New V. Old Swadeshi

Q. How does this new Swadeshi differ from the old?

A. The old emphasized the indigenous nature of the products, irrespective of the method or the produce or the prospects of the product. I have ruled our organized industries, not because they are not Swadeshi, but because they do not need special support. They can stand on their own legs and, in the present state of our awakening, can easily command a market. According to the new orientation, if it is new, I would certainly have our Swadeshi organization to seek out all village industries and find how they are faring. We will have experts and chemists who will be prepared to place their knowledge at the disposal of the villagers. We will, through our experts, offer to test the articles manufactured by village handicraftsmen and make them suggestions to improve their wares.

Village Broom V. Brushes

Q. Would you take up any and every handicraft?

A. Not necessarily. I should examine each one of them, find out their place in the economy of the village life and, if I see that they must be encouraged because of inherent merit, I should do so. Now, for instance, I should be loath to allow the village broom to be replaced by the modern broomstick or brush. I would ask Mrs. Gandhi and other women of the household to tell me about the relative merits of both. Mind you, I would consider the advantages from all points of view. Thus, the village broom, I should think, must be preferred because it indicates tenderness and kindness to small life, whereas the brush makes a clean sweep of those things. Thus, I should see a whole philosophy behind the broom, for I do not think the Creator makes any distinction between minute insects and (in His estimation) minute men.

Tooth-Stick V. Tooth-Brush

Thus, I should pick up all kinds of village crafts and industries which are about to die and deserve revival both because of their intrinsic merit and their other useful aspects, and I should thus go on making discoveries. Take our trifling tooth-sticks, for instance. I am quite sure, if you were to deprive the bulk of the Bombay citizens of their tooth-sticks, their teeth would suffer. I cannot contemplate with equanimity the modern tooth-brush replacing the tooth-stick. These brushes are unhygienic. Once used, they deserve to be thrown away. However much disinfectants you may use to sterilize them, they can never be as good as fresh ones. But the babul or neem tooth-stick is used once for all and has highly astringent properties. Again, it serves the purpose of a tongue scraper. The West has yet to discover anything so hygienic as the Indian tooth-stick. You may not know that a doctor in South Africa claimed to have controlled tuberculosis among the Bantu miner by insisting on the regular use by them of these tooth-sticks. I would be no party to the advertisement of modern tooth-brushes even when they are made in India. I should declare my preference for the tooth-stick. This is cent percent Swadeshi. If I take care of it, the rest will take care of itself. Ask me to define the right angle and I should do it easily, but do not ask me to define the angles between the acutest and the most obtuse you can make. If I have the definition of a right angle, I can make whatever angle I need. Though Swadeshi is eloquent enough as its own definition, I have called mine cent percent Swadeshi, because Swadeshi is in danger of being watered down. Cent percent Swadeshi gives sufficient scope for the most insatiable ambition for service and can satisfy every kind of talent.

If we tap all our resources, I am quite sure we can be again the richest country in the world, which we were, I suppose, at one time. We can repeat the phenomenon, if we cease to be idle and profitably occupy the idle hours of the millions. All we need is to be industrious, not like a machine, but like the busy bee.

- Harijan: Sept. 8, 1934