Vadodara: They keep the charkha spinning even today

VADODARA: Remembering Gandhi would ostensibly mean picturing the Mahatma engrossed over his spinning wheel — an image that naturally comes to the mind while talking about Bapu. But did you know that the ‘swadeshi’ tradition set by him is not just adhered to by a few of his ardent followers till date, but also trying to imbibe gen next with the same ideals?
Meet nonagenarian Jyotibhai Desai, a devout Gandhian, who settled in the city for the past five years, and is among the few who still spin the wheel.
At 96, Desai, barring rare occasions when he is not in the city, spins regularly and makes yarn enough to weave 25 to 30 yards of cloth!
“I started in 1944 like many workers involved in the freedom movement. I learnt it at the Laxmi Society Hall in Khar in Mumbai where a training session was organized,” Desai said. He added that he even took a charkha to the United Kingdom when he went there for his higher studies.
Desai said that after the meeting he made a promise to continue spinning for the rest of his life and is adhering to his own words till this day.
There are others who too do it to keep the tradition alive and because it is key to the Gandhian philosophy.
Vipul Parmar, a 45-year-old school teacher uses the charkha whenever possible and is an active volunteer at the Sardar Bhavan Trust in Vadodara.
Parmar said that he and like-minded volunteers used to hold sessions to demonstrate and teach how a charkha was used. “But we had to stop due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We are looking to start it again,” he said.
Parmar rued the fact that there were not many who were learning the art of using a charkha. He said that the last young person who learnt from them was a research scholar from MS University working on threads made from lotus stem.
But when it comes to fixing a charkha, many look forward to Bakul Shah, who volunteers to ensure that the wheel does not stop spinning.
Shah, who had also been involved in training people at the Sardar Bhavan, said that he learnt to spin charkha when he was in Class 3 from his father who used to do it regularly. “I had stopped for about 10 to 15 years, but have started against since about a decade now,” he said.
Kapil Shah from the Vinoba Ashram in the city pointed out that while there were few individuals who used the charkha regularly, it was still widely used in units where cloth was also made from the yarn of the charkha.