Hudli, a quaint village that lies halfway on the State Highway between Belagavi and Gokak, is associated with some interesting anecdotes of the country’s history. It was home to Karnataka Kesari Gangadhar Rao Deshpande, a follower of Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi, who led the Khadi and village industries movement for several decades.
Deshpande and his associates declared Hudli a Khadigram in 1923. He invited Gandhi to spend 10 days in Hudli in 1937. Sarvodaya activists of the village organised the wedding of Gandhi’s granddaughter Manu Gandhi and Surendra Mashruwala at a simple ceremony. Then, 10 followers of Deshpande set up the Khadi Gramodyog Sahakari Utpadak Sangha in 1954 that continues to function even today.
It was a simple, closed-door ceremony in the house of Deshpande. Locals say that only 22 people were invited to the wedding which was seen as a model in more ways than one.
The village tries to live by the Gandhian principles of simple and inclusive living and self-reliance. The first proud claim of everyone in the village is that there are no liquor shops in the village of a population of around 6,500.
“If anyone is in doubt, we take them around the village to see for themselves,” says Adiveppa Malagi, Khadi activist and sangha chairman. His grandfather M.L. Malagi and father Gangappa Malagi have been sangha chairmen in the past. In fact, Gangappa Malagi, who lived to be a 100, was the sangha chairman for 32 years.
Women’s enterprise
The Khadi and village industry unit in Hudli has not only managed to stay afloat but has also expanded and diversified.
Registered as Charakha Society under the Societies Act in 1954, it now has 28 branches across the district. It provides direct and indirect employment to around 1,000 women and workers in its various units. They include the Khaddar cloth weaving centre, soap and incense stick making, pickles, jams and a gobar gas unit that powers the looms. The sangha clocks annual revenues of around ₹4 crore.
The pickle unit buys around 100 tonnes of mango, lemon, ginger, Mangani roots (decalepis hamiltonii) and other fruits. The mangoes and other material are purchased directly from farmers in 80 villages. The soap unit set up in 1981 produces three types of soap from neem, sandal and camphor. “Our soaps are sold in Khadi stores across the country,” says Suresh Barimarad, manager.
Challenging times
However, the Khadi unit is facing challenges with competition coming from factory-made cheap clothes. A lot of finished goods remain unsold at the godowns due to their relatively high cost.
“People do not understand why hand-made items cost more than those made by machines,” says Vijayakshmi Nelawadi, unit supervisor.
The government and civil society should create awareness among the general public about the need to use more Khadi products and why it is worth paying a bit more for them, she said.
She demanded that the government procure Khadi clothing to be used as uniforms for government employees, bed sheets and other material for government hospitals, schools, buses and trains. It has supplied porters uniforms and cleaning clothes to the Railways and other PSUs in the past.
The gobar gas unit of the sangha built and installed nearly 10,000 units in the fields of farmers in Belagavi and Bagalkot districts in the State and in some villages in Maharashtra. “The demand for these units has drastically reduced now, as most farmers do not have animals,” says Mr. Malagi.
