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*Jyotimonjuri Kalita
Idea of Khadi and its Popularity in Colonial Assam
Jyotimonjuri Kalita*
*Department of History, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh
ABSTRACT: Khadi or khaddar is a type of hand woven, hand spun cloth made from
natural fiber. But in case of Indian sentiments, khadi is not only a type of textile or textile
heritage, but also an ideology which was an integral part of Indian Independence
movement. Assam has a rich textile heritage. Hand spun and hand-woven clothes had
been common in the Assamese culture since a very long time. But with the transformation
of India into a colony of the British Empire and the flooding of cheap foreign yarn and
cloth, the Assamese hand spun and hand-woven clothes lost its popularity. Under the
guidance of Gandhiji, the Indian National Congress workers spread the khadi movement
to discourage Indians to use foreign clothes and they established khadi as a symbol of
India’s self- reliance, nationalism, India’s resistance and revolution, unity and equality.
The freedom fighters encouraged Assamese people to boycott British made clothes and
spin their own yarn and wear hand woven clothes and this ideology gained popularity in
all over Assam.
Keywords: Khadi, Hand woven, Nationalism, Colonial period.
1.Introduction: Cloth played a very significant role in the Indian independence
movement. Indian National Congress made the philosophy of using only khadi or khaddar
or hand span cloth and boycott of foreign cloths a part of the larger Swadeshi ideology
which included the boycott of all foreign made goods. Charkha or spinning wheel became
the emblem of the national revolution. Gandhiji took leading initiative in this matter.
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Khadi movement had an economical advantage too as it would help India in attaining
self-sufficiency. Another idea related to the use of khadi was that it would blur the
differences between the rich and the poor.
2.Methodology: The methodology used in this study is historical. The study is based
on both primary and secondary data. I have collected primary data through British official
records, contemporary books, autobiographies of colonial Assam, buranjies,
contemporary photographs etc. As sources of secondary data I am using books, research
papers, articles, journals etc.
3.Discussion
3.1. Implementation of the Khadi programme in the Brahmaputra valley: During the
time of Indian Independence movement, the idea of ‘Khadi’ as more just a cloth entered.
Khaddar was considered as a weapon for mass mobilization for gaining India’s
independence. The message of Khaddar penetrated in the towns and villages of every
region in Assam.
During the time of Swadeshi or anti- partition movement of 1905 the message of
Swadeshi and boycott of foreign goods spread to the whole country. Boycott and public
burning of foreign clothes, picketing of shops selling foreign clothes, opening of
indigenous textile mills and shops for selling indigenous clothes were became famous in
Assam. The business community was asked to refrain from dealing in foreign clothes. The
head priest of the Kamakhya temple appealed to the pandas not to accept foreign goods
and appealed to the sellers and grocers not to produce or sell foreign goods.1 Ambikagiri
Raichoudhuri noted, “The Swadeshi Movement of 1905 didn’t get popularity in any part
of Assam except Guwahati...... The concepts of ‘swadeshi and boycott’ of this movement
actively touched the hearts of some of our Guwahati based students through the initiative
1 H. K. Barpujari (ed), Political History of Assam, Government of Assam, Guwahati, 1977, vol.I, p.
187
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of Gobindra Lahiri, the manager of Assam Valley Trading Company in Panbazar. In his
advice we had actively participated in works like spreading the concept of swadeshi in the
streets of Guwahati, selling canvas like rough dhoti clothes of Kolkata based Bango
Lakshmi mill and along with these we requested Assamese people to continue their age
old practice of spinning and weaving and asked Bengali brothers and sisters to learn the
art of spinning and weaving cloths."2 But a correspondent of the Bangalee noted that the
response of Assamese people towards the Anti- partition movement was good. He made a
tour to the main towns of Assam valley during the beginning of that movement. It is
noteworthy about the concept of Swadeshi cloth during the time of Swadeshi movement
was that both homemade and Indian mill made clothes were inside the scope of Swadeshi.
