By Rafe Calder
Khadi is plain cloth. It is also a trademark, a government commission, a political argument and a label you may be required to find on a tag. Few fabrics carry that much paperwork.
The cloth
Wikipedia defines khadi as a hand-spun and woven natural fibre cloth, mostly cotton but sometimes silk or wool, and says it is promoted as swadeshi, meaning of the homeland. The yarn is spun on a charkha, a spinning wheel. The same article says Gandhi invented the Patti Charkha, a double-wheel design, and that in 1946 he recommended the takli, a hand spindle, over the charkha.
How it became a movement
Wikipedia’s dates run in a tidy line. The first hand-woven khadi cloth was made in 1917 to 1918 at Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram. In 1922 he asked the Indian National Congress to start a khadi department. A semi-independent All India Khadi Board followed in 1924, and the All India Spinners Association in 1925, with Gandhi as its founder. The article says he organised a Swadeshi Exhibition at the Belgaum Congress Session on 26 and 27 December 1924, and required Congress members to spin cotton and pay their dues in yarn.
After independence the state took over the job. Wikipedia says the All India Khadi and Village Industries Board was set up in January 1953, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission Act was passed in 1956, and the Commission became a statutory body in 1957. It counts 2,624 functional khadi institutions enrolled by the Commission, without giving a year.
What the law says khadi is
IAS Parliament, an exam-preparation site, says the 1956 Act defines khadi as cloth woven on handlooms in India and hand-spun in India. It adds that the Commission works under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and was reconstituted in 2015 with extra powers. Wikipedia says the Commission holds exclusive rights to the trademarks “khadi” and “Khadi India”.
The Khadi Mark
The same exam-preparation site says the Khadi Mark Regulations, 2013 were notified to authenticate genuine khadi, that anything produced or marketed as khadi must carry Khadi Mark tags and labels issued by the Commission, and that applicants must pass specified sample tests. It reports that since 2014 the Commission has found 176 institutions violating the khadi trademark, most of them single-outlet stores and retailers, which it says largely stopped using the tag after notices.
The argument
The Centre for Public Policy Research, a think tank, takes a sharper line in an article by its authors. It says the Regulations bar the sale of khadi in India without the tag. It says the Commission has sent legal notices to more than 1,000 firms accused of using the word on their fabric. It also argues that most Commission-approved khadi today is not strictly hand-spun, because traditional charkhas have given way to amber, solar and semi-mechanised models, and that genuine hand-spun sellers avoid the word to stay out of disputes. It says the Commission has discouraged the terms “handwoven” and “handspun”. Those are the think tank’s claims and its recommendations, and we have not found the Commission’s reply.
Our reading: the word on the tag and the method in the workshop can come apart, and a buyer who cares about the spinning needs to ask. The sources do not say what to ask, and we are not going to invent it.
Where khadi sits among the other cloths
The think tank says khadi falls under the Commission and the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, while handloom and mill-made cloth fall under the Ministry of Textiles. It describes khadi as separated from handloom by hand spinning. The Handloom Mark is a separate scheme.
Dates in order
- 1917 to 1918: first hand-woven khadi at Sabarmati Ashram, according to Wikipedia.
- 1922: khadi department requested of Congress, according to Wikipedia.
- 1924: All India Khadi Board; Belgaum exhibition on 26 and 27 December, according to Wikipedia.
- 1925: All India Spinners Association, according to Wikipedia.
- 1946: Gandhi recommends the takli, according to Wikipedia.
- January 1953: All India Khadi and Village Industries Board, according to Wikipedia.
- 1956 and 1957: the Act, then the statutory Commission, according to Wikipedia.
- 2013: Khadi Mark Regulations, according to IAS Parliament.
- 2014 onward: 176 institutions found in violation, according to IAS Parliament.
- 2015: Commission reconstituted, according to IAS Parliament.
Side by side
IAS Parliament counts 176 institutions found violating the trademark since 2014. The think tank counts more than 1,000 firms sent legal notices. They may measure different things, findings against notices, and neither source reconciles them. Wikipedia says khadi is hand-spun and woven, while the think tank says most approved khadi is not strictly hand-spun. Both are quoted as written.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia is open to editing. IAS Parliament is an exam-coaching site. The think tank piece is advocacy. We read no page from the Commission itself.
What we left out
The dispute with a named retailer and the damages sum, procurement rules for raw cotton, employment totals, and the sections of Wikipedia about earlier textile history, which we could not match to a second source.
Quick answers
What is khadi? According to Wikipedia, a hand-spun and woven natural fibre cloth, mostly cotton, promoted as swadeshi. The yarn is spun on a charkha.
What is the Khadi Mark? IAS Parliament says the Khadi Mark Regulations, 2013 require anything sold as khadi to carry tags and labels issued by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission.
Who runs khadi in India? The Khadi and Village Industries Commission, set up as a statutory body in 1957, according to Wikipedia. It works under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
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