Swadeshi Teaches Sacrifice

I believe that a nation that is capable of limitless sacrifice is capable of rising to limitless heights. The purer the sacrifice, the quicker the progress. Swadeshi offers every man, woman and child an occasion to make a beginning in self-sacrifice of a pure type. It, therefore, presents an opportunity for testing our capacity for sacrifice. It is the measure for gauging the depth of national feeling. Does the nation feel sufficient to move it to go through even the preliminary progress of sacrifice? Will the nation revise its taste for the Japanese silk, the Manchester calico or the French lace and find all its decoration out of hand-spun and hand-woven cloth, i.e. Khadi? If crores of people will refuse to wear or use foreign cloth and be satisfied with the simple cloth that we can produce in our homes, it will be proof of our organizing ability, energy, co-operation and self-sacrifice that will enable us to secure all we need. It will be a striking demonstration of national solidarity.

- Young India: Aug. 25, 1920