A college teacher shows her students a photograph taken during Gandhiji's tour of South India in 1921. She points out that on this tour he made a deliberate change in the way he looked. She tells the class that it was a public act with a message, not a private habit. She then asks them to work out what the change was and what it stood for in Gandhiji's thought.
Which change in his appearance did Gandhiji make during this tour?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → He shaved his head and began wearing a loincloth.
Option (1) He gave up a Western suit and began wearing an Indian bandgala. — Incorrect. The Western suit or the Indian bandgala was the formal dress worn by other nationalist leaders of the time. Gandhiji instead went among the people in a simple dhoti or loincloth.
Option (2) He began wearing a long khadi kurta and a Gandhi cap. — Incorrect. A khadi kurta and cap is not the change he made on this tour. On the 1921 tour his new look was a shaved head and a loincloth, the dress of the poor.
Option (3) He began wearing a white shawl and walking barefoot. — Incorrect. A white shawl and bare feet do not describe this change. The change that carried his message was the shaved head and the loincloth.
Option (4) He shaved his head and began wearing a loincloth. — Correct. During his 1921 tour of South India, Gandhiji shaved his head and began wearing a loincloth in order to identify with the poor. The new look also stood for asceticism and abstinence, against the consumerist culture of the modern world.
NCERT (2026-27): “2.2 A people’s leader … “In 1921, during a tour of South India, Gandhiji shaved his head and began wearing a loincloth in order to identify with the poor. His new appearance also came to symbolise asceticism and abstinence – qualities he celebrated in opposition to the consumerist culture of the modern world.” |