Father worked for a British automobile firm in Calcutta and could not afford to wear khaddar in public. Therefore he requested mother to abandon her good muslins and jewels to show the world that she was Gandhian. Gandhism was fashionable then. It tasted like forbidden fruit. The freedom fighters knew that they might have to face lathi charges and imprisonment.
Every youth needs a cause to fight for, a chance to appear noble in other's eyes.
The freedom struggle gave them a chance to become heroes and heroines. Mother did not require coarse, homespun khaddar to turn herself into a role model. She wrote poetry. She wrote before India attained her freedom. She wrote after India became free.