Gandhi was an Indian leader who played an important role in the independence of India from the British colonial rulers. He was a lawyer, a philosopher, a civil rights activist, and an anti-colonial rule advocate. He believed in a non-violent resistance towards the British colonials and advocated for self-reliance and dependence as weapons against the British colonial rule (Malaspina & Quick, 2015). Gandhi used the spinning wheel, which was commonly known as “charkha” to spin his clothes during his jail term as a political prisoner. The wheel is used symbolically to represent Gandhi’s idea of non-violent resistance against British textiles while advocating for homemade textiles. Weaving and textile making was a common activity among women in India. He used the wheel as a tool for a self-reliance campaign across India, intending to make people realize that self-reliance was a tool that could be used to redeem themselves economically and politically. The ideology became a foundation for resistance and civil rights movements in India such as the “Quit India” which was championed by Gandhi. This paper seeks to look at the spinning wheel from six different perspectives in an attempt to understand the role and importance of the spinning wheel both in India and other countries.
Personal Perspective
The image in discussion is that of Gandhi sited on the floor reading news. Next to him is the spinning wheel, which has come to be known as “Gandhi’s spinning wheel." The image is commonly known as Gandhi and his spinning wheel. It has been used to explain different aspects of the history of India, especially colonization and the resistance against colonial rule. Gandhi sits on a carpet or rug that is woven. Looking at the image, I deduce that other than his spinning wheel, the fact that Gandhi can read, during the colonial time, and his career gives insight into why he used ideologies common to his people. He acted as a bridge between the colonial rule and Indians. Identifying weaving and the textile industry at large as a way of gaining self-reliance was a great strategy since weaving was a common practice among women in India. The paper looks at the image of the spinning wheel from different perspectives, including personal, historical, technical, ethical, cultural, and critical perspectives.
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Historical Perspective
When India came under colonial rule, people were oppressed in different ways. The main aim of colonialism from the British was to have India supply raw materials and complement the industrialization process in British. India hence became a source of raw materials for British industries, especially because the country had a vast supply of raw materials. One such material was cotton, which was exported to Britain to serve the textile industry ( Crill, Victoria & Albert Museum, 2015) . Once manufactured, clothes and linen were brought back to India as a market for finished products. In an attempt to end colonial rule, Gandhi, then a revolutionist, came up with a campaign aimed at boycotting textiles from Britain in favor of those made at home. He made a portable spinning wheel, which he used to make his clothes even in prison when he was taken in as a political prisoner. His campaigns were aimed at sensitizing people on the need for self-reliance and the fact that they too could expand their textile industry, especially because raw materials and skills were readily available. The campaign later led to movements advocating for political and civil rights and played a major role in both industrialization in India and independence.
Gandhi encouraged all people to weave their clothes and avoiding buying clothes brought in from Britain. He used the practice of weaving not only as a hobby but as a way of educating people on the importance of self-reliance both economically and politically. Through such efforts, Gandhi believed that people would be able to restore themselves economically and also attain freedom from their colonizers. The image of the spinning wheel was taken by n Margaret Bourke, a photographer who was sent to Gandhi’s compound to photograph him for an article on India’s leadership. Spinning was so important to Gandhi that he asked Margaret to learn how to do it before photographing him. This image never featured in the intended article but was only after his assassination. To some people, especially the British leaders and collaborators, he was a civil crusader who caused trouble with his spinning wheel. To others, he was a leader who saved his people from colonialism through his ideologies.
Technical Perspective
Margaret Bourke-White. “Gandhi at his Spinning Wheel
The image of Gandhi and the spinning wheel was taken in 1946 by Margaret Bourke, an American photographer who majored in documentary photography. At that time, Margaret approached Gandhi’s staff and asked them for permission to take a photograph of the icon next to his spinning wheel. For Margaret to obtain permission to take a photograph, she had to learn to spin herself since the art was so important to Gandhi. Margaret knew how seriously Gandhi took spinning and the fact that it defined his philosophies, and since she never wanted to miss the opportunity, she learned to spin. The picture is 369 × 269 pixels with file size: 20 KB (Alamy, n.d.) . The image has been described as iconic since it brought out Gandhi’s philosophy in just an image. It’s a full portion image taken with a low-resolution camera. The image shows Gandhi, an elite in spectacles reading a piece of information, which is assumed to be news. He sits on the floor on a carpet or rug that is woven or span. Next to him is his spinning wheel as a symbol of philosophy. The light coming from a window in the room is used to highlight important aspects of the image, such as the linen on the bed, Gandhi’s clothes, the mat, and the spinning wheel with a thread on it symbolizing readiness to spin since Gandhi did not like lighting.
