Khadi

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Khadi
The Swadeshi fabric
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Khadi

• Khadi is a hand-spun and hand-woven fabric.
• Woven mostly in cotton, the process originates
  itself
• more than 5000 years ago and believed to be
  from ancient
• India.
• This almost forgotten process was revived by
  Mahatma
• Gandhi in 1921, as a part of his movements of
  non-
• violence and non-cooperation against the
  British.
• It evoked tellingly the fact that in the
  post-industrial world,
• self worth and self sufficiency was
  acknowledged as a
• compensation for human labour.

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Khadi

• Hand picking of the cotton bolls
• Ginning
• Opening and cleaning
• Carding
• Drawing and Combing
• Roving
• Spinning
• Sizing
• Warping
• Drawing and Drafting
• Weaving
• Finishing

the process
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Khadi
Hand picked cotton bolls, collected for further
processes.
Hand picking
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Khadi
The process of separating fibers from the cotton
seeds.
It is done by hand, using a sharp comb like
object like a fish bone which also removes the
larger fragments of trash.
Ginning
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Khadi
The other method involves the use of a small
wooden device with toothed rollers.
Ginning
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Khadi
Opening Cleaning
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Khadi
The process to eliminate the final traces
of trash from the open fibers and to separate
them fully
Bow Carding
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Khadi
The mechanized carding machine consists of a very
fine wire that separates the fibers almost
individually and then passed through moving steel
bars that remove the very short fibers and
tangles. The carded material is then collected as
Slivers.
Carding
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Khadi

• It involves the further parallelization of
  cotton fibers and removal of short fibers to
  produce finer qualities of yarn.

• It is the process of straightening the fibers ,
  prior to spinning of the yarn and thus a sliver
  of cotton is obtained.

Drawing and combing
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Khadi
The traditionalCharkha or the hand spinning
wheel.
Roving Spinning
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Khadi
The New Model Charkha (NMC), which is
semi-mechanized.
Roving Spinning
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Khadi
The drafted slivers are further thinned out and
twisted slightly at the same time to strengthen
it.
The product of this process is called Roving
which is directly spun to produce yarn, during
which the diameter of the yarn is controlled and
calculated. Rovings are wound onto bobbins ready
for spinning.
Fish bone
Roving Spinning
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Khadi
Fish bone
The spinning of fiber into yarn is the most
emblematic of textile production. Here the yarn
is spun using a spinning wheel.
Roving Spinning
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Khadi
Fish bone
Although most of the spinning is done on the New
Model Charkha (NMC), in some remote villages the
traditional hand spinning wheel is still being
used.
Spinning
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Khadi
Fish bone
The spun yarns are wound into reels of 1000
meters each.
Spinning
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Khadi
In order to organize and systematize the spinning
process, spinning is done by spinners at the
spinning centers nowadays.
Most cooperatives, with license from the KVIC,
procure cotton slivers from South India and then
spin yarn for self consumption only.
Fish bone
Spinning Centers
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Khadi
Warping
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Khadi
The process involves starching or application of
sizing solution to the warp prior to warping or
after warping to resist the weaving abrasions.
Fish bone
Sizing
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Khadi
The process of making the healds by looping nylon
heald wire around the warp ends, depending on the
weave and design of the fabric.
Fish bone
Drawing Drafting
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Khadi
The reels of yarns are then wound onto bobbins by
hand using a winding Charkha. The process of
weaving follows this.
Fish bone
Bobbin winding
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Khadi
Weaving is done on a pit loom, especially with a
fly shuttle, which is one of the most ancient
type of looms.
Fish bone
Weaving
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Khadi
Fish bone
The interior villages of West Bengal where the
weavers produce the finest Khadi of 300s to 500s
count An attempt to revive the famous Bengal
muslin.
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Khadi
Khadi - Gandhis Quintessential Fabric
The Swadeshi fabric
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Khadi

• Salient features of Khadi
• Hand-spun and hand woven
• Hand spun yarn renders a soft character to the
  fabric that
• is comfortable to wear.
• Durable fabric.
• Subtle texture in the fabric owing to hand
  spinning and hand
• weaving .
• Fine fabrics up to 500s count are
  available..which are otherwise
• impossible to weave in mechanized looms.

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Khadi

• The Future of Khadi
• It is the only fabric where the play of texture
  is so unique that no
• two fabrics will be absolutely identical, thus
  lending it exclusivity
• and inimitability in terms of feel and texture.
• Khadi is among the most progressively modern of
  all textiles,
• one that not only has desirably material
  possibilities but also
• consonance with the native ecology and
  sensitivity to the human
• condition that sustains it.
• It advocates that fact that even in the
  post-industrial world, self-
• worth and self sufficiency are acknowledged as
  a compensation for
• human labour.
• Today Khadi is being used by Top Fashion
  Designers in India and

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Khadi
Did you know? 70 of the artisans involved in
the process of Khadi production are women.
Khadi is an eco-fabric. The process involves no
environmental pollution and is extremely eco
friendly. Khadi helps in supporting destitute,
helpless rural women folk as they can work
independently and earn their living. Khadi
production is a labour-intensive industry, with a
scope of providing more employment with an
investment of a very meager capital especially in
the rural areas. It enables full development
of locally available raw materials and human
resources.
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Khadi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• We would like to thank the following people for
  their help, support and guidance without which
  this project would not have been a success
• Mr. G.C. Basak, Joint Director
• Directorate of Handlooms and Textiles, Govt. of
  West Bengal.
• Mr. S.S.Sil, Dy. Director Mr. U.S. Maiti,
  Khadi Officer
• Khadi Village Industries Commission, West
  Bengal.
• Mr S.K. Ghosh, Dy. Director,
• Weavers Service Center, Kolkata.
• Dr. B.V. Somashekhar. Director,
• National Institute of Fashion Technology,
  Kolkata.
• Mr. Malay Kumar Das, Technical Officer,
• Handloom Development Commission, Murshidabad.
• Bharat Khadi Sevak Sangha, Murshidabad.

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Khadi
BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Khadi
• Volkart Foundation, Switzerland,
• Amr Vastra Kosh
• 2002
• The Khadi Industry
• Publication Division, Ministry of Information
  Broadcasting
• Govt. of India
• 1962
• Spinning Khadi
• Gandhi, M.K.
• Khadi How Why?
• Gandhi, M.K.
• The Gandhian Way
• Kripalani, J.B., Acharya

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Khadi
SPONSORED BY
WEAVERS STUDIO 5/1, Anil Moitra Road, Ist Floor,
Ballygunj Place,
Kolkata- 700 019
West Bengal
India
The Swadeshi fabric
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Khadi
PRESENTED BY
Ms. Darshan Shah
Director
Weavers
Studio
Calcutta, India
DOCUMENTED BY
Nitin Gupta
National Institute of
Fashion Technology New
Delhi Subhabrata Sadhu
National Institute of
Design Ahmedabad
The Swadeshi fabric
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Khadi
THANK YOU
The Swadeshi fabric