Clothes maketh the man - KHADI

The clothes of our khadi brigade. Ahh...yes, now let me concentrate my attention towards KHADI. The Indian symbol of politicaldom, the uniform of the nonuniform ensemble of politicians, the cloth of the common man. Now let's take a look at its history, this simple cloth was worn by native Indians during the nineteenth century. It came into prominanace when it became a tool of revolution against the British rule during the 'Civil Disobedience' movemen. The British cotton was shunned and the Indian khadi was worn by the masses as asymbol of protest against the Foreign rule. It's underlying sentiment was that we are proud of all things Indian and we choose to wear what is made by us than what is sent by you, a symbol of our times, Indianness and freedom. Just like your rule, cotton may be more comfertable, modern and stately but we still prefer to have our freedom and dignity. Thus khadi became the symbol of our pride and revolt. Though it was a political tool it was a symbol of our nationality. Today what needs to be done by the new politicians is to stop wearing it. Yes its not a typo and I sincerely mean what I write, stop wearing khadi. The khadi today, sadly, represents the dirty politician and dirtier politics. Just like our freedom struggle from the Foreign rule, our struggle for freedom from Neta rule requires us to symbolise the fact that we are not a part of the Dirty, anti-nationalist, money grabbing, religious fundamentalist, caste based or any other form of todays politician. We respect our freedom and exercise it to choose our clothes which are not a baggage of our past and cover of our future. Wear what the people you represent wear, clothes that you would wear while roaming the streets, shopping, at home, at work. Its time we fight against every symbol of our rotting political condition.This brings to mind the climactic scene from Mani Ratnam's "Yuva", where the newly elected MLA's walk into the parliament wearing jeans and shirts and seem like small drops of colour on an empty canvas.