Idea of Khadi and its Popularity in Colonial Assamijceng.com/gallery/cej-2449.04-f.pdfsale of khadi. At that time Jamuna Das Gandhi visited some weaving centres like Sualkuchi, Polasbari

*Jyotimonjuri Kalita

Idea of Khadi and its Popularity in Colonial Assam

Jyotimonjuri Kalita*

*Department of History, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh

*[email protected]

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.

Compliance Engineering Journal

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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.

6. REFERENCES

1. A. J. Moffatt Mills. (1984). Report on the Province of Assam. Guwahati:

Publication Board Assam

20

Benudhar Sharma, op.cit.p.238 21

Dr. Amulya Ch. Sarma, op.cit. p 44



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2. Benudhar Sarma. (1971). Kangrecar Kanciali Rodat, Guwahati : Asam Jyoti

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Lawyer’s Book Stall

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26. H. K. Barpujari (ed). (1977). Political History of Assam,vol I, Guwahati :

Government of Assam

27. Dr, Prafulla Mahanta, Asomiya Madhyabitta Shreneer Itihas, Guwahati :

Lowyer’s Book Stall ,2nd edition

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Prakash

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Board Assam

32. Laxminath Tamuli(ed). (2008),Usha Guwahati : Publication Board Assam



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Documents

Idea of Khadi and its Popularity in Colonial Assamijceng.com/gallery/cej-2449.04-f.pdfsale of khadi. At that time Jamuna Das Gandhi visited some weaving centres like Sualkuchi, Polasbari