The “symbol of Indian freedom” is in danger

The national flag manufacturing unit of the Karnataka Khadi Gramodyoga Samyukta Sangha at Bengeri in Hubballi, Karnataka | Photo credit: KIRAN BAKALE/The Hindu

The Prime Minister's renewed call for a 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign in the week leading up to our Independence Day (9-15 August) offers us an opportunity to collectively reflect on our national flag and its significance for the country. His moral doublespeak of paying homage to the national flag while pledging allegiance to an organisation that has remained indifferent to it is one thing. The rampant proliferation of machine-made polyester flags, the raw materials of which are often imported from China and other countries, is another.

An attack on the Khadi industry

The Indian Flag Code has always stipulated that the national flag must be made of “handspun and handwoven Khadi cloth made of wool/cotton/silk”. Khadi, this coarse but versatile and robust cloth spun and woven by the Mahatma himself during his time as leader of the national movement, holds a special significance in our historical and cultural memory. Khadi is both a symbol of our storied past and an icon of Indian modernity and economic vitality.

When India was under foreign rule, Khadi was an instrument to embed sovereignty and self-reliance in individuals. In sovereign India, Khadi was a commitment to the ongoing process of national integration and renewal. Out of respect for this eternal symbolism, the tricolour once bore the Mahatma's charkha at its centre, and the modern Indian flag was once made entirely of Khadi.

In 2022, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of our independence, the government amended the Code (“viz order dated 30.12.2021”) to include “machine-made…polyester…pennants” and at the same time exempted polyester flags from Goods and Services Tax (GST), thereby putting them on the same tax base as khadi flags. At a time when it would have been appropriate to re-attach us to our country’s national symbols, the government chose to put them aside and focus on mass-market machine-made polyester fabrics. The Karnataka Khadi Gramodyoga Samyukta Sangha (KKGSS) in Hubballi district of Karnataka, the only Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) accredited national flag manufacturing unit in the country, had to resort to an indefinite strike to draw attention to the state-sponsored murder of India’s khadi industry.

This decision came at a time when India, far from its glory days as a global polyester manufacturing hub, was set to become a net importer of polyester yarn in 2023-24. So we have the real misfortune of importing polyester yarn mainly from China and then weaving this imported yarn into fabric for our national flag. This shameful reversal of our national pride came at the time of major incursions by Chinese forces on our borders and at the height of the Prime Minister's 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' spectacle. The hollowness and inadequacy of the government's vision had direct and devastating consequences for the Mahatma's most important heirs – our Khadi spinners and weavers.

The GST burden

The case of our national flag is no exception. Rather, it is a vivid example of this government's general disinterest in nurturing India's storied handloom and craft traditions – be it khadi or otherwise. Since 2014, the government has consistently tried to support the interests of big corporates and oligopolization and structurally dismantle our country's micro, small and medium enterprise sector, where our handloom industries are located. Due to demonetization, a punitive GST and the unplanned COVID-19 lockdown, thousands of our handloom weavers have abandoned their professions. Our handloom traditions, a material testimony to our shared history as a society and a state, have been destroyed by the arbitrary actions of this indifferent government.

GST continues to be a burden on our handloom weavers as both the final product and the raw materials (yarns, dyes and chemicals) are taxed. The constant demands of our workers to exempt handloom weavers from GST fall on deaf ears, even though the rising costs, especially of electricity and cotton fibre, deter them from doing so.

The recently introduced Vishwakarma Yojana, itself flawed in many respects, completely excludes handloom weavers and spinners from its ambit. Meanwhile, in a perversion of the Mahatma's vision, the Government has made no effort to enable our Khadi spinners and weavers to form their own cooperatives outside existing Khadi institutions to market and sell their products.

Khadi procurement has declined

Government procurement of khadi has declined as ministries ignore or override mandates requiring them to do so. Even more worrying, the government has failed to build a global audience for Indian handloom weavers. At a time when consumers across the world are beginning to value sustainable sourcing and fair trade, the fabric on which Gandhi's satyagraha was based should have been valued globally. Instead, Bapu's khadi is being denied its identity even in his own country. The government has failed to regulate the market and khadi spun from semi-mechanised charkhas is being sold indiscriminately and under the same label as traditional hand-spun khadi. This is at the expense of our khadi spinners whose wages do not exceed Rs 200-250 per day despite their backbreaking manual labour.

The road ahead is long and requires a redefinition of the place of India's handloom traditions in our society and economy. But the first step is also clear: it must begin with the restoration of khadi as the only fabric that has the honour of carrying our national flag. The fabric that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru so aptly described as “the garment of Indian freedom” must find its rightful place as the embodiment of our national pride. We owe this to our history and our workers.

Sonia Gandhi, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), is Chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party