Lisa Trivedi Their Own Status
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World History | Cultural Studies | India $29.95 TRIVEDI ambivalence about giving up the markers of How an ordinary n Clothing Gandhi’s Nation, Lisa Trivedi their own status. The new national calendar explores the making of one of modern was punctuated by holidays with flag-hoisting country cloth India’s most enduring political symbols: ceremonies surrounding the khadi charka, or Ikhadi, or home-spun, home-woven cloth. became a symbol Gandhi Clothing spinning-wheel flag. In India today, the use of The image of Mohandas K. Gandhi clothed the flag is still debated, while khadi clothing of the Indian simply in a loincloth, plying a spinning wheel, has experienced a revival among the fashion- nation is familiar around the world, as is the sight conscious. Written in a clear and narrative style, of Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and other po- Clothing Gandhi’s Nation provides a cultural litical leaders dressed in “Gandhi caps” and history of how this everyday object came to khadi shirts. Less widely understood today represent independent India. c is how these images associated the wearers “A significant with the swadeshi movement—which advo- cated the exclusive consumption of indig- contribution to the enous goods to establish India’s autonomy modern history from Great Britain—or how khadi was used to create a visual expression of national iden- of India and, tity after Independence. Bringing together social history and the study of visual culture, by extension, Trivedi tells the story of khadi as both symbol to comparative and commodity, product and style of dress. imperialism and Gandhi argued that India’s self-rule (swaraj) world history.” could only be achieved if it became self- sufficient, and he urged people to take up —Sandria B. Freitag, ’ spinning and wear only home-spun cloth- Duke University sNation ing. Khadi came to be used across British India as a symbol in public processions and Clothing demonstrations. Trivedi provides the first in- LISA TRIVEDI is Associate stitutional history of the organizations that Professor of History at Hamilton ’ oversaw the development, production, and College. sale of khadi. She describes the swadeshi movement’s various techniques for popular- INDIANA Gandhis izing textile production—posters, traveling University Press exhibitions, and tours—in their attempt to Bloomington & Indianapolis bridge differences of language, literacy, re- http://iupress.indiana.edu gion, and religion. She goes on to examine 1-800-842-6796 the place of khadi in the life of the nation Nation after Independence. Elites wore it to identify Homespun and Modern India with the less fortunate, but always with some c Jacket photo by Pranlal K. Patel. INDIANA lisa trivedi Used by permission. Clothing Gandhi’s Nation c CLOTHING GANDHI’S NATION Homespun and Modern India Lisa Trivedi INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Bloomington & Indianapolis This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA http://iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 Orders by e-mail [email protected] © 2007 by Lisa N. Trivedi All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information stor- age and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American Univer- sity Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum re- quirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materi- als, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Trivedi, Lisa. Clothing Gandhi’s nation : homespun and modern India / Lisa Trivedi. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-253-34882-1 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Swadeshi movement—History. 2. Khadi—Political aspects—History. 3. Khadi—Economic aspects—History. 4. Khadi—Social aspects—History. 5. Nationalism— India—History. I. Title. DS480.45.T77 2007 954.03’5—dc22 2006100894 1 2 3 4 5 12 11 10 09 08 07 To Gunvantrai and Hasumati Purohit for the purity of your hearts Nations are not formed in a day; the formation requires years. Mohandas K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj, or Indian Home Rule (1909) COntents List OF IllustratiOns xi AcknOWledgments xiii IntrOductiOn xvii 1 A Politics of Consumption: Swadeshi and Its Institutions 1 2 Technologies of Nationhood: Visually Mapping the Nation 38 3 The Nation Clothed: Making an “Indian” Body 67 4 Rituals of Time: The Flag and the Nationalist Calendar 102 5 Inhabiting National Space: Khadi in Public 118 Conclusion 148 NOtes 157 BibliOgraphY 183 IndeX 197 IllustratiOns Fig. 1.1. Calico Textile Mills advertisement 10 Fig. 1.2. Ashram girls preparing cotton 16 Fig. 1.3. Ashram