Khadi On Postage Stamps

Mahatma Gandhi encouraged and promoted khadi and the charkha in a big way as part of the Swadeshi Movement during the Indian freedom struggle. As we come together to celebrate the sesquicentennial (150th) birth anniversary of the Father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, N Kalyani takes a look at khadi, the fabric that Gandhiji endorsed in a big way, and how postage stamps of India, have, over the years, commemorated khadi and Gandhiji.

- N Kalyani

Khadi, or khaddar, refers to handspun and hand-woven cloth. Khadi today has acquired many dimensions and has become a fashion statement; fashion wear could be crafted from khadi. During the freedom struggle, when India was fighting British rule, khadi was central to the ideals of self-reliance and self-governance by the Indians. It was in the year 1918 that Mahatma Gandhi began the movement for Khadi as a relief programme for the poor masses of India’s villages. ‘I am convinced that Swaraj cannot come so long as the tens of millions of our brothers and sisters do not take to the charkha, do not spin, do not make khadi and wear it,’ Gandhi had said at the opening speech at the Belgaum Congress session of 1924.

Khadi was encouraged during India’s freedom struggle as the Indian handspun cloth, against both foreign cloth as also mill-made cloth. In fact, Gandhiji wrote, in the year 1929, in his publication, Navajivan, ‘The boycott of foreign cloth will succeed only when the twenty-two crore of our peasants begin to use khadi. And to convert them to the use of khadi means to explain to them the science of khadi, to show them the advantages of self-help and to teach them the entire process of khadi production. For this, we need volunteers, mobile schools, and preparation and distribution of booklets describing the processes of spinning, carding, etc.’