SWADESHI.

basis of the re-organization of Indian life, and the

•of bringing not merely wealth, but happiness to the Indian-

.people.

I take musical instruments as a further illustration i
'The manufacture of" Indian ' instruments is a decaying
industry. Thirteen lakhs of rupees annually are spent on
imported instruments——pianos, violins (including mechani-
cal ones) and harmoniums and gramophones, the universal
popularity of which is, ai&ple testimony of the degradation
•of Indian taste in recent times. And so while small
Indian capitalists are in a position to exploit the national
sentifaent by making wretched imitations of good English
paper, nibs, or soap, the skilled craftsman, in this case the
miiker of musical instruments, is starving for • want of
•occupation, and his hereditary knowledge, a definite asseU
in the. national credit, is passing away for ever. While
^groups'of well-meaning individuals are busy making bad
Swadeshi biscuits, and others sacrifice a few pice per poun*d
to buying them, the carver of wood, the ivory inlayer," the
'drawer of wire and the professional musician are all neg-
lected for, the travesties of music performed on harmoniums
<or.< lily flutes, or reproduced 0$ nauseam on gramophones,
the' profit on whose mamifacture goes out of India, ]SF<3fc
that.it would-be any advantage to make them locally.
The hope of, reviving trade by reproducing locally an'y
article that may come into fashion, without regard to its
real value, is-as delusive as it is mean. It is never an ad-
vantage to/a nation to produce useless or vicious luxuries; it
does« not increase the national wealth. By the time* yotrr
laarmoniunl factory is doing well, and Indians in it,'working
Seventeen, hcm^s a day, are producing for the" shareholders
a dividend of 35 percent, or more (as in the Bombay cotton
mills), some European or American invents a * harmoniola *