Gandhiji had not heard of him, but he had evidently heard of Gandhiji's spinning-wheel and the very first question he asked was why Gandhiji was against machinery. The question delighted Gandhiji who explained to him in detail why the six months' unemployment of the whole peasant population of India made it important for him to restore them to their former subsidiary industry.
CHARLIE CHAPLIN: Is it then only as regards cloth?
GANDHIJI : Precisely. In cloth and food every nation should be self-contained. We were self-contained and want to be that again. England with their large-scale production has to look for a market elsewhere. We call it exploitation. And an exploiting England is a danger to the world, but if that is so, how much more so would be an exploiting India, if she took to machinery and produced cloth many times in excess of its requirements.
CHARLIE CHAPLIN: So the question is confined only to India? But supposing you had in India the independence of Russia, and you could find other work for our unemployed and ensure equitable distribution of wealth, you would not then despise machinery? You would subscribe to shorter hours of work and more leisure for the worker?
GANDHIJI : Certainly.
CHARLIE CHAPLIN: Naturally I am in sympathy with India's aspirations and struggle for freedom. Nonetheless, I am somewhat confused by your abhorrence of machinery.
GANDHIJI : I understand. But before India can achieve those aims, she must first rid herself of English rule. Machinery in the past has made us dependent on England, and the only way we can rid ourselves of the dependence is to boycott all goods made by machinery. That is why we have made it the patriotic duty of every Indian to spin his own cotton and weave his own cloth. This is our form of attacking a very powerul nation like EnglandΓÇöand, of course, there are other reasons. India has a diffrent climate from England; and her habits and wants are different. In England the cold weather necessitates arduous industry and an involved economy. You need the industry of eating utensils; we use our fingers. And so it translates into manifold differences.
