As last, after no end of wandering in Gujarat, Gangabehn found the
spinning wheel in Vijapur in the Baroda State. Quite a number of
people there had spinning wheels in their homes, but had long since
consigned them to the lofts as useless lumber. They expressed to
Gangabehn their readiness to resume spinning, if someone promised to provide
them with a regular supply of slivers, and to buy the yarn spun by
them. Gangabehn communicated the joyful news to me. The providing of
slivers was found to be a difficult task. On my mentioning the
thing to the late Umar Sobani, he solved the difficulty by
immediately undertaking to send a sufficient supply of slivers from
his mill. I sent to Gangabehn the slivers received from Umar Sobani,
and soon yarn began to pour in at such a rate that it became quite a
problem how to cope with it.
Mr. Umar Sobani's generosity was great, but still one could not go
on taking advantage of it for ever. I felt ill at ease, continuously
receiving slivers from him. Moreover, it seemed to me to be
fundamentally wrong to use mill-slivers. If one could use mill-slivers,
why not use mill-yarn as well? Surely no mills supplied
slivers to the ancients? How did they make their slivers then?
With these thoughts in my mind I suggested to Gangabehn to find
carders who could supply slivers. She confidently undertook the
task. She engaged a carder who was prepared to card cotton. He
demanded thirty-five rupees, if not much more, per month. I
considered no price too high at the time. She trained a few
youngsters to make slivers out of the carded cotton. I begged for
cotton in Bombay. Sjt. Yashvantprasad Desai at once responded.
Gangabehn's enterprise thus prospered beyond expectations. She found
out weavers to weave the yarn that was spun in Vijapur, and soon
Vijapur khadi gained a name for itself.
While these developments were taking place in Vijapur, the spinning
wheel gained a rapid footing in the Ashram. Maganlal Gandhi, by
bringing to bear all his splendid mechanical talent on the wheel,
made many improvements in it, and wheels and their accessories began
to be manufactured at the Ashram. The first piece of khadi
manufactured in the Ashram cost 17 annas per yard. I did not
hesitate to commend this very coarse khadi at that rate to friends,
who willingly paid the price.
I was laid up in bed at Bombay. But I was fit enough to make
searches for the wheel there. At last I chanced upon two spinners.
They charged one rupee for a seer of yarn, i.e., 28 tolas
or nearly three quarters of a pound. I was then ignorant of the
economics of khadi. I considered no price too high for securing
handspun yarn. On comparing the rates paid by me with those paid in
Vijapur I found that I was being cheated. The spinners refused to
agree to any reduction in their rates. So I had to dispense with
their service. But they served their purpose. They taught spinning
to Shrimatis Avantikabai, Ramibai Kamdar, the widowed mother of Sjt.
Shankarlal Banker and Shrimati Vasumatibehn. The wheel began merrily
to hum in my room, and I may say without exaggeration that its hum
had no small share in restoring me to health. I am prepared to
admit that its effect was more psychological than physical. But then
it only shows how powerfully the physical in man reacts to the
psychological. I too set my hand to the wheel, but did not do much
with it at the time.
In Bombay, again, the same old problem of obtaining a supply of
hand-made slivers presented itself. A carder twanging his bow used
to pass daily by Sjt. Revashankar's residence. I sent for him and
learnt that he carded cotton for stuffing mattresses. He
agreed to card cotton for slivers, but demanded a stiff price for it,
which, however, I paid. The yarn thus prepared I disposed of to some
Vaishnava friends for making from it the garlands for the pavitra ekadashi.
Sjt. Shivji started a spinning class in Bombay. All these
experiments involved considerable expenditure. But it was willingly
defrayed by patriotic friends, lovers of the motherland, who had
faith in khadi. The money thus spent, in my humble opinion, was not
wasted . It brought us a rich store of experience, and revealed to
us the possibilities of the spinning wheel.
I now grew impatient for the exclusive adoption of khadi for
my dress. My dhoti was still of Indian mill cloth. The coarse khadi manufactured in the
Ashram and at Vijapur was only thirty inches in width. I gave notice to Gangabehn that, unless she provided me with a
khadi dhoti of forty-five inches within a month, I would do with coarse, short
khadi dhoti.
The ultimatum came upon her as a shock. But she proved equal to the
demand made upon her. Well within the month she sent me a pair of
khadi dhotis of forty-five inches width, and thus relieved me from what would then have
been a difficult situation for me.
At about the same time Sjt. Lakshmidas brought Sjt. Ramji, the
weaver, with his wife Gangabehn from Lathi to the Ashram and got
khadi dhotis woven at the Ashram. The part played by this couple in the spread of
khadi was by no means insignificant. They initiated a host of
persons in Gujarat and also outside into the art of weaving hand-spun yarn. To see Gangabehn at her loom is a stirring sight. When
this unlettered but self-possessed sister plies at her loom, she
becomes so lost in it that it is difficult to distract her
attention, and much more difficult to draw her eyes off her beloved
loom.