Khadi: Fabric of Freedom!
Posted by STYLE TRIGGERS
Khadi Cloth is something we have been listening since our childhood days. It is something we have been taught in our history lectures. Rememeber?
Khadi was an significant part of our freedom struggle. Gandhiji in Swadeshi movement gave a call to all weavers to produce and use more of khadi fabric on charkha in respone to Britian's low quality machine produced cotton.
Khadi is cloth which is wholly made by hand. It is hand spun and hand woven fabric. Hand weaving and Hand spinning is know to Indians for thousands of years.
Archaeological evidence, such as terrocotta spindles(for spinning), bone tools(for weaving) and figurines wearing woven clothes indicated Indus Valley Civilization had a well developed and flourishing tradition of textiles.
The earliest descriptions of cotton textiles in India comes from ancient literary references. In 400 BC, Greek historian Herodotus wrote that in India, there were “trees growing wild, which produce a kind of wool better than sheep’s wool in beauty and quality. The Indians use this tree wool to make their clothes.”
When Alexander the Great invaded India, his soldiers took to wearing cotton clothes that were far more comfortable in the heat than their traditional woolens. Nearchus, Alexander’s admiral, recorded that “the cloth worn by Indians is made by cotton grown on trees”, while another Greek historian, Strabo, described the vividness of Indian fabrics.
Interestingly, a few 5th century paintings in the Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra depict the process of separating cotton fibers from seeds (called ginning) as well as women spinning cotton yarn!
It is not just about handmade , but khadi is eco-friendly fabric. 1 meter of khadi uses 5 liter of water and 0 electricity, whereas same quantity of machine made cloth uses 5 liter and lots of electricity. The production of khadi leaves no toxic materials behind.
Khadi keeps you cool in summer and warm in winter. Evert khadi cloth we buy we contribute to 7 weavers and spinners. The khadi is made with utter patience by weavers by adding love.
What more reasons should we give you to buy khadi?
Hop in collection by Sumit Saurya, who designs only khadi products. The khadi id produced in Patna, Bihar. The colors of earth dominate the label's palette- earthy browns, cream, grey and hint of white.
