The charkha, or spinning wheel, was the physical
embodiment and symbol of Gandhi’s constructive program. It
represents Swadeshi, self-sufficiency, and at the same time
interdependence, because the wheel is at the center of a network of cotton
growers, carders, weavers, distributors, and users. . It also embodied
the dignity of labor, equality, unity, as all volunteers were to spin each day,
and finally independence, as British control of India was rooted in control of
indigenous industries such as textiles. For this reason, Nehru called khadi the
homespun cloth “the livery of our freedom.”
Spinning formed the “sun” in the “solar system” that was
Gandhi’s Constructive Programme. Almost every person, regardless of age,
social class or gender, was involved in spinning and sometimes elsewhere in the
chain of cloth production, from sowing the seeds of cotton to wearing khadi.
Spinning was both symbolic and quite real, as it gave employment to
millions and produced a basic need of Gandhian economics.
He saw in the simple and inexpensive charkha the
solutions to the economic and social woes of his people. He found in it the
wheel that could turn the future of India and take the country to Swaraj, which
was not limited to attaining political independence. Swaraj had a larger canvas
and meaning, and the charkha had a pivotal role in it.
The spinning wheel represented a desire to achieve the
self, self-responsibility, self-respect, and self-realization. It’s a means for
complete freedom from dehumanizing poverty and discrimination. Gandhi believed
it could spin the nation’s prosperity and, therefore, freedom.
Meditation can be regarded as our inner charkha and its
expression is the raising of the human image. The Metta Center Roadmap is
designed to facilitate finding constructive activities that would unite and
represent our movement as brilliantly as charkha did in India. This is
why the Metta Center logo is derived from the charkha.
He once wrote, “I feel that the spinning wheel has all
the virtues needed to make one’s life truthful, pure and peaceful and fill it
with the spirit of service. I, therefore, beg of you all to give half an hour’s
labour daily in the form of spinning.”
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