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Fabindia commemorates Gandhi and the charkha

Fabindia commemorates Mahatma Gandhi and the spirit of the charkha by celebrating the Mahatma's 136th birth anniversary by offering their customers a unique opportunity to learn spinning. This Gandhi Jayanti week beginning October 1 to October 7 the Fabindia store will be equipped with a charkha, a trainer and cotton to spin. All the customers will have the unique opportunity to learn to spin and experience the spirit of Khadi. Specially designed collectors' postcards will be available on sale . The philosophy behind the event is to befriend the charkha,

Gandhiji's symbol for swadeshi, self-reliance; his tool for obtaining Swaraj, self governance. This is what Mahatma Gandhi wrote in the Harijan about the charkha, dated, 13-4-1940.

"The spinning wheel represents to me the hope of the masses. The masses lost their freedom, such as it was, with the loss of the Charkha. The Charkha supplemented the agriculture of the villagers and gave it dignity. It was the friend and the solace of the widow. It kept the villagers from idleness. For the Charkha included all the anterior and posterior industries- ginning, carding, warping, sizing, dyeing and weaving.

These in their turn kept the village carpenter and the blacksmith busy. The Charkha enabled the seven hundred thousand villages to become self contained. With the exit of Charkha went the other village industries, such as the oil press. Nothing took the place of these industries. Therefore the villagers were drained of their varied occupations and their creative talent and what little wealth these bought them.

The industrialised countries of the West were exploiting other nations. India is herself an exploited country. Hence, if the villagers are to come into their own, the most natural thing that suggests itself is the revival of the Charkha and all it means." And "I see God in every thread that I draw on the spinning-wheel." (Mahatma Gandhi, Young India, 20-5-1926, p. 187)

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