What is a Jhola?
Jholas are sling bags commonly used in India, Gandhi ashram weaving collectives make them from hand-spun, hand-loom cloth called khadi.
The jholas that Gandhi used are important symbols of self-sufficiency, simplicity, and service. These jholas are made without electricity~ each ashram produced jhola represents a full day of work from the home.
“Both Allen (Ginsberg) and Peter (Orlovsky) began wearing hand-loom kurta pajamas with a red towel on one shoulder and a sling bag on the other. In Calcutta, the jhola bag and Kolhapuri sandals were the badge of the intellectual.”
-from “A Blue Hand” by Deborah Baker (Penguin, 2008)
Who makes them?
- The jholas we offer are made by the Manav Seva Sannidhi located in Modinagar and Pilkhua, U.P. (about 35 km northeast of New Delhi).
- The ashram serves about 800 families in the area.
- About 700 people spin thread in their homes, about 85% women, mostly 55-65 years old. There are 45 weavers, men mostly about 55+ years old, and 35 helpers (mostly women). The block-printing and screen-printing employs about 50 families.
- Many of the people at the ashram are the sole means of support for their families (2-10 members).
- Most ashram workers are Dalit (formerly known as ‘untouchable’), Muslim or low caste Hindu.
Why it’s good to buy Gandhi Ashram jholas:
- Khadi is soft, beautiful, and strong- Khadi has the power of the human touch in every fiber.
- Khadi is the antithesis of plastic! made entirely without electricity, 100% handpower on wooden looms. Non-polluting, absolutely natural.
Every thread is spun on a wheel in the home, passing through a woman’s fingers. - Khadi helps people maintain self-sufficiency, and keep families together.
Khadi is a true living legacy of M.K.Gandhi~ embodying non-violence, self-sufficiency, and removal of untouchability.
What is 5 Year Plan?
5YP is a collaboration of artists and weaving collectives to create works of art as seva (service). 5 Year Plan is an artwork as social architecture.
There is no separation between those serving and those served; it is not charity.
Each person involved has contributed their art, their work and intelligence to make the project what it is. We function in absolute transparency.
(see Mission Statement)
What inspired the 5 Year Plan project?
The inspiration came from the artworks printed onto the side of Gandhi ashram jholas that I have carried on my shoulder for 20 years. I find them in the markets of cities and almost anywhere in India. The artworks on them have a casual unscripted beauty; they are instructive of Gandhian ideas of non-violent humanity and service to society. I was attracted to the tender awkwardness of the artworks, created by anonymous ashram artists for common people. It occurred to me that these were the authentic voices of a world defined by Gandhian ideals and in service to village people; that what I was seeing was an authentic Pop Art creation from the very roots of the land, a counter-industrial utopian vision in the face of all the challenges of the globalized corporate uniformity which is gradually transforming society away from even the possibility of pastoralist ideal…. I was fascinated by the irregularity of the printing and the fragrance and texture of the fabric, unique and very comforting. Over time, with many washings and years of use they get softer and more beautiful. When a seam tears I fix it with a stitch or two and it becomes more personal.
Until recently, everything I knew about Gandhi was learned from the jholas I use. I feel that all of Gandhi’s teachings can be found latent in these works of folk art.
The 5 Year Plan project came in to being when it became clear to me that we may be witnessing the twilight of Gandhi’s Khadi program; a program that he initiated to provide an honorable livelihood to the millions of rural poor in India, to help people to stay in their villages, keeping families together and traditions intact.
The 5 Year Plan project is timely for many reasons, particularly environmentally and economically. The opening of India’s markets to cheap foreign synthetics has had a devastating effect on the village industries which produce khadi and other goods. Ironically, the very plastic bags which have largely replaced the jhola in the home are being declared illegal in many states in India and China due to the harm they do to the environment.
These ashram jholas are artifacts of a living tradition of service that Gandhi himself spent his lifetime to create and are a legacy worthy of scholarly study and preservation. I feel sincerely that Gandhi’s teachings are among the most profound that I have encountered in this lifetime, and I am honored and humbled by the deep kindness and unselfishness I have encountered in the ashrams of my friends. As an artist, this is the best way I know of to meaningfully engage with the great beauty that I find in the heart of India and in humanity itself.
Love,
Aaron Sinift
Feb. 23, 2012
Thank You!
Ashrams:
Mr Vijay Kumar Handa + Mrs Bine Handa of the Gandhi Hindustani Sahitya Sabbha in New Delhi
Mr. Karan Singh + Sri Ram of the MAnav Seva Sannidhi, Modinagar and Pilkhua, U.P
Anil Mishra of the Swaraj Ashram in Kanpur, U.P
Artists:
Donald Beachler
Julie Doucet
David Dulap
Chris Martin
EJ Hauser
Jamie Reid
Orijit Sen
Tamara Gonzales
Duncan Tonatiuh
Sutanu Panigrahi
Advisory Board:
Prof. Andy Rotman
Dr. James Wilson
Martina Batan
Anne Doran
Tamara Gonzales
Gurpreet Sidhu
Orijit Sen
Raymond Foye
Marshall Weber
John Studer
Steven Warner
Special Thanks To:
Marguerite Byrum
Steven Warner
Rachel Hyman
Randa Hassan
Janna Rose White
Nandita Devraj
Raul Vincent Enriquez
Rahul Jain
Hudson
Maria + John Sinift
Mamie Tinkler
Peter Hale
Rakesh Singh
Stephanie Davies
Jeremie Chaney
Saraleah Fordyce + Dixon