children spinning 17 Fig. 1.4. Ashram girls weaving on short looms 18 Fig. 1.5. Young women weaving on full-sized looms 19 Fig. 1.6. “Patronise Indian Industry” advertisement 35 Fig. 1.7. “Swadeshi and Swaraj” advertisement 36 Fig. 2.1. Gandhi and woman spinning India 45 Fig. 2.2. “To Whom Will You Give?” 46 Fig. 2.3. Bharatuddhar (Gandhi as protector of India) 48 Fig. 2.4. “Bombay to Burma” advertisement 52 Fig. 2.5. “Edsu Fabrics Around the World” advertisement 53 Fig. 2.6. Khadi tour map, 1926–1928 54 Fig. 2.7. Khadi exhibitions map, 1925–1928 60 Fig. 3.1. Delegates to the National Congress, 1919 74 Fig. 3.2. Congress workers in South India with Sarojini Naidu 75 Fig. 3.3. Khadi dhotee advertisement 76 Fig. 3.4. Khadi shawl advertisement 77 Fig. 3.5. Motilal Nehru in Western dress 78 Fig. 3.6. Mohandas and Kasturba Gandhi 79 Fig. 3.7. Motilal Nehru in khadi 81 Fig. 3.8. Mohandas Gandhi in Kathiawadi dress, 1915 82 Fig. 3.9. Kamala Nehru and Krishna Huteesingh in Allahabad 89 Fig. 4.1. Khadi charka flag behind the Nehrus, Allahabad 106 Fig. 4.2. National flag advertisement 107 Fig. 5.1. Gandhi wearing the “Gandhi cap” 119 Fig. 5.2. Gandhi’s presidential speech at the open session of the Belgaum Conference 136 ILLUSTRAtiONS Fig. 5.3. Citizens’ meeting on the sands of the Sabarmati River 137 Fig. 5.4. Jhanada Vadan (flag hoisting) 140 Fig. 5.5. Congress procession in Bombay 144 Fig. 5.6. Mahatma Gandhi at a mass meeting in Bengal, 1945 146 Fig. C.1. Celebrating Republic Day, January 2005 149 xii AcknOWledgments For any project there are many beginnings. I would like to think that this project began in college, when my advisor urged me to travel in India with an uncle who is a former freedom fighter and labor leader turned social worker. That advice dramatically changed my future. History, which I had always enjoyed, came alive; its implications took on new, deeper meaning. Travel- ing with my uncle for four months across northern and western India and interviewing freedom fighters provided an opportunity for me to “discover India” and to put real faces on the history of the Indian nationalist period. My father’s eldest sister offered another beginning for this project a few years later. An educator and social worker, my aunt took the time to teach me how to spin thread on a charka, or spinning wheel, much like the ones used dur- ing the nationalist era. There was something about learning this very basic skill that moved me from thinking about swadeshi and khadi as an idea to understanding khadi as a material fact of nationalist politics. I have accumulated many debts over the years that I have been working on this project. Most recently at Hamilton College, I have benefited from a community of scholars, especially my reading group, who have sustained, challenged, and enriched my work with their criticism, their good humor, and a fair share of libation. In particular, I should mention Thomas Wilson who has provided me with critique and guidance, as well as friendship and encouragement. At the University of California, Davis, Barbara Metcalf, Su- san Mann, and Thomas Metcalf offered detailed criticism and advice; their example as scholars and as teachers is a standard to which I can only aspire. Several students of South Asia at the University of Chicago, including Nayan Shah, Faisal Devji, Sudipta Sen, Laura Ring, and Rizwan Ahmed, provided me with an intellectual home when I needed it most. In northern California, the beloved Empire Studies Reading Group brought together students and faculty from Berkeley, Stanford, Davis, and Santa Cruz. Without this com- munity, my training would have been much poorer. To Rachel Sturman, ACKNOWLEDgmENTS in particular, I must express my deepest gratitude for her friendship and her razor-sharp mind, which she so generously shared on our many drives between Oakland and Davis. And, finally, it should be said that had I not been a student of Susan J. Tracy and Joan B. Landes at Hampshire College, I am quite certain that I would never have developed a passion for history and politics. In completing this study, I would like to thank the Fulbright Foundation for supporting my initial research in India in 1996. At various points, the University of California, Davis, provided support through a Pro-Femina Research Award, a Humanities Research Award, and a Graduate Fellow- ship. I would also like to thank the staffs at the former Satyagraha Ashram, particularly the institution’s director, Mr. Amrut Modi, and its archivist, Mr. Durgaprasad Trivedi, and the Textile Labour Association. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance I received from the staff at the Nehru Memorial Library and Museum, and its former director, Dr.