Khadi, also known as Khaddar, is a handspun, hand-woven, natural fiber cloth that is made out of cotton. The term Khaddar is also used in Bangladesh and Pakistan. The cloth is usually woven from cotton and may also include silk or wool. Mahatma Gandhi started his movement for khadi because he thought of it as a way to increase employment in the non-agricultural sector. He wanted to make Indians understand that they could be self-reliant on cotton and avoid the high-priced foreign cloth. We are one of those countries that used fabric khadi to achieve freedom.
Origin:
Around 2800 B.C the Indus civilization had a well-developed tradition of textiles. Alexander the Great discovered printed and painted cotton. He introduced cotton to Asia and passed it on to Europe. Indian textiles were soon polished with natural dyes and broader prints. Every yarn of muslin has a thickness that is 1/10th of a strand of hair. Hence hand-woven Indian muslin was in great demand all over the world for its quality. There was a time when the emperor Aurangzeb’s daughter, Princess Zeb-un-Nisa, was admonished by her father for wearing a transparent dress. Much to everyone’s surprise, she was wearing seven layers of muslin.
Back in 1918, the father of our nation Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi introduced the Swadeshi movement. He encouraged Indians to spin their yarn and wear khadi in order to demolish foreign goods. In 1925, the All India Spinners Association was established to promote the production and selling of khadi. Their main aim was to work hard to improve khadi production techniques and provide employment to Indians.
India is one of the few countries in the world where this kind of hand-spinning and hand-weaving still exists. Since khadi is such a versatile fabric, we can easily incorporate the origin of dying khadi with vegetable dyes and transforming it by adding natural medicinal herbs like neem, tulsi, mint, Carmon, thyme, kola kolsa, etc. making khadi fabric with medical values.
Here We Go Again 