Gandhinagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in the ‘Khadi Utsav’ which will be held in Ahmedabad on 27th August 2022. The Prime Minister has actively promoted Khadi in India and the world. 75 artists will play the ‘Ravanhaththa’ to welcome the PM.

The event will witness 7500 women artisans from Surendranagar, Amreli and Rajkot spinning the charkha live at the same time and at the same place. The women will wear a white saree and a tricolour angavastram.

The Prime Minister will interact with the artists and spin the charkha with them.

PM Narendrabhai Modi to participate in Khadi Utsav at Sabarmati Riverfront in Gujarat; 7500 women to spin charkha at the venue together https://t.co/ESrRpc6lok pic.twitter.com/u7XkkEsv43

— DeshGujarat (@DeshGujarat) August 26, 2022

Increase in sale of Khadi in India by 245% since 2014

India has witnessed an increase in the production of Khadi. According to KVIC, there has been an increase of 172% in the production of Khadi and 245% in its sale since 2014. To add, the PM will visit the ‘Charkha Utkranti’ which will depict the 22 generations of charkhas that have been used in India since the 1920s. This will include the ‘Yerwada Charkha’ and all others that were used during the Indian Freedom Struggle. To add, it will also display the modern ones which use technology.

Ponduru Khadi as pure as the Ganges: Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi also preferred Ponduru khadi and wrote about it in his weekly journal Young India where he termed it as more pure than the river Ganges. Interestingly, Ponduru Khadi is associated with Ponduru village in Andhra Pradesh where around 1,200 people are currently engaged in khadi weaving who will give a live demonstration about the production to the Prime Minister. Its exceptional feature is that the entire process, right from picking cotton to making khadi cloth, is done by hand.

India’s past and present interlinked to Khadi

Khadi, derived from ‘Khaddar’, is an important means of livelihood for rural India. It played an important role in India’s Freedom Struggle against British by making our citizens self-reliant. Gandhiji’s Swadeshi Movement, which asked for the boycott of British goods, acted as a touchstone for achieving self-sufficiency, and Charkha was strategically used by him. This programme once again aims to inform the new generation about Khadi to increase its usage and fulfil the mantra ‘Khadi for Fashion, Khadi for Nation, Khadi for Transformation’ by the Prime Minister .

Chief Minister of Gujarat and Minister of Cottage Industries of the State Government will also address the programme. Apart from this, the new office building of the Gujarat State Khadi Village Industry Board will be e-inaugurated by the Hon’ble Prime Minister. The event will also feature a documentary on Khadi depicting the progress of Khadi from being a traditional fabric to a fashion statement today; empowerment of women through Khadi; importance of Khadi in India’s economy, and continuous encouragement given by the Prime Minister for Khadi.

DeshGujarat