Explained: The khadi being woven in a Mexico village, which PM Modi mentioned in Mann ki Baat

Modi made a reference to the region of Oaxaca (pronounced O-aa-ha-ka) in Mexico, where he said khadi was being manufactured.

In his Mann ki Baat address on Sunday (October 25), Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked people to go vocal for local while shopping during the festival season, and particularly extolled the virtues of khadi – the handwoven cloth popularised by Mahatma Gandhi.

Modi made a reference to the region of Oaxaca (pronounced O-aa-ha-ka) in Mexico, where he said khadi was being manufactured, and narrated an anecdote about how khadi reached the Latin American country after a local resident became influenced by a film on Mahatma Gandhi.

“When you go shopping during these festivals please remember we have to give priority to local products. …Today when we are going vocal for local, the world is also becoming a fan of our products. Many of our local products have the potential to become global. Today, khadi is regarded as an eco-friendly fabric and a fashion statement,” Modi said.

“Not only is the popularity of khadi rising, it is also being produced in many places of the world. There is a place in Mexico called Oaxaca, there are many villages in this area where local villagers weave khadi. Today, the khadi of this place has gained popularity by the name Oaxaca khaadi.”

What is Mexico’s Khadi Oaxaca?

Khadi Oaxaca is a farm-to-garment collective which comprises around 400 families, which live and work on traditional farms and homesteads in the Oaxaca region of southern Mexico.

It has been founded by Mark “Marcos” Brown, an American living in Mexico, and his wife, Kalindi Attar.

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On its website, the project says it uses cotton produced and cultivated on the Oaxaca coast, and produces chemical-free clothing, relying on locally harvested plant-based dyes.

Before starting the project, Brown lived in India for 12 years, and was strongly influenced by Gandhi. For two years (1986-88), he lived in Gujarat’s Sabarmati Ashram, where he learned about khadi.

Brown began wearing the clothes that he had spun himself, and in the 1990s, brought a Charkha (spinning wheel) back with him to Oaxaca in Mexico. Here, in the San Sebastián Rio Hondo village, he began teaching spinning to local families, and eventually started Khadi Oaxaca in 2010.

“Following the wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi, our philosophy goes beyond the fabric itself. The Khadi movement promoted self-employment and self-reliance for rural communities in India, reducing their dependence on the textile industry in Britain,” the Khadi Oaxaca website says.

“The creation of a thread standard provides important supplemental income and the potential for unlimited employment. Local carpenters reproduce the honorable spinning wheel brought from India; the symbol of dharma in motion,” it adds.

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