Page:Gandhi and Saklatvala - Is India different.pdf/26

 Africa gave the start to my life's mission. Nor do I consider it to be wrong to have offered, during the late war, the services of my companions and myself, under my then convictions, as ambulance men.

This great M.P. is in a hurry. He disdains to study facts. Let me inform him that the Khadi movement is not on the wane. It did last year at least twenty times as much work as during 1920. It is now serving not less than 50,000 spinners in 1,500 villages besides weavers, washermen, printers, dyers and tailors.

Mr. Saklatvala asks what Khaddar stands for. Well, it stands for simplicity, not shoddiness. It sits well on the shoulders of the poor, and it can be made, as it was made in the days of yore, to adorn the bodies of the richest and the most artistic men and women. It is reviving ancient art and crafts. It does not seek to destroy all machinery, but it does regulate its use and check its weedy growth. It uses machinery for the service of the poorest in their own cottages. The wheel is itself an exquisite piece of machinery.

Khaddar delivers the poor from the bonds of the rich and creates a moral and spiritual bond between the classes and the masses. It restores to the poor somewhat of what the rich have taken from them.

Khaddar does not displace a single cottage industry. On the contrary, it is being daily recognised that it is becom ing the centre of other village industries. Khaddar brings a ray of hope to the widow's broken-up home.

But it does not prevent her from earning more if she can. It prevents no one from seeking a better occupation. Khaddar otters honourable employment to those in need of some. It utilises the idle hours of the nation. The esteemed comrade quotes with pride the work of those who offer more lucrative employment. Let him know that Khaddar does that automatically. It cannot put annas into the pockets of the poor without putting rupees into the pockets of some. Whereas those who begin their work in the cities, though they are no doubt doing good work, touch but the fringe of the question, Khaddar touches the very centre and there fore necessarily includes the rest.

But the whole of the impatient Communist's letter concentrates itself upon the cities and thus ignores India and