To The Women of India

Completion of the Swadeshi programme is possible only if you give the largest share. Boycott is impossible unless you will surrender the whole of your foreign clothing. So long as the taste persists, so long is complete renunciation impossible. And boycott means complete renunciation. We must be prepared to be satisfied with such cloth as India can produce, even as we are thankfully content with such children as God gives us. I have not known a mother throwing away her baby, even though it may appear ugly to an outsider. So should it be with the patriotic women of India about Indian manufactures. And for you only hand-spun and hand-woven can be regarded as Indian manufactures. And for you only hand-spun and hand-woven can be regarded as Indian manufactures. During the transition stage, you can only get coarse Khadi in abundance. You may add all the art to it that your taste allows or requires. And if you will be satisfied with coarse Khadi for a few months, India need not despair of seeing a revival of the fine, rich and coloured garments of old, which were once the envy and the despair of the world.

I assure you that a six months’ course of self-denial will show you that what we today regard as artistic is only falsely so, and that the true art takes note not merely of form but also of what lies behind. There is an art that kills and an art that gives life. The fine fabric that we have imported from the West or the Far East has literally killed millions of our brothers and sisters, and delivered thousands of our dear sisters to a life of shame. True art must be evidence of happiness, contentment, and purity of its authors. And if you will have such art revived in our midst, the use of Khadi is obligatory on the best of you at the present moment.

During Leisure Hours

And not only is the use of Khadi necessary for the success of the Swadeshi programme, but it is imperative for every one of you to spin during your leisure hours. Two hundred years ago, the women of India spun not only for home demand but also for foreign lands. They spun not merely coarse counts, but the finest that the world has ever spun. No machine has yet reached the fineness of the yarn spun by our ancestors.

The economic and the moral salvation of India thus rests mainly with you. The future of India lies on your knees, for, you will nurture the future generation. You can bring up the children of India to become simple, God-fearing, and brave men and women, or you can coddle them to be weaklings, unfit to brave the storms of life and used to foreign fineries which they would find it difficult in after-life to discard.

- Young India: Aug. 11, 1921