The term Khadi or khaddar means cotton. Khadi is Indian handspun and hand-woven cloth. The raw materials may be cotton, silk, or wool, which are spun into threads on a spinning wheel called a charkha. Khadi is not just a cloth, it is a whole movement started by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The Khadi movement was aimed at boycotting foreign goods and promoting Indian goods, thereby improving India's economy. Mahatma Gandhi began promoting the spinning of Khadi for rural self-employment and self-reliance (instead of using cloth manufactured industrially in Britain) in 1920s India thus making Khadi an integral part and icon of the Swadeshi movement. The freedom struggle revolved around the use of Khadifabrics and the dumping of foreign-made clothes. When some people complained about the costliness of Khadi to Mahatma Gandhi, he started wearing only loincloth. Thus it symbolized the political ideas and independence itself, and to this day most politicians in India are seen only in Khadi clothing.