Even for weaving looms people used mill made threads 1. The concept of Swadeshi in the
real sense was implicated by Gandhiji. He conceptualised that only those clothes are
Swadeshi which are homemade clothes woven by home spun thread.3
The non-cooperation movement (1920-22) emphasized on promotion of Swadeshi
and boycott of foreign goods, mainly foreign clothes. In 1921 the Congress working
committee passed a resolution to introduce two million Charkhas in the country, and
accordingly the instructions were sent to all the Congress organizations of the respective
provinces by the All India Congress Committee.4Though spinning and weaving was
practised by Assamese women from time immemorial, yet the concept of khadi was
almost unknown to Assamese people till the visit of Gandhiji to Assam. The visit of
Gandhiji to Assam in 1921 inspired the non-co-operators to undertake intensive
constructive programmers for spreading Khadi in Assam. Gandhi went many places of
Assam to propagate the non-cooperation programme. Gandhiji used to preside over the
bonfire of foreign clothes by igniting the hopes at the end of every meeting he attended in
2 Dr, Prafulla Mahanta, Asomiya Madhyabitta Shreneer Itihas, Lowyer’s Book Stall, Guwahati , 2nd edition, p 250 3 H. Sarmah, Bastrasilpar Itibritta, Publication Board Assam, Guwahati, 1961,op.cit. p. 167
4 Arun Chandra Bhuyan, Sibopada De, Political History of Assam, vol.II, Government of Assam,
Guwahati, 1978, p. 218
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Assam. Gandhiji talked with the trader community and requested them not to sale foreign
clothes.5Muhammad Ali and Jamnalal Bajaj, who came to Assam along with Gandhiji, at
their own initiative arranged meetings with traders at various places and said the cloth
dealers to give up treading foreign clothes. Many traders of different places gave written
assurance that they would not transact any business on foreign clothes. Gandhiji praised
Assamese weavers in his article Lovely Assam, published in Young India in 1921 by
saying, “Every women of Assam is a born weaver. No Assamese girl who does not weave
can expect to become a wife. And she weaves fairy tales in cloth.” Though Gandhiji
praised Assamese weavers yet he worried about the future of Assamese weaving, “The
vegetable dyes of Assam are almost extinct. When Assam became a British possession, its
women ceased to spin and sinfully took to weaving foreign yarn. And now, what the
women of Assam are saving through weaving, they are losing through buying foreign
yarn”6
During the time of the Non- cooperation movement Assamese leaders of INC
worked hard for the propagation of Khadi in Assam. In 1921, an amount of Rs 25,000 was
offered by the AICC to the Assam Congress for the khadi programme. For spinning and
weaving khadi along with endi and muga, a school was established at Guwahati. In 1922,
the Civil Disobedience Enquiry committee visited Assam. This committee advised
picketing of foreign goods for the spread of Khaddar, establishment of Khaddar depots in
each Congress centre, fixation of the price of Khaddar at a price not more than that of
foreign cloth and the allotment of funds to each district to compensate for the loss on the
sale of khadi. At that time Jamuna Das Gandhi visited some weaving centres like
Sualkuchi, Polasbari to inspect the weaving technology used in Assam and established a
provincial khadi board. He also issued instructions for organising district khadi boards.
Though the congress leaders and khadi organizations appreciated the custom of weaving
5 Dr. Amulya Ch. Sarma, Asamat Sadhinata Sangramar Dhou, Asom Jatiya Prakash, p 44
6 Satis Chandra Kakati (ed), Discovery of Assam , Calcutta, 1964, p. 5, 6
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in Assam, they were not impressed by traditional weaving materials used in Assam and
suggested improvement of them.7
From the end of the Non-cooperation movement to the beginning of the Civil-
Disobedience movement in 1930, the khadi programme was continued with better spirit.
After the suspension of the Non-cooperation movement, the Calcutta pact, signed on 6th
November 1924, guided that Congress should carry on the spread of khadi along with
other constructive works. This pact noted that India could not be self- sufficient in her
clothing requirements without universal spinning. So, the pact signed by Gandhiji, C. R.
Das, Motilal Nehru stated that Congress should include in the article VII of the
constitution that no such person could became a member of Congress committee who did
not wear hand spun, hand woven cloth at political and Congress functions and did not
make contribution of 2000 yards of evently spun yarn per month producing by own
hand.8This measure widened the popularity of Khaddar. The khadi board was constituted
in Assam with the head office at Jorhat appointing Krishnanath Sarmah as the general
secretary. The board was approved by the All India Khadi Board. Eight khadi centres
were opened in Barpeta, Guwahati, Nowgong, Barkathani, Dergaon, Cheleghat, Charing
Kakotigaon and Chungi. But Assam Khadi Board had not made long lasting impact.
