Khadi is a controversial subject. Many people think that in advocating Khadi, I am sailing against a head wind and am sure to sink the ship of Swaraj, that I am taking the country to the Dark Ages. I do not propose to argue the case for Khadi in this brief survey. I have argued it sufficiently before. Here I want to show what every Congressman, and for that every matter every Indian, can do to advance the cause of Khadi. It connotes the beginning of economic freedom and equality of all in the country. “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” Let everyone try, and he or she will find out for himself or herself the truth of what I am saying. Khadi must be taken with all its implications. It means a wholesale Swadeshi mentality, a determination to find all the necessaries of life in India, and that, too, through the labour and intellect of the villagers. That means a reversal of the existing process. That is to say, that, instead of half a dozen cities of India and Great Britian living on the exploitation and the ruin of the 700, 000 villages of India, the latter will be largely self-contained, and will voluntarily serve the cities of India and even the outside world in so far as it benefits both the parties.

What Khadi Stands For

This needs a revolutionary change in the mentality and tastes of many. Easy though the non-violent way is in many respects, it is very difficult in many others. It vitally touches the life of every single Indian, makes him feel aglow with the possession of a power that has lain hidden within himself, and makes him proud of the identity with every drop of the ocean of Indian humanity. This non-violence is not the inanity which we have mistaken it for through all these long ages, but it is the most potent force as yet known to mankind and on which its very existence is dependent. It is that force which I have tried to present to the Congress and through it to the world. Khadi to me, is the symbol of unity of Indian humanity, of its economic freedom and equality and, therefore, ultimately, in the poetic expression of Jawaharlal Nehru, “the livery of India’s freedom”.

But the Khadi mentality means decentralization of the production and distribution of the necessaries of life. Therefore, the formula so far evolved is, every village to produce and use all its necessaries and, in addition, to produce a certain percentage as its contribution to the requirements of the cities.

Heavy industries will necessarily be centralized and nationalized. But they will occupy the least part of the vast national activity in the villages.

Constructive Programme: P.7.