Charka museum at Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi
When Kerala Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi planned to set up a charka museum, one of the challenges was to locate and collect enough exhibits. Though it had some of the earlier wooden charkas and the more recent spindle charkas, those were not enough to start a museum.
For the past few months, the Smaraka Nidhi volunteers have been travelling around the State and outside, visiting the homes of freedom fighters and other old-timers. In Kanyakumari, they met R.K. Sunder, a veteran Sarvodaya worker.
“He had a Kisaan charka, one of the earliest forms of the charka, made of wood. Despite its antique value, he did not take any money from us. He just wanted it to be useful to more people and he thinks here in this museum, future generations can learn about how it all started from this charka,” says K.G. Jagadeesan, secretary of the Kerala Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi.
The Kisaan charka now sits inside the Charka museum, a small building inside the Smaraka Nidhi compound at Thycaud, which was inaugurated by Kerala Governor Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday. Beside it sits a ‘Petty charka,’ which, as the name signifies, is a miniature charka inside an open ‘petty’ (box), which can be carried around easily.
“These charkas can be operated even when one is speaking or sitting in a meeting. Even now during the meetings of Gandhians and Sarvodaya workers, you can see old-timers spinning the wheels, to make maximum use of the time,” says a volunteer here.
Also at the exhibition are allied instruments such as ‘otni,’ used for removing the cotton seed and ‘Balni,’ used to thread the cotton.
The modern spindle charkas, which are still used in production centres of the Smaraka Nidhi, are exhibited too. Operating it is sheer drudgery and the pay is less too.
“Three of us are involved in the charka work at Smaraka Nidhi’s centre in Thozhukkal in Neyyattinkara. We make around 15 sets of thread per day and for each of those we get paid around Rs.4. I have been working on this for the past 18 years,” says Leela.
The Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi is now banking on the renewed interest in khadi clothes among the younger generation.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities / by S. R Praveen / Thursday – August 14th, 2014