Khādī

A Khadi Shop in India.

The term khādī or khaddar (Devanagari: खद्दर, Nastaliq: کھدّر) means cotton. khādī is Indian handspun and hand-woven cloth. The raw materials may be cotton, silk, or wool, which are spun into threads on a spinning wheel called a charkha. It is a versatile fabric, cool in the summer and warm in the winter. However, being a cruder form of material, it wrinkles much faster than other preparations of cotton. In order to improve the look, khādī is often starched to have a stiffer shape. It is widely accepted in fashion circles.

Khadi is not just a cloth, it is a whole movement started by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.^{[citation needed]} The Khadi movement aimed at boycotting foreign goods and promoting Indian goods, thereby improving India's economy. Mahatma Gandhi began promoting the spinning of khādī for rural self-employment and self-reliance (instead of using cloth manufactured industrially in Britain) in 1920s India thus making khadi an integral part and icon of the Swadeshi movement. The freedom struggle revolved around the use of khādī fabrics and the dumping of foreign-made clothes. When some people complained about the costliness of khadi to Mahatma Gandhi, he started wearing only loincloth. Thus it symbolized the political ideas and independence itself, and to this day most politicians in India are seen only in khādī clothing.^{[citation needed]} The flag of India is only allowed to be made from this material, although in practice many flag manufacturers, especially those outside of India, ignore this rule.^{[citation needed]}

In popular culture

Khādī was used, and dyed random colors, in some of the costumes for the Star Wars prequels, such as Mace Windu's (Samuel L. Jackson) attire.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Khādī Development and Village Industries Commission
• Khadi Shankarappa freedom fighter in Karnataka

External links

• India's Khādī Culture
• Khadi and Village Industries Commission (Govt of India), Official website
• More about Khadi