The Economics of Swadeshi

There is no deliverance for India without true Swadeshi. Our purified reason must show us the true economics of Swadeshi. Our purified hearts must make us strong to withstand the temptation of yielding to the charms of foreign cloth. Howsoever good it may be outside India, it is not good enough for India.

Khadi is on the fair way to become the state dress; it is not the foreign muslin that will henceforth deck our bodies on auspicious occasions, but the sacred Khadi reminiscent not of sweated labour of the enforced idleness and pauperism of India’s millions, but of the reviving poetry of the home life and of the incoming prosperity of the poorest toiler……We must give up the use of foreign cloth once for all. We must realize that foreign cloth in our possession is valueless, even as the richest milk, if it is infected, is fit only to be thrown away. If we are no longer to wear foreign cloth, is it not so much burden locked up in our trunks? Do they not in Europe give up valuable things when they have gone out of fashion? I utter this word of caution because I know that many have given up only a part of their foreign clothing in the hope, evidently, that some day they might be able to wear what they have kept. Collection of foreign cloth is not like collection of funds and jewellery of which only a part need be given by many. Collection of foreign cloth is like a collection of refuse, every particle of which an industrious and careful housewife puts in the dustbin. So much depends upon our ability to revolutionize our taste for the tinsel splendor if the shops for the sale of foreign cloth are to be an exception in our bazaars. Let us not hanker after imitations. If we do, we are likely to have fraudulent imitations of Khadi from foreign markets. For the time being and during the transition period, the coarser and unwashed Khadi is the best.