Friday Dress Code – Is it Khadi!!!
Khadi or khaddar is a handwoven cloth from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, made by spinning cotton. It is sometimes mixed with silk or wool; these are all spun into a yarn on a charkha or a spinning wheel. It can be worn both in summers as well as in winters as it is cool in summers and warm in winters.
Khadi is not just a cloth; it has a great historical significance associated with it, since the Khadi Movement was started by Mahatma Gandhi. The idea of the movement was to make Indians self-supporting. Back then, the British would buy cotton at a low price and send it to Britain. This would be woven into clothes and sent back to India and sold at higher prices. Thus, the Khadi Movement was started with the idea of shunning the goods made by the British, including cotton clothes. They started encouraging Indian things to improve the Indian economy.
In a bid to promote Khadi and increase the spirit of nationalism, the government has advised the citizens to dress up in khadi once a week, especially on a Friday. Not only this, they also want school and college students also to be dressed up in khadi uniform on Friday.
Why, of all the days, was a Friday chosen to adorn this fabric! The government wants to inculcate basic principles of day-to-day life in each individual in the same manner as Gandhiji followed them... and, as he was assassinated on a Friday, the government could not think of a better day to remember him and pay tribute to him.
So if your father or uncle or anybody in the family had been a government employee who did not have a uniform, you would probably remember them dressing in casuals on Fridays. They would ditch their formals for a casual pair of jeans and a t-shirt. So, with the talks doing the round of a Friday dress code, this would mean only one thing: The employees will now be seen in Khadi on Friday’s.
When people buy khadi products, there is a rise in the sales, and this could give a boost to the weavers across the country, who will surely benefit from the same.
Now why is dressing in Khadi an issue? Government employees might not oppose it, but are not too happy with the dress code. According to them, it is alright to follow a uniform and instructions in school, but it becomes too bizarre at the level of a government employee. They say that in a free society, a dress code should not be applicable.
As far as students are concerned, the issues are that they might have to buy a separate uniform for Fridays and are not sure how many parents will agree to the same.
While it shall take some time to bring the Friday dressing in vogue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is already the brand ambassador for khadi and urges people to buy it.