The Assam khadi received best recognition in the 41st session of Indian National
Congress held at Pandu, near Guwahati in the year 1926. The All India Spinners’
Association offered Assam 6000 rupees to do necessary works for the khadi programme.
The huge Congress pavilion and the delegates’ campus of the Pandu session of Indian
National Congress were made of khadi. These clothes were produced at Nowgong under
the supervision of Krishnanath Sarmah. Gandhiji called this place where the Congress
7Arun Chandra Bhuyan, Sibopada De,opcit p. 219, 220
8 Ibid. p. 221
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session was held as ‘a city under a khadi canvas’. Other national leaders of INC also
praised the Assamese weavers.9
With the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement the programe of
Khaddar regain strength. In 1930 from the months of September-October picketing of
shops selling foreign clothes was started at Fancy Bazaar in Guwahati and soon picketing
program spread other parts of Assam. In 1934 Gandhiji assured that a Khadi sangha
would be established in Assam. After Gandhiji's return, All India Khadi Board sent
Annadaprasad Choudhuri, the programme-in-charge of the khadi programme in North–
East India to Assam to handle the matter. New attempts were made to spread the khadi
programme under the leadership of Bimalaprasad Chaliha, Krishnanath Sarmah, Sankar
Baruah and Mohendranath Hazarika in the districts of Assam.10
Responding to the Gandhiji’s call of spinning in 1940, spinning centres were
opened in different districts of Assam. Some of these centres were under direct control of
the All India Spinners Association and the others were affiliated to APCC. Raha, Sibsagar
and Baihata khadi centres carried their works in extensive scale.11 AICC opened some
training camps in different parts of Assam from May 1940 and these centres trained the
people how to spin along with some other lessons.
9 Ibid, p. 222
10 Ibid, p. 224
11 Arun Chandra Bhuyan, Sibopada De, Political History of Assam, Volume Three, government of
Assam, 1980
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Fig 1: Mahatma Gandhi with his Charkha
3.2. Assamese common people’s response to the Khadi movement:
The idea of using only swadeshi clothes and boycott of foreign clothes got wide
spread popularity in Assam. The idea of hand spinning and weaving was not a new
concept for Assamese people. But the Khaddar movement spread the idea of hand
spinning and weaving not only as a household daily work, but also as a nationalist
ideology. Earlier spinning and weaving was considered in Assamese society as only
women’s work, but in the nationalist strugglers both man and woman spun and weaved
clothes.12 Even the illiterate commoners of the Assamese villages were inspired by the
ideology of non- cooperation. Some congress workers made spinning wheels and takuri
etc. by their own hands and distributed these among the villagers to inspire them to
produce Khaddar. They brought cotton plants and gave these plants to others to produce
cotton yarns. The young generation of Assam had stop thinking about golden dreams of
their own future and started to spread the messages and ideology of INC from village to
village wearing Khaddar cloths and knee length dhoti. In the villages people began to
12
H. Sarmah, op.cit. p. 170
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narrate songs and poems related to charkha. Even some imaginary stories also emerged
about the magical power of spinning wheel.
Fig 2: An Assamese girl of Colonial period wearing Khadi cloth
During the time of Gandhiji’s visit within a very short period of time Assamese
people spun and wove a huge amount of Khaddar clothes because people wanted to put on
Khaddar dresses while attending those meetings where Gandhiji was present. To
popularize Khaddar Nabinchandra Bordoloi and Tarunram Phukon had played the role of
salesman of Khaddar cloth carrying by themselves from Sadia to Dhubri.13
The spinning wheels regained popularity all over again in every household in
Assam. At the looms where foreign threads were used for weaving clothes began to
weave only Khaddar clothes. Assamese women organised Sipini Sanghas or weaving
associations to popularise weaving and spread modern techniques of spinning. For
example, an organization named Kamrup Jatiya Unnati Sabha took an initiative to make
cotton cultivation popular all over again among people and so they distributed cotton
seeds among the farmers.14Weaving schools were established in different parts of Assam.
Weaving was included as a part of school curriculum. Till post independent period
spinning, embroidery etc. were parts of school curriculum.
