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| Khadi beyond common man's reach | | A tribute to Bapu on his Birthday | | Dr. Pragya Khanna | 10/1/2015 10:27:42 PM |
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"Maa khadi ki chadar de de main Gandhi ban jayunga,
Sab mitro ke beech baith kar raghupati raghav gayunga".
Time seems to have
stood still in the
Khadi and Village Industries Emporiums/khadi bhandars at most of the places in Jammu. The whole scenario gives a look as it was decades ago; the wide store has more staff than clients.
The staffers still have an unconcerned look, sending slight and faint indication of orientation to rare shoppers of not making them work too hard. They are on the alert only when one of the senior heads of the emporium walks in, only to settle back into torpor the moment he exits.
Has this organic, eco-friendly, indigenous produce become an alien in its own land? And are there no takers for what was once considered the poor man's fabric? The reasons are many and equally diverse.
An Environment and eco-friendly garment, khadi is recognized as one of the coolest and most comfortable fabric ever known. It is cool in summer and warm in winter.
While all over the world efforts are on to produce 100% eco-friendly textiles in an aspect of degenerating environment, where even the cotton will be grown without chemical fertilizers. However, amazingly, this is already being done in India in the form of Ponduru Khadi which is produced from wild varieties of cotton found in Ponduru, Srikakulam dist in Andhra Pradesh which is in the South of India, only a few know.
The products of khadi industry are matchless in the sense that they are one of a kind besides being truly "cottage" or "hand-spun" and "hand woven". However, they are "flawed" as they are not mindless creation of machines. That is why each piece of khadi is different and as such many won't mind paying for its exclusivity. It gets softer with each wash which makes it ideal tropical fabric. The existing brands of khadi are khadi India or Khadi Bharat, Sarvodhya, Desi Ahar, Kutir and others.
We all know Khadi was a part of Independence struggle in India. Mahatma Gandhi began endorsing khadi in order to boycott the foreign clothes, Gandhiji called upon the people to make their clothes themselves. Khadi symbolized the freedom movement. On the one hand were fabrics and styles with a classy and refined sheen, glamorous with satin finishes and heavy embellishments, showing signs of a strong foreign presence. On the other was the raw cotton hand-spun on a charkha, and hand-woven to give a look which was crushed, where no two lengths looked alike. The miracle of khadi is that it has survived the capricious cycles of fashion.
Let's look at today's scenario: don't let khadi clothing of politicians fool you. Because the khadi worn by our netas costs around Rs 1,500-2500 per metre, an amount that can easily fetch a month's ration for a middle-class family.
"Silk khadi is hot favourite. Available in various types like munga, tussar, matka and katia, it has definitely charmed politicians," says Ramesh, a khadi seller near Gandhi Nagar. Politicos use silk khadi to make kurtas that are generally paired with cotton churidars, to give the perfect look of a traditional neta. This classy khadi is transported especially from West Bengal and Nagaland where it is hand-woven by locals.
Today when the word eco-friendly has become the dominant word in the world and we have the most eco-friendly product in our country, it is a disgrace that we are doing nothing to promote it on individual level.
In today's context, khadi can never be the poor man's fabric. Handmade fabrics are becoming more and more expensive because their production capability is low. I think at one point of time, when the whole world was slow, khadi was reasonably cheap. But now, since fabric is being produced at the drop of a hat through technology, a fabric that takes so much manmade labour is noticeably going to be expensive.
When the weavers find that not much income is generated from the hours of spinning and weaving, they move onto other occupations. If there is no demand, manufacturing reduces and prices automatically shoot up. More significant was the support that its massive production provided to the lives of nearly a million poor artisans, an estimated 80 per cent of whom are women.
The charkha was a motif of India's struggle for freedom and khadi the fabric of national pride. It symbolised patriotism, Indian hood and insurgence. But decades after freedom, this wonderful and revered fabric is now insignificant, abhorred and is struggling to survive.
Coming at a time when organic, indigenous and hand-crafted are buzzwords for most companies and retailers, it is shocking that India's own offering finds few takers. In fact, it can no longer be labelled only as a fabric of the masses. Indian fashion designers of international eminence have begun to use it extensively in their collections. If you are a fan of khadi, you would know that it is now an expensive buy. But if khadi is gaining popularity shouldn't it be mass-produced and consequently be cheaper to buy?
Khadi calls to mind for most Indians, the image of a robust, homespun cotton fabric that is porous, cool and absorbent. It could easily be the fabric of choice for our scorching summers or humid monsoons, and it is also amazingly insulating in the winter chill. Less obvious to most Indians today is that khadi is the last trace of what was once the world's finest cotton spinning and weaving tradition.
Whether recognized as a cloth product, a cultural icon or an economic support, khadi derives its distinctiveness from a single textile process, hand-spinning. It is the processing of cotton fibre into yarn by human hands that bestows the fabric with its defining material character, its exceptional tactile quality and unparalleled comfort level. Repeated washing serves only to enhance these, so that the fabric assumes, over time, a texture as natural and soothing as skin. It was not without reason that India clothed the world in cotton for 2,000 years.
And most important are the colours on khadi. The cotton dyes brilliantly and even bright acid colours take on a language of their own as the fibres tend to diffuse the colour to look rich and earthy. The fact is that this fabric can be produced in bulk, given the right institutional and design inputs.
Why is khadi more expensive than a mill-made fabric and then why is there this impression of it being a 'poor' fabric? By default we all participate in the responsibility whenever we allow a skill to be lost without contributing to replace it. So where does this leave the common man, the ordinary villager or a small town man who took to khadi because he took pride in wearing it? Can he afford the privilege anymore? The answer is No. For khadi which began its journey as the weave of the Indian people is now ironically out of their reach!
Mahatma Gandhi propagated it as not just a fabric, but a way of life. One that is centred around the village, where the practice of khadi would be able to generate employment, income and, hence, self-reliance. Khadi was meant to become an additional industry to agriculture, a crucial element in a self-sustaining economy. But it was not simply about the making of yarn at home, it was the spirit behind it. Gandhi ji's vision was clear: "If we have the khadi spirit in us, we should surround ourselves with simplicity in every walk of life… The khadi spirit means illimitable patience… The khadi spirit means also an equally illimitable faith… The khadi spirit means fellow-feeling with every human being on earth".
"Mahatma Gandhi used khadi as a tool to bind India together. But today, that philosophy has become antiquated.
If the textile industries, fashion designers and engineers in the field try to marry the elements of khadi with, say, some other material that is more uniform, has more pliability and more adaptability it would by far outshine any other fabric in our country. There have been alternatives like the amber charkha that only requires one to turn a lever by hand and not draw the yarn from the cotton sliver. This in essence takes away some of khadi's charm but is not a bad alternative to mill-made fabrics. Other edition of khadi is poly khadi, where polyester is used with spun yarn to produce a far more 'engineered' fabric, must make an emergence in the local market. The government should give technology inputs to the institutions producing the fabric, so that they can produce fabric of a uniform quality, which arrives clean and unstained. Lowering the cost to an average Indian's pocket would certainly make it more popular given all its unique features.
Let's try to keep our legacy alive! Jai Hind! |
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