Khadi ... and all it meant.
"For individual Satyagraha against the Second World War, Gandhi used to
prepare a list of Satyagrahis, who were persons with integrity and
spirit of dedication.
On one occasion a woman from Bombay staying
at Sikka Nagar was to stage individual Satyagraha by making a
pronouncement against war and courting arrest. She resorted to
individual Satyagraha by making antiwar speech in front of the Lamington
Road Police Station in Bombay. She was then arrested
by the police. Normally, the arrested Satyagrahi was allowed to visit
his or her residence to pick up the luggage before being produced before
the Court and then sent to jail after the Court's verdict. However, in
this case, the lady Satyagrahi, after her arrest, was informed that she
would be directly taken to the Court and then to the jail.
After this information was given to her, she look out her diamond
earrings, pearl necklace and gold bangles. She wrapped those ornaments
in handkerchief and handed them over to a Khadi clad person among the
spectators, assembled to witness the Satyagraha. She gave him her
residential address and requested him to hand over her precious
ornaments at her residence. The bewildered Khadi wearer asked her,
whether she would not suspect that he would run away with the costly
ornaments. The Lady replied: "Brother, you have on your body Gandhiji's
Khadi; you won't commit the sin of running away with the ornaments which
I have handed over to you in great faith."
This shows how Gandhi had
imparted to the Khadi wearers a new dignity and credibility.
The utter generosity of the poor humbles us. They give rice to every mendicant even when their rice is getting over. That is what they are defined by.
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