Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/422

 382 EARLIER INDIAN SPEECHES

patriotism. If I receive a disappointing reply, I will think that merely a wave of giving addresses had come over India and that I had a share in it.

��NATIONAL DRESS

��Mr. Gandhi wrote the following reply to Mr. Irwin's criticism of his dress in the " Pioneer * ' during the Champaran enquiry.

I have hitherto successfully resisted to temptation of either answering your or Mr. Irwin's criticism of the humble work 1 am doing in Champaran. Nor am I going to succumb now except with regard to a matter which Mr. Irwin has thought lit to dwell upon and about which he has not even taken the trouble of being correctly informed. I refer to his remarks on my manner of dressing.

My "familiarity with the minor amenities of western civilisation " has taught me to respect my national costume, and it may interest Mr. Irwin to know that the dress I wear in Champaran is the dress I have always worn in India except that for a very short period in India I fell an easy prey in common with the rest of my countrymen to the wearing of semi-European drfess in the courts and elsewhere outside Kathiawar. I appeared before the Kathiawar courts now 21 years ago in precisely the dress I wear in Champaran.

One change I have made and it is that, having taken to the occupation of weaving and agriculture and having taken the vow of Swadeshi, my clothing is now entirely hand-woven and hand-sewn and made by me or my fellow workers. Mr. Irwin's letter suggests that I appear before the ryots in a dress I have temporarily and specially

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