Courtesy of Haresh PandyaDevendrakumar R. Desai.The fabric khadi was very close to Mohandas K. Gandhi's heart. To him, the hand-woven cloth symbolized the values of swadeshi (domestic production, which in British India also meant a boycott of foreign goods as part of India's campaign for independence) and swaraj (self-rule), and he was convinced that khadi was the only way to develop India's rural sector.
Today, the cloth that Mr. Gandhi and his followers championed is fast becoming popular among the new generation of Indians. Many modern women wear colorful saris and other dresses made from khadi, and men are seen wearing khadi pants and shirts just about as regularly as th ey put on jeans and other Western attire.
The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (K.V.I.C.), a statutory body formed by the government of India, has long been active in promoting khadi in India and overseas. Devendrakumar R. Desai, the 78-year-old chairman of the commission, spoke with India Ink on khadi's future in a fast-changing retail market.
Until recently, it was widely believed that khadi was meant only for Gandhians, politicians and old-world poets and teachers. But today it is considered fashionable to wear khadi even by youngsters, including girls. How has this metamorphosis come about?
Khadi has changed with the passage of time to stay with other modern fabrics in the competitive textile market. We've made innovations in khadi, including colors and designs, to cater to the younger generation. Today it's available in many different colors and shades.
We 've already started manufacturing khadi jeans, too, after having tied up with Arvind Mills, the famous denim jeans makers from Gujarat.
European Pressphoto AgencyA model in a khadi outfit, at a fashion show during the “Khadi Mahotsava†in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, in this Jan. 10, 2005 file photo.Recent fashion shows across the country with khadi themes may have played a definite role in popularizing it. For example, Khadi Gramodyog Bhandar, Rajkot, which is affiliated to the K.V.I.C., had been making losses. But after the dignified khadi fashion show in Rajkot in 2 009, in which not just top female and male models but dignitaries, statesmen, top bureaucrats and even spiritual leaders walked the ramp clad in khadi, it has been making profits. In fact, its annual sale has increased by nearly 40 percent.
In the western Indian textile and diamond city of Surat, we registered an over 40 million rupees [$720,000] sale of khadi items during a one-month exhibition a couple of years ago.
The K.V.I.C. has been staging fashion shows and holding exhibitions in India and abroad to promote khadi. Don't you think it would be better off having a celebrity brand ambassador â€" a high-profile cricketer or a film star?
I don't think khadi needs any celebrity brand ambassador. Khadi was always close to Mahatma Gandhi's heart. It's also synonymous with India's historic independence movement. Khadi is our national heritage. It's the pride of our nation. It represents national integrat ion, communal harmony and compassion towards the poor artisan class. There can't be a better ambassador for khadi than Mahatma Gandhi.
How exactly is the scenario in the country as far as production and sale of khadi are concerned?
There were apprehensions that the sale of khadi might be affected in the aftermath of the central government's decision to withdraw the rebate and introduction of the Market Promotion Agent scheme. But the production of khadi across the country has shot up by 10 percent, which also means a clear 16 percent increase in the sale this year.
There are nearly 12 million people employed by the K.V.I.C. in its affiliated units all over India, mostly in hamlets, villages and small towns. A majority of them hail from scheduled caste and minorities. The number of people who depend on khadi for their bread and butter is greater in the hill and border areas.
India produces 6,000 m illion rupees' worth of khadi a year and attracts sales of nearly 9,000 million rupees. The overall production of village industries is 180,000 million rupees.
We hope to achieve a sales volume of over 20,000 million rupees in the next five years. It should also create employment for a larger number of people in rural areas.
Our current volume of khadi exports is over 1,500 million rupees, which we target to increase to 5,000 million rupees in the next five years.
What particular measures are you taking to develop the khadi and village industries further? How much central government funds do you expect for this?
In the 11th Five-Year Plan, we've received 47,000 million rupees from the Indian government for the development of khadi and village industries. We've proposed 148,000 million rupees in the 12th Five-Year Plan to expand the khadi program on a larger scale, including increase in the use o f khadi and village industries products in India and other countries.
There is a good market for khadi in certain foreign countries. Right now it's exported to China, Japan, Russia, Germany, Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.. Being an eco-friendly cloth and the heritage status it enjoys, khadi has helped us grow in western countries.
So what next, after exhibitions and fashion shows, to promote khadi and attract more buyers?
The K.V.I.C. is planning to start 50 khadi malls across the country. There will be at least one such mall in every Indian state. In states like Gujarat and Maharashtra, where there is a higher demand and bigger market for khadi, there will be two or three malls in their major cities.
Plans are already afoot to open two khadi malls each in the U.S. and the U.K. There will be one in South Africa, too, where there're so many memories of Mahatma Gandhi. New York will definitely have one khadi mall and so will London.
Jaipal Singh/European Pressphoto AgencyA woman spinning wool at Gandhi Seva Sadan production center in Jammu city, Jammu and Kashmir, in this Oct. 1, 2009, file photo.Don't you think you will need to modernize the khadi production and take recourse to modern technology to realize your grand dreams and plans?
We use all the new ways, including ad campaigns, to promote, popularize and market khadi in the competitive world. But we've no plans to modernize khadi as far as production is concerned. It woul d mean reducing the manpower, which is the last thing we can think of. We still believe that the best way to manufacture khadi is the traditional charkha, or spinning wheel, simply because, as Mahatma Gandhi was convinced, it gives the much-needed employment to millions of the poor of this country. He was never against machine or science. Nor was he against mass production. What he wanted was production by masses as he was concerned by the problem of unemployment.
You are one of the last of the Gandhians. What is it that saddens or disheartens you when you look at the India of today?
I feel very sad when I see corruption everywhere. It has spread like a cancer or a virus in almost every field. For all the progress we've made as a nation, every day there is deterioration of values.
The field of politics has been worst hit by the monster of corruption. Virtually everybody is corrupt more or less. It's ak in to finding a needle from a haystack to come across a politician who is totally honest and 100 percent noncorrupt. Having grown up reading and following the morals and principles of men like Mahatma Gandhi, I find all this very disturbing.
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