The fact that Gandhi is reading represents the elite in society, a group of people he targeted in his campaign against western clothes. In his teachings, he asked the elite and those within his social class to embrace locally produced clothes as opposed to imports from Western countries. His mode of dressing is also symbolic in that it represents the poor in society. He always dressed in hand made clothes (span from his spinning wheel) to advocate for the need to shun Western clothes while promoting locally made clothes hence promoting the poor economically and spiritually. The spinning wheel, as an element of the image, represents Gandhi’s philosophy. It is a physical representation of his constructive agenda towards the people and represents God’s provision and self-reliance as well as a tool to attain independence from colonial rulers (Malaspina & Quick, 2015) . The wheel is the heart of many industries in India, including the agriculture sector growing cotton, the weaving industry, the carding as well as the distribution industry.
Other than the fact the spinning wheel had economic importance to the people of India and played a key role in the journey to independence, Gandhi taught people that their country was endowed with resources ( Brown, 2015) . He taught people to use the spinning wheel to spin their clothes and use the opportunity of having the resources coveted by Britain to empower themselves economically. He insisted that they too could spin and get clothes for both themselves and for sale hence denying the colonial masters the opportunity to buy cotton from Indians at a very low price, make textiles in their industries and sell the same to Indians at a higher price.
In the image, the spinning wheel is also symbolic of God’s provision. Gandhi called it “Kamdhenu," a term used to refer to a cow that fulfills every wish. This is a symbol of Indian culture and the integration of their religion into their culture. The belief played a major role in empowering the poor as they now believed the spinning wheel was their source of provision since it provided them with cloth and food for the hungry. By encouraging people to weave their own cloth, Gandhi encouraged them to be self-reliant and self-sufficient hence teaching them hard work that pays in a just manner as opposed to corruption, stealing, and begging. Encouraging self-reliance was a way of taking people out of colonial rule as well as taking the out of poverty by encouraging hard work. Gandhi understood the poverty faced by his people and knew what philosophies would best teach them how to be self-reliant.
Ethical Perspective
Different philosophers have discussed ethical arguments around the use of the spinning wheel on the Indian flag and the inclusion of the Union Jack flag as part of the Indian flag in the past. Gandhi argued that the spinning wheel represented the common man and his quest for independence from the colonial rule. On 22 nd July 1947, however, the design of the flag for India as an independent nation was approved, and the spinning wheel replaced by the Ashokan wheel. Gandhi did not agree with the step and felt that abandoning the chakra was like forgetting where the people had come from or acting like people who only remember God in sorrow and forgets him in times of happiness (Malaspina & Quick, 2015) . Such gestures would anger God and would not represent the struggle to independence as it was. Gandhi felt that the spinning wheel had played a key role in revolting against colonial rule and hence independence.
To Gandhi, the inclusion of the Union Jack at the corner of the Indian flag was a humble gesture of the country towards their past ruler, symbolizing peace and no otherness. In his scheme of things, the spinning wheel was supposed to act as a unifying factor for all people, including the colonial master. In his model of swaraj, for example, state and society were one thing. Such unity portrayed what was ethical to do to maintain peace between levels of society, government, and even colonial masters ( Ministry of Information and Broadcasting India, 2015) . At the same time, the spinning wheel acted as a symbol of ethical standards of what was expected of people in the society, which was to work hard and be self-sufficient hence shunning ideas such as corruption.
Gandhi taught that the spinning wheel was an outward symbol of non-violence and truth Case, 2015) . According to him, a believer had to accept and internalize them in their heart for them to believe in the Charkha. His statements such as “The music of the Charkha murmurs sweetly that we are all one, born to be equal sharers in the goods of the earth, with no one higher or wealthier than the other. Yet the world today is full of inequalities of wealth and invidious distinctions of high and low. This is a great folly. In our arrogance, we forget that we are all one day going to be leveled with the dust by death that knows no distinctions.” Are used to bring out the different religious and ethical aspects of the spinning wheel. He reminded people that the earth was filled with inequalities between the rich and the poor and that people forget that eventually they all will die and be leveled with dust hence reminding people to do what is right, which is to earn justly.
One of Gandhi’s lessons to the people is to not only recognize the spinning wheel as an economic tool but to look at it from a religious point to understand deeper the ethical issues addressed by the spinning wheel in people’s day to day lives. By looking at it from a spiritual aspect, people would sympathize with the people and hence enable each other through helping each other. To the poor, the economic benefits and aspects of the spinning wheel were spiritual and hence the choice of approach by Gandhi.
Cultural Perspective
The Indian culture was and is still intertwined between day to day activities and religion. The implication is that Indians are religious people who believe in honesty, truth, and provision from their God. The fact that most Indians are poor also plays a role in what they believe. Culturally, Indians believe in hard work for economic benefit but also strongly believe that God provides for his people. Several songs have been composed on the spinning wheel concerning different aspects of societal life. For Gandhi, the spinning wheel was not only a symbol of freedom from colonial rule but also acted as a representation of the problems faced by the common Indian man and woman ( Ivanov, 2017) . At the same time, it gave a solution to how society would tackle some of its most common problems concerning poverty. Gandhi associated the wheel with God and the fact that it was a sign of provision for the people from God.
