not lift them without being
lifted ourselves. This last relationship has not yet been developed, but
we hope, at an early date, to take in hand the education too of these
families and not rest satisfied till we have touched them at every
point. This is not too ambitious a dream. God willing, it will be a
reality some day. I have ventured to dilate upon the small experiment to
illustrate what I mean by co-operation to present it to others for
imitation. Let us be sure of our ideal. We shall ever fail to realise
it, but we should never cease to strive for it. Then there need be no
fear of "co-operation of scoundrels" that Ruskin so rightly dreaded.

FOOTNOTE:

[5] Paper contributed to the Bombay Provincial Co-operative Conference,
September 17, 1917.

NATIONAL DRESS[6]

I have hitherto successfully resisted to temptation of either answering
your or Mr. Irwin's criticism of the humble work I am doing in
Champaran. Nor am I going to succumb now except with regard to a matter
which Mr. Irwin has thought fit to dwell upon and about which he has not
even taken the trouble of being correctly informed. I refer to his
remarks on my manner of dressing.

My "familiarity with the minor amenities of Western civilisation" has
taught me to respect my national costume, and it may interest Mr. Irwin
to know that the dress I wear in Champaran is the dress I have always
worn in India except that for a very short period in India I fell an
easy prey in common with the rest of my countrymen to the wearing of
semi-European dress in the courts and elsewhere outside Kathiawar. I
appeared before the Kathiawar courts now 21 years ago in precisely the
dress I wear in Champaran.

One change I have made and it is that, having taken to the occupation of
weaving and agriculture and having taken the vow of Swadeshi, my
clothing is now entirely hand-woven and hand-sewn and made by me or my
fellow workers. Mr. Irwin's letter suggests that I appear before the
ryots in a dress I have temporarily and specially adopted in Champaran
to produce an effect. The fact is that I wear the national dress because
it is the most natural and the most becoming for an Indian. I believe
that our copying of the European dress is a sign of our degradation,
humiliation and our weakness, and that we are committing a national sin
in discarding a dress which is best suited to the Indian climate and
which, for its simplicity, art and cheapness, is not to be beaten o