our exhibitions there can be no place for the glamour and pomp for the
cities. There should be no necessity for games and other entertainments that belong to
the cities. There should be no necessity for games and other entertainments that
belong to the cities. An exhibition should not become a Tamasha, nor a source of
income; it should never become the advertising medium for traders. No sales should be
allowed there. Even Khadi and village industry products should not be sold. An
exhibition should be a medium of education, should be attractive and it should be such
as to infuse in the villager the impulse to take to some industry or the other. It should
bring out the glaring defects and drawbacks in the present day village life, and show
methods to be adopted to set them right. It should also be able to indicate the extent
of achievement in that direction ever since the idea of village uplift was sponsored. It
should also teach how to make village life artistic.
Now let us see what an exhibition will be life if it is to conform to the above
conditions.
1. There should be two models of villages-one as is existing today and the other an
improved one. The improved village will be clean all throughout. Its houses, its roads,
its surroundings and its fields will be all clean. The condition of the cattle should also
improve. Books, charts and pictures should be used to show what industries give
increased income and how.
2. It must show how to conduct the various village industries, wherefrom to obtain the
needed implements, how to make them. The actual working of each industry should be
demonstrated. Along with these the following should also find place:
(a) Ideal village diet.
(b) Comparison between village industry and machine industry
(c) Model lessons on rearing animals.
(d) Art section.
(e) Model of village latrine.

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India of My Dreams

(f) Farm-yard manure v. chemical manure.

(g) Utilization of hides, bones, etc. of animals.
(h) Village music, musical instruments, village dramas.
(i) Village games, village akhadas and forms of exercise.
(j) Nai Talim.
(k) Village medicine.
(l) Village maternity home.
Subject to the policy enunciated in the beginning, this list may be further expanded.
What I have indicated is by way of example only; it should not be taken to be
exhaustive. I have not made any mention of the Charkha and other village industries as
they are taken for granted. Without them the exhibition will be absolutely useless.
Gram Udyog Patrika, July 1946

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India of My Dreams

Chapter 29
THE MUSIC OF THE SPINNING WHEEL
I think of the poor of India every time I draw a thread on the wheel. The poor of India
today have lost faith in God, more so than the middle classes or the rich. For a person
suffering from the pangs of hunger, and desiring nothing but to fill his belly, his belly is
his God. To him anyone who gives him his bread is his Master. Through him he may
even see God. To give alms to such persons, who are sound in all their limbs, is to
debase oneself and them. What they need is some kind of occupation, and the
occupation that will give employment to millions can only be hand-spinning I have
described my spinning as a penance or sacrament. And, since I believe that where
there is pure and active love for the poor there is God also, I see God in every thread
that I draw on the spinning wheel.
Young India, 20-5-26

I feel convinced that the revival of hand-spinning and handweaving will make the
largest contribution to the economic and the moral regeneration of India. The millions
must have a simple industry to supplement agriculture. Spinning was the cottage
industry years ago, and if the millions are to be save from starvation, they must be
enabled to reintroduce spinning in their homes, and every village must repossess its
won weaver.
Young India, 21-7-20

I can only think of spinning as the fittest and most acceptable sacrificial body labour. I
cannot imagine anything nobler or more national than that for, say one hour in the
day, we should all do the labour that the poor must do, and thus identify ourselves
with them and through them with all mankind. I cannot imagine better worship of God
then that in His name I should labour for the poor even as they do. The spinning wheel
spells a more equitable distribution of the riches of the earth.
Young India, 20-10-21

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I claim for the Charkha the honour of being able to solve the problem of economic
distress in a most natural, simple, inexpensive and businesslike manner. The Charkha,
therefore, is not only not useless... but it is a useful and indispensable article for every
home. It is the symbol of the nations prosperity and, therefore, freedom. It is a
symbol not of commercial war but of commercial peace. It bears not a message of illwill towards the nations of the earth but of good-will and self-help. It will not need the
protection of a navy threatening a worlds peace and exploiting its resources, but it
needs the religious determination of millions to spin their yarn in their own homes as
today they cook their food in their own homes. I may deserve, the curse of posterity
for many mistakes of omission and commission, but I am confident of earning its
blessings for suggesting a revival of the Charkha, I stake my all on it. For every
revolution of the wheel spins peace, good will and love. And with all that, in as much
as the loss of it brought about Indias slavery, its voluntary revival with all its
implications must mean Indias freedom.
Young India, 8,12-21

What is claimed for spinning is that

1. It supplies the readiest occupation to those who have leisure and are in want of a
few coppers;
2. it is known to the thousands;
3. it is easily learnt;
4. it requires practically no outlay of capital;
5. The wheel can be easily and cheaply made. Most of us do not yet know that spinning
can be done even with a piece of tile and splinter;
6. the people have no repugnance to it;
7. it affords immediate relief in times of famine and scarcity;
8. it alone can stop the drain of wealth which goes outside India in the purchase of
foreign cloth;
9. it automatically distributes the millions thus saved among the deserving poor;
10. even the smallest success means so much immediate gain to the people;
11. it is the most potent instrument of securing co-operation among the people.

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Young India, 21-8-24

If handspinning is all you say, how is it that it has not already been universally
adopted? asks the critic. The question is quite fair. The answer is simple. The message
of the wheel has to be carried to a people who have no hope, no initiative left in
them, and who would, if left to themselves, starve and die rather than work and live.
Such was not the case before, but long neglect has made laziness a habit with them
.That laziness can only be removed by the living contact and example of men of
character and industry, plying the wheel before them and by gently showing them the
way. The second great difficulty is the absence of a ready-market for khaddar. I
confess hat it cannot for the time being compete with mill cloth. I will not engage in
any such killing competition. The capitalist may, for capturing the market, sell his
calico for nothing. The manufacturer whose only capital is labour cannot afford to do
so. Can there be any competition between the dead artificial rose, however
symmetrical it may be, and the living rose whose two petals will not be a like, or can
there be any competition between a wax statue of Cromwell and the living one?
Khaddar is a living thing. But India has lost her eye for the real art and is, therefore,
satisfied with the glossy exterior. Revive the healthy national taste for Khaddar and
you will find every village a busy hive. As it is, the resources of khaddar organizations
are taxed to the utmost, in order to create a market for the article The marvel is
that, in spite of heavy odds against it, the movement is making headway.
I have the summarized the case for the spinning wheel as a supplementary industry as
against the hand-loom. Let there be no confusion of thought. I am not against the
handloom. It is great and thriving industry. It will progress automatically if the spinning
wheel succeeds. It is bound to die if the wheel fails.
Young India, 11-11-26

The spinning wheel represents to me the hope of the masses. The masses lost their
freedom, such as it was with the loss of the Charkha. The Charkha supplemented the
agriculture of the villagers and gave it dignity. It was the friend and solace of the
widow. It kept the villager from idleness. For the Charkha included all the anterior and
posterior industries ginning, carding, warping, sizing, dyeing and weaving. These in

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