Response for Gandhijis Call for Wearing Khadi


 
 
Concept Explanation
 

Response for Gandhijis Call for Wearing Khadi

RESPONSE FOR GANDHIJI'S CALL FOR WEARING KHADI: 

Mahatma Gandhi's dream was to clothe the whole nation in khadi. He felt khadi would be a means of erasing difference between different religions, classes, etc. Some examples of other responses to Mahatma Gandhi's call are as follows:

  • Nationalists such as Motilal Nehru, a successful barrister from Allahabad, gave up his expensive Western - Style and adopted the Indian dhoti and kurta. But these were not made of coarse cloth.
  • Those who had been deprived by caste norms rules for centuries were attracted to Western dress styles. Therefore, unlike Mahatma Gandhi, other nationalists such as Babasaheb Ambedkar never gave up the Western suit.
  • Many Dalits in the early 1910s began to wear three piece suits and shoes and socks on all public occasions, as a political statement of self respect.
  • A woman from Maharatshtra in 1928 wrote to Mahatma Gandhi in response of his call . She said. 'A year ago, I heard you speaking on the extreme necessity of everyone of us wearing khadi and there upon decided to adopt it. But we are poor people, my husband says khadi is costly. Belonging as I do  to Maharashtra, I wear a sari nine yards long.............. (and) elders will not hear of a reduction (to six yards).'
  • Other women, like Sarojini Naidu and Kamala Nehru, wore coloured saris with designs, instead of coarse, white homespun fabric
  • THE GANDHI CAP:

  • Sometime after his return to India from South Africa in 1915, Mahatma Gandhi transformed the Kashmiri cap that he sometimes used into a cheap white cotton khadi cap.
  • For 2 years from 1919, he himself wore the cap and then gave it up , but by this time, it had become part of the nationalist uniform and even a symbol of defiance. For example the Gwalior state tried to prohibit its use in 1921 during the Non Co-operation Movement.
  • During the Khilafat Movement, the cap was worn by large numbers of Hindus and Muslims.
  • A group of Santhals who attacked the police in 1922 in Bengal demanding the release of Santhal prisoners believed a Gandhi cap would protect them from bullets: three of them died as a result.
  • Large numbers of nationalists defiantly wore the Gandhi cap and were even beaten or arrested for doing so.
  • With the rise of the Movement in the post-First World War years, the fez, a tasseled Turkish  cap, became a sign of anti-colonialism in India . Though many Hindus - as in Hyderabad for instance also wore the fez, it soon became identified solely with Muslims.
  • CONCLUSION:

    Changes in styles of clothing are thus linked up with shifts in cultural tastes and notions or ideas of beauty. Style also changed due to the changes in economy and changes in society due to social and political conflict.

     
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