13
Dr. Amulya Ch. Op.cit.p 43 14
Pratap Chandra Goswami, Jibon Smriti aru Kamrupi Samaj, Guwahati,1971, p. 170
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Figure 3: Assamese spinning wheel
Congress workers never agreed to do even a little compromise in the matter of
Khaddar. Nabinchandra Bordoloi did not allow her grand-daughter Usharani to wear
silken cloth in her wedding. She had to wear Khaddar mekhela-chadar as her bridal dress
and this describe the congress workers dedication towards their ideology.15 Same was
the case with Rajbala Das who on her own will wore simple handmade cloth in her
wedding.16
Fig 4: Assamese handloom
15
Nalinibla Devi Rachana Sambhar, vol-1,Eri Aha Dinbor, Nalinibala Devi, Lawyer’s Book Stall, Guwahati, 2000, p.52 16
Rajbala Das, Tini Kuri Dah Bacharar Smriti, Publication Board Assam, Guwahati, 1971
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In the Civil Disobedience movement of 1930 Assamese people daily spun threads
in Congress offices and requested people to boycott foreign clothes in different public
functions. Even in the religious functions, marriage functions and amidst Bhoanas in
Assam, different songs were sung glorifying the swadeshi programs to inspire the
common masses by the ideology of swadeshi.17 Basically tailoring was not a profession of
Assamese people. But in the cause of their own motherland they stated to sewn swadeshi
clothes.
C F Andrews wrote in an article named ‘Khaddar in Assam’ (Published in
‘Young India’, 11 June 1925) that Assamese ladies were clothed from head to foot in
Khaddar. He described the beauty of the clothes weave by the Assamese women as “new
revelation of the beauty of Khaddar as a work of fine art”.18
But the idea of using Khaddar was not equally popular among all the Indians.
Mainly untouchables and some other lower-class people and Christian converts preferred
to wear western dresses because it gave them a liberal felling from the age-old oppression
of higher-class people. On the other hand, khadi was costly and not as fine as the mill
made clothes. So, a huge number of Indian elites did not found khadi attractive. Though it
was one of the significant policies adopted by Indian National Congress during freedom
struggle was to boycott foreign cloths and use swadeshi, yet that policy was not supported
by all the educated people of Assam and we can claim that from the writings of
Lakshminath Bezbaruah in the article entitled “Bharat Uddhar”which is a part of his
satire series “Kripabor Barbaruar Protoyagomon”.19 While presiding over the Moniram
Dewan memorial function organized at Charing in 1852, Nilamoni Phukon said that,
17
Dr. Amulya Ch. Sarma, op.cit.p 50 18
S. K. Bhuyan , Studies in the History of Assam, Guwahati, 1965, p. 68 19
Kripabor Borbaruar Bharat Uddhar in Usha, first part, 4th issue(Usha, compiled & edited by Laxminath Tamuli, Publication Board Assam, 2008)
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“Nationalism doesn’t rest in cloth. …. I can sacrifice myself for my motherland, but can
never accept that one can be patriot by wearing clothes (Khadi cloth).”20
3.3 British measures against Khadi: Police force of the colonial government went from
home to home in Assam and destroyed the spinning and weaving implements.
Government’s spies always followed these Congress workers. Even women indulged in
weaving Khaddar could not be escaped from their eyes. Some Britishers for their own
benefit started to influence poor Indian people by saying that Congress is making the life
of the poor people more miserable by depriving them from cheap and better cloths. In
Bajali region of Kamarupa a godown of Khaddar clothes and cotton was burnt by the
police.21On 3rd April 1941 police searched the Student’s Khadi Bhandar at Barpeta. India
used khadi as a tool against colonial power and so khadi continues to inspire Indian mind
till today.
4. Conclusion: The nationalist movement popularized the idea of using Khaddar or
khadi or hand span cloth and dumping of foreign made clothes as a weapon against
colonial supremacy and exploitation. It was a weapon of fight to attain freedom took the
freedom movement amidst the masses. Khadi was considered a part of Indian identity.
Boycott and picketing of foreign clothes were order of the day at that time in Assam.
5. Acknowledgement
I thank Prof. Jahnabi Gogoi Nath, Department of History, Dibrugarh University for her
guidance, precious advice and encouragement in preparing this research work.
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Benudhar Sharma, op.cit.p.238 21
Dr. Amulya Ch. Sarma, op.cit. p 44
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