Gandhi Topi

Made from plain white khadi, hand-spun cotton cloth, the cap's folded, boat-like shape became widely worn during the independence movement and has remained in use since, particularly among farmers and rural elders in parts of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Bihar, as ordinary daily headwear rather than ceremonial dress.

The cap's continued association with khadi ties it to the same hand-spinning and hand-weaving tradition that runs through much of the textile craft covered on this page — cloth made by hand from raw cotton through to a finished, wearable piece.