One Gandhi’s famous saying asked God to let him die with one hand holding the spinning wheel and the other holding silver, a sign of success or wealth after work. Gandhi referred to the spinning wheel as “Kamdhenu," which referred to a cow among Hindus that had the capability of providing and fulfilling wishes of believers. Convicting the people of the provision by the spinning wheel from a religious perspective was not difficult since religion was deeply integrated into the people’s culture as well as other aspects of life. In Gandhi’s opinion, the spinning wheel was “Kamdhenu” because it allowed people to own clothes to the poor and food to the hungry. In his opinion, the spinning wheel, in its capabilities as a “providing cow” could grant them the wish of independence. He believed that the tool was a way of reducing poverty and encouraged all people, including men, to spin yarn for at least half an hour daily. The symbol of the spinning wheel was later used in the Indian flag but was later replaced by the Ashoka wheel.
Spinning played a key role in civilization for India. Other than the weaving industry, other industries, such as agriculture and distribution, grew as well. One of the greatest impacts of weaving for Indians is on their clothing and clothes industry. Their designs are vast and are used culturally to represent different things. Such diversity and creativity can be attributed to early spinning activities by Indian women and later, the concept of spinning as a self-reliance tool introduced by Gandhi. Indian clothing is one of the most clothes in the world and is characterized by colorful saris mainly worn by women and dhoti and khaki worn by men. Culturally, Indians have different clothing for males and females and even different clothes for different occasions. The clothing industry is one of the main economic activities for the country bringing in revenue to different families across the country.
Gandhi did not only teach people to spin but also led by example. He always dressed in hand made clothes ad was committed to spinning them himself. This became the basis of his philosophy and also played a key role in his politics. By choosing and dressing in traditional clothes, he upheld the culture of the Indian people and resonated with the poor in India. His choice of the traditional cloth over the western clothes acted as a way of rejecting the European way of dressing which encouraged colonization. Gandhi taught that spinning did uphold not only the culture of the Indian people but also brought about advantages such as the creation of wealth for the people through economic empowerment and independence.
Critical Perspective
Political ideologies often shape the political nature of a country. From the image, I deduce that the people of India were poor during colonial rule. However, when Britain colonized India, the idea was to use India as a source of raw materials for industrialization in Britain. Gandhi was against the idea and instead got a spinning wheel, which enabled him to spin his clothes during his free time. To him, the spinning wheel gave him a chance to reflect on different aspects of life. It also gave him a platform to advocate for non-violent resistance against colonial rule. He believed that people were self-sufficient then they would easily depend on themselves without the colonizers. Such kind of leadership entails leading by example and using aspects of life that the people can relate with to pass on ideologies aimed at helping the people. Gandhi understood the colonizer's intensions and knew, making it difficult to execute their plan of obtaining raw material from India and exporting finished products from Britain to India would eventually end colonial rule.
Other than addressing colonial and political issues, the spinning wheel was used to strengthen people’s faith in God as a God who cares for the poor and provides. It was used to teach people how to sympathize with each other and how to address poverty issues among members of the community through hard work and self-reliance hence shunning begging, stealing, and corruption. Through such lessons, people were able to depend on themselves economically as well as support each other. In my opinion, leadership should take a broad approach towards influencing people’s lives in all aspects since they are all interconnected. When people are self-reliant, poverty is addressed, and many other social, economic, and political issues also addressed.
Conclusion
The image portrays a non-violent historical perspective applied by a country in fighting colonialism. Gandhi, a lawyer, brought about the concept of spinning as a way of boycotting British clothes in favor of locally made clothes. He used his portable wheel to spin his clothes. The ideology behind the Charkha was that of self-reliance and independence in teaching the people that they too could cater to their needs at the local level as opposed to the colonial idea of getting raw materials from India for their industries in Britain. The ideology also stipulated that spinning was a form of provision from God as it enabled people to get clothing and food. Spinning hence became common among all people, especially the poor, and played a vital role in ensuring sustainability, self-reliance, eradication of poverty, and eventually independence for India in 1942.
References
Alamy. (n.d). Margaret Bourke-White. “Gandhi at his Spinning Wheel”. 1946. [Image].
Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/133771051415263948/?autologin=true
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Case, D. (2015). My experiments with truth . Sublime Books.
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Malaspina, A., & Quick, M. (2015). Mahatma Gandhi and India's Independence . Enslow Publishing, LLC.
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting India. (2015). The collected works of Mahatma
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