The Poor Man’s Way

If everyone realizes that without Swadeshi, i.e., boycott of foreign cloth and manufacture of all the required cloth by hand-spinning and hand-weaving, there is no Swaraj, there should be no difficulty in bringing about the desired boycott and the required manufacture.

I know that many will find it difficult to replace their foreign cloth all at once. Millions are too poor to buy enough Khadi to replace the discarded cloth. To them I repeat my advice given on the Madras beach. Let them be satisfied with a mere loin cloth. In our climate, we hardly need more to protect our bodies during the warm months of the year. Let there be on prudery about dress. India has never insisted on full covering of the body for the males as a test of culture.

Loin Cloth

I give the advice under a full sense of my responsibility. In order, therefore, to set the example, I propose to discard at least up to the 31^st of October my Topi and vest, and to content myself with only a loin cloth, and a Chaddar whenever found necessary for the protection of the body. I adopt the change, because I have always hesitated to advise anything I may not myself be prepared to follow, and also because I am anxious by leading the way to make it easy for those who cannot afford a change on discarding their foreign garments. I wish to state clearly that I do not expect co-workers to renounce the use of the vest and the Topi unless they find it necessary to do so for their own work.

I am positive that every province and every district can, if there are enough workers, manufacture sufficient for its needs. I have a settled conviction that, if we exhibit the strength of character, the faculty for organizing and the power of exemplary self-control, all of which are necessary for full Swadeshi, we shall attain Swaraj without anything more.

- Young India: Sept. 29, 1921.