Economic And Religious Aspects

To me, the economic and the religious aspects of Swadeshi are far more attractive than the political, and as it is my dream that all, from the Viceroy down to the sweeper, should accept the Swadeshi, I am desirous of conducting the Swadeshi propaganda from the economic and the religious standpoints..... To me, the religious aspect is all-sufficient. The elementary religion which is common to mankind teaches us to be kind and attentive to our neighbours. An individual's service to his country and humanity consists in serving his neighbours. If that is true, it is our religious duty to support our farmers, our artisans such as weavers, carpenters, etc. And so long as the Godhra farmers and weavers can supply the wants of the Godhra citizens, the latter have no right to go outside Godhra and support even say, the Bombay farmers and weavers. I cannot starve my neighbour and claim to serve my distant cousin in the North Pole. This is the basic principle of all religions, and we will find it is also of true and humane economics.

One Thing Needful

We have twenty-one crore farmers. My own experience and the experience of authoritative writers shows that they have nearly four months of the year lying idle on their hands. This is a huge economic waste. No wonder that we are poor. Swadeshi, therefore, is the problem of inducing and enabling the farmers to take up the supplementary industry of spinning and weaving. Our Shastras and the history of spinning and weaving throughout the world show that the queens down to their maids considered it an honour to spin cotton. Weaving was largely specialized. In those halcyon days when our mothers spun for the nation, we were able to produce the finest muslin. We can still regain the lost art and with it the lost prosperity. But one thing is needful for the people, to insist on getting only Swadeshi cloth and on producing it themselves as far as possible. In the Punjab, thousands of women of high birth spin their own yarn and get it woven by professional weavers. The Swadeshi vows are designed to create a taste for Swadeshi. We must not be ashamed of coarse cloth. As a matter of fact, there is more art about hand-spun and hand-woven cloth, however coarse, than about machine-made cloth however fine. But art apart, we are bound by every tie of honour, every consideration of prudence and economics to wear that cloth every village can produce and be satisfied with it, till our skill, industry and enterprise can produce a better quality.

- Young India: Aug 20, 1919