Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/330

 240 EARLIER INDIAN SPEECHES.

programme. Then only I should think I am being taught Swadeshi.

I asked when we were passing through Mayavaram v/hether there have been any handlooms here and whether there were handloom-weavers here. I was told tha. there were 50 handlooms in Mayavaram. What were they engaged in ? They were engaged chiefty in prepar- ing " Sarees" for our women. Then is Swadeshi to be confined only to the women? It is to be only in their keeping? I do not find that our friends, the male population, also have their stuff prepared for them by these weavers and through their handlooms, (a voice : there are 1,000 hondlooms here ). There are, I understand one thousand handlooms. So much the worse for the leaders ! Loud applause.) If these one thousand hand- looms are kept chiefly in attending to the wants of our women, double this supply of our handlooms and you will have all your wants supplied by our own weavers and there will be no poverty in the land I ask you and ask our friend the President how far he is indebted to foreign go^ds for ,his outfit and if he can tell me that he has tried his utmost and still has failed to outfit himself or rather to fit himself out with Swadeshi clothing and therefore he has got this stuff, I shall sit at his feet and learn a lesson. What I have been able to learn to-day is that it is entirely possible for me, without any extra cost, to fit myself with Swadeshi clothing. How am I to learn through those who move or who are supposed to be movers in the Congress, the secret of the Resolution ? I sit at the feet of my leaders, I sit at the feet of the Mayavaram people and let them reveal the /mystery, give me the secret of the meaning, teach me how il should behave myself >and tell me

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