Pune: Meet the man who makes his own clothing right from scratch

Interactions with social workers like Shivaji Kagnekar changed his world view. “I was earning hefty salaries at senior posts, but I could see how the senior management treated the workers. I saw the exploitation from close quarters. I began wondering who is benefiting from my energy, my time, my knowledge?”

The stark contrast of the gentleman sitting and spinning the Charkha and the scenes he experienced at his workplace struck Sahasrabudhe. He realised he greatly enjoyed spinning, retired at the age of 50, and began promoting the Charkha through exhibitions and workshops. In the last 12 years, he has conducted workshops over the country and taught the skill to around 2,500 people.

“Even though out of the 2,500 just 200 people might be spinning regularly, everyone who has learnt has started thinking and realising the potential of this act. It is a simple act, but ‘why to do it’ is the important question,” says Sahasrabudhe.

Spinning, he says, is the antithesis of fast fashion. Its value lies in the fact that once you produce a product yourself, you get attached to it and realise its importance. One will think before wasting even a small piece of cotton, as they will think about how much a farmer must have toiled to produce it. Such a sense of attachment towards members of a society can keep society harmonious. It will help create, in the language of Gandhi, an Ahimsak Samaj. Additionally, the art of spinning has benefits in the form of environment conservation, energy conservation, resource management, economy, physiology, and meditation.

“I’ve seen that people in the IT sector, who have money but not time as they are working with enormous pressures, are drawn to the Charkha to reduce their pace of life. Many others learn it from a meditation point of view,” Sahasrabuddhe adds. “Young people in various cities have taken it upon themselves to teach it to others, and that is the most rewarding feeling for me,” he says with a smile.

About the Charkha and Gandhi

Sahasrabudhe says Gandhi realised the simple fact that India used to make the finest cloth in the world, but the British ruthlessly dismantled local production in India. They exported raw material to England and imported readymade clothes. Still he tries to dissociate Gandhi and the Charkha, saying that the correlation is not required.

“I very reluctantly mention Gandhi when talking about the Charkha. The skill of Charkha spinning was not invented by Gandhi, he just retold its story… You can say that I am a Gandhian, but hardly 1 per cent of what he taught I am able to practise in my life,” says Saharsabudhe.

During Covid-19 lockdowns, most activities related to the Charkha were shut down. But now again the activities have picked up pace in groups around Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, according to Sahasrabudhe. The Gandhi Bhavan in Kothrud is one such location.

Acknowledging differing points of views, Sahasrabudhe says, “Gandhiji was a fan of the Indian village, while Ambedkar disagreed and said we should move towards the city. However, we should learn from these figures and instead of fighting, focus our energies on doing productive work and taking steps towards self-sufficiency.”