The Condition Of Success

Swadeshi is that spirit in us which requires us to serve our immediate neighbours before others, and to use things produced in our neighbourhood in preference to those more remote. So doing, we serve humanity to the best of our capacity. We cannot serve humanity by neglecting our neighbours. Similarly, with our wants. We are bound to supply them through the agency of our neighbours and, therefore, prefer their labour and wares to those of others. India abandoned Swadeshi, a hundred years ago, and has consequently become comparatively poor and helpless. We were well able to supply all our cloth and to supply the world's market to a certain extent when we were observing the Law of Swadeshi. During that period, the majority of the women of India spun yarn as a national duty and the men wove the yarn so spun. Now the 21 crore peasants of India have at least four months out of the year thrown on their hands. They do not shirk work. They have none to occupy their time and to supplement their earnings from cultivation. Swadeshi, therefore is a question of finding a subsidiary industry for our farmers. No country in the world can prosper that has one-third of time of the vast majority of its inhabitants lying unutilized. Moreover, there are other men and women who have many hours in the day at their disposal. If these idle hours of the nation are fully occupied in producing yarn and weaving it, we can manufacture the whole of our cloth and thus save crores of rupees going out of the country every year. The condition of success is that cultured men and women take up spinning and weaving. The people will follow their example.

- Young India: Aug.20, 1919