015 Slavery has become our first nature!!!!

ybrem: The following is a partial quote from Vol. 32 of his Complete Works. He was writing in Young India of 18-6-1925.

... The instances of steady work can be multiplied. But I have never yet met anyone to say what these pleader friends in the Punjab are reported to have said. Surely, they do not need to be told that khaddar is not for temporary use. It is a permanent article of wear as wheat and rice are permanent article of food. And they could only have been joking when they said that they wanted the pleasure of wearing foreign cloth. Is there pleasure in wearing it? Is it not the same thing as saying that there is pleasure in slavery? It was not an uncommon experience, when slavery was abolished in the Southern States, to find slaves refusing freedom; slavery had become second nature with them.

ybrem
*Slavery has now received a promotion. It is the first nature with Indians now.
*It is true that: khaddar has become very expensive in 2011. Khaddar has vanished from most shops. Khaddar does not come in attractive colors. Khaddar is not durable. It creases and folds easily. It soils easily. Yet: As an alternative, people may probably wear textiles made in India, though not handloom or khaddar. Why should they go for foreign stuff?

*

“No specific study has been conducted to assess the impact on the domestic textiles industry since the import of textiles and clothing items from China into India is not so large to pose any threat to the domestic industry,” minister of state for textiles E.V.K.S. Elangovan said in a written reply to a query in Rajya Sabha. India’s import of textiles and clothing from China in 2007 -08 was valued at $1.37 billion against $1.14 billion a year ago. (source: texprocil.com.).

China's share in textile imports into India is said to be 50%. Textile imports into India were said to be about $3.3 billion in 2009. Indian textile exports are sinking while imports are flourishing.

Indian textile mills are closing down. Power loom workers, handloom workers and khaddar weavers, all are suffering for various reasons. This is in spite of increase in population of India from 360 million to 1.2 billion. What is wrong with us now?

Have we not become slaves of foreign cloth now, as we were in 1925. Was Gandhiji wrong when he said that slavery was the second nature. If he were alive today, he would have said that slavery has become our FIRST NATURE.