Keep the wheel turning: The women in this village have kept the Gandhian philosophy and wheel still spinning

Shilpa P

In a remote village near Mysuru some 60 odd women, from 35-year-old Subbamma to 85-year-old Rathnamma, are keeping the legacy of khadi alive. The Khadi and Gramodyoga Centre in Badanavalu, Nanjangud Taluk, was built on seven acres in 1927 and was visited by Mahatma Gandhi in 1932. But from the six indigenous cottage industries built, only one is still functional. It stands as a testimony and a living example to the Gandhian model of economy which spoke of sustainable living for villages by perusing their traditional indigenous professions.

“I started working at this khadi spinning centre some 65 years ago. Some 60 of us from Badanavalu, come here during our free time between 9 am and 5 pm after finishing our daily housework chores and some even at our farmlands. And we spin thread from cotton with 50 charakas and weave Khadi clothes,” says Subbamma. The centre has 10 traditional handloom weaving machines. The women spin some 10,000 to 12,000 ladi (one ladi equals 1000 metres) of thread and khadi cloth per month worth between Rs 2 to 2.5 lakh. “We are paid on the basis of length of thread or cotton we weave, which helps us to have some extra money in our pockets to manage our households,” says Subbamma.

D S Somshekar technical supervisor of the centre says that the set-up has adopted the latest designs and colour combinations to meet changing trends and tastes of consumers. The products are marketed at centres at Dhanavantri Road in Mysuru, K R Nagar in Mysuru district, Holenarsipura in Hassan district, in Hassan City, and several places across the country. “After the Khadi board was closed in 1988, Holenarsipura Khadi and Gramodyadyaka Cooperative society is managing this centre. And in the past four years three new buildings with roofs of sheets were built in the campus, where this production unit is functioning now,” says Somshekar.

MLA of Nanjangud Mr B Harshavardhan has sought Rs 20 crore in the State budget for the revival and development of this historical heritage site, the Badanavalu Khadi and Gramodyoga Centre, on the lines of Sabarmathi Ashram of Gujarat. “A detailed project report is already prepared and the copy of it has also been submitted to the tourism minister Mr Anand Singh. We plan to revive and develop this heritage site to mark the 153rd birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi,” says Harshavardhan.

Established in 1927 by Thagadoor Ramachandra Rao, this seven acres khadi centre had six kinds of industries. Besides khadi spinning, there were cottages industries producing match sticks, oil, paper, and furniture providing alternate employment to over 800 to 1000 people of the village which is a rain shadow area (which depended on rain based farming). These mills met the needs of furniture, letterheads of all the offices in Mysuru. Now with all other mills closed except the Khadi centre, and the campus left with dilapidated buildings, the people of the Badanavalu now catch trains at the station right opposite this campus, to work as construction labours in Mysuru city.

In 2015 March, All India Federation of Weavers Organisations led by noted theatre personality, Prasanna Heggodu, took out Sathyagraha at Badanavalu urging the government to adopt an alternative mode of development, the Gandhian concept of the economy (which promotes wealth for all), to promote sustainable simple living of people in villages by continuing their own traditional indigenous professions. The plan is to revive village-based industries like the Badanavalu centre as heritage sites on the lines of Sevagram. Noted activists including Medha Patkar and the late Bollywood actor Irfan Khan were all part of that Sathyagraha in 2015.