Foreign Cloth Boycott

It is my firm belief that mills, by reason of the limitations under which they must work, will fail us in the end if we rely upon them. Then, they being concerns predominantly for making profits irrespective of national considerations, will not scruple to exploit the public and even to sell foreign cloth as Swadeshi. Lastly, all mills are not Swadeshi because they have their habitation in India, as the existing Government is not Swadeshi for the mere fact of its habitation being in India. Some of them are foreign in every sense of the term. They are administered by foreigners on behalf exclusively of foreign shareholders with foreign capital. They are here merely to exploit the resources of the country. The only thing they reluctantly contribute is to employ cheap labour of the country and make a gullible public believe that these are Swadeshi concerns.

But this does not mean that the mills will play no part in the boycott campaign. They will, but it will be involuntary and fortuitous. Congressmen will not be able at once to reach every village of India. We will reach the towns and the villages surrounding them. The mills reach every village of India. The atmosphere created in the country will throw the villagers into the arms of the mill-owners’ agents and they will buy whatever is given to them by the mills under the name of Swadeshi. Congressmen will have to be on the watch regarding their operation. There are some patriotic mills which will refuse to betray the country if they cannot by reason of their limitations give active support. My conviction is that a time must come, and that within a few months, when the mills will have to make their choice. But it will wholly depend upon the determination of the people to boycott foreign cloth at any cost and replace it by genuine Khadi. Khadi has no limits. For, we have millions of human spindles and lakhs of human looms. The one thing needful is the will to do it.

- Young India: Mar. 7, 1929