Selected Letters of Gandhi : Part-2

A collection of Mahatma Gandhi letters.


Chapter-4: The Ashram Girl and Her Hair

Should the Ashram girls keep long hair or shave their heads clean?

When you remove the hair, you save the time which would be devoted to dressing it as well as the money which you spend on combs, oils and what not; you kill the superstition that the ‘glory’ of a woman is her hair and your head is free from dirt. A head shaved clean is the symbol of brahmacharya for women. If young girls as well as married women shaved their heads clean, a clean shaven head would cease to be a sign of widowhood as it is at present. And so on.

I, II, IV and V were written in Yeravda prison on April 25, 1932.
IV and V have been translated from the Gujarati.