The spinning wheel promoted by Mahatma Gandhi was called the charkha.
The charkha is a hand-operated spinning wheel used to turn fibers such as cotton into yarn. Gandhi made it a highly visible symbol of swadeshi, self-reliance, and opposition to imported British textiles. He regularly spun yarn and encouraged Indians to do the same.
Gandhi’s program connected spinning with both politics and social reform. Wearing khadi, the cloth made from hand-spun and hand-woven yarn, represented support for Indian production. Spinning was also presented as a way to provide supplementary rural employment and to challenge social distinctions surrounding manual labor.
The charkha is the tool; khadi is the textile associated with the process. The spinning wheel also appeared on an early design of India’s flag before the Ashoka Chakra replaced it in the final national flag adopted in 1947.