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Winston Churchill described mahatma Gandhi as a 'seditious Middle Temple Lawyer' now 'posing as a half naked fakir'. What provoked such a comment and what does it tell you about the symbolic strength of Mahatma Gandhi's dress?
Winston Churchill described Mahatma Gandhi as a 'Seditious Middle Temple Lawyer' now 'posing as a half naked fakir' because Mahatma Gandhi adopted the dress of the poorest Indian. He started to wear a short dhoti without a shirt, which he even wore when he went to England for the Round Table Conference in 1931.
He wanted to identify himself with the poor common man of India, to support Swadeshi Movement and encourage boycott of British goods to show resistance to the British. Discarding of Western clothing and adoption of the simple dhoti and sometimes a chadder served as a symbolic weapon against British rule.


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