page_title: Gandhi cap
section_title: Genesis
hierarchical_section_title: Gandhi cap / Genesis
caption_attribution_description: English: Members of the Indian National Congress marching in New Delhi in 1937.
context_page_description: The Gandhi cap is a white coloured sidecap, pointed in front and back and having a wide band. It is made out of khadi. It takes its name after the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, who first popularised its use during the Indian independence movement. Worn commonly by Indian independence activists, it became a symbolic tradition for politicians and political activists to wear it in independent India.
context_section_description: The Gandhi cap emerged in India during the First Non-cooperation movement during 1918–1921. when it became the standard Congress dress as popularized by Gandhi. In 1921, the British government tried to ban the use of the Gandhi cap.
  Gandhi himself wore the cap only for one or two years during 1920–21.
  Gandhi's homespun khadi attire of traditional Indian clothes were symbolic of his message of cultural pride, the use of Swadeshi goods (as opposed to those manufactured in Europe), self-reliance and solidarity with India's rural masses. The cap became common to most followers of Gandhi and members of the Indian National Congress. A connection to the independence movement was implied when any individual wore the cap in those times.
  Prisoners in South African prisons classified as "negroes" (a category into which Indians fell while Gandhi was in South Africa) also were required to wear similar caps in prison during 1907 to 1914. Gandhi's close friend Henry Polak cites Gandhi's time in South African jail, where he was classified as a "negro" and thus required to wear such a cap, as the genesis of the Gandhi Cap.
   However Gandhi, in a letter to Kaka Kalelkar, described in detail how he based his white cap on the Kashmiri cap.
caption: Members of the Indian National Congress marching in New Delhi in 1937
exif: {}