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Indian PM stresses importance of Khadi

Xinhua, January 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday stressed the importance of Khadi (handspun cotton cloth) and its significance in the empowerment of the countrymen.

"Khadi has become a symbol. It has now become a center of interest of the nation's youth. Khadi has the power to provide employment to crores of people," Modi said in his this year's first radio address to the nation Mann Ki Baat.

Khadi is a term used for handspun and hand-woven cloth, primarily woven from cotton and may also include silk, or wool, which are all spun into a yarn on a spinning wheel called a charkha. It's cool in summer and warm in winter.

In India, Khadi was a whole movement started by the country's pre-independence icon Mahatma Gandhi. The Khadi movement promoted an idea that Indians could be self-reliant on cotton and be free from the high priced goods and clothes which the British were selling to them during its colonial rule.

Modi has also been promoting Khadi since coming to power, with one of the aims being to boost the business of the cloth makers. Endit