The letter of Mahatma Gandhi written 19 days before his assassination, which was purchased by the Government of India at a price of Rs 16 lakhs from a UK-based auction house, was officially handed over to the Navajivan Trust on Tuesday.
Dr Karan Singh, President of Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), handed over the seven-page letter to Jitendra Desai, Managing Trustee of the Ahmedabad-based trust, which has the copyright for all writings of Mahatma Gandhi. The letter, written on January 11, 1948 and published in his journal Harijan, was saved from going under the hammer in London, was acquired by the ICCR at a cost of 18,500 pounds. The letter contains Bapu’s pleas to promote Urdu language to strengthen the pluralistic ethos of the Indian society.
The ICCR also acquired another letter in Gujarati written by Bapu in May 1935 to his dear friend Mr Khambatta acknowledging a cheque sent by him and also giving him general information about his well-being.
Mr Desai handed over both the letters to Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) for their conservation. Maintaining that NMML had one of the largest collection of Gandhiji’s works its Director Dr Mridula Mukherjee said earlier also the Trust had decided that the NMML would be the best institution to preserve Gandhiji’s manuscripts.
Describing the move to bring back the manuscript back to India as “a big victory for India”, she said “now there was no danger of it going into private hands”.
Dr Mukherjee said in 1996 London-based Phillips Sons and Neale stopped the auction of another manuscript by Bapu after they were served a legal notice by the Indian High Commission that the manuscript was “stolen property” and the ownership lies with Navajivan Trust. The manuscripts reached the auction house after Gandhiji’s typist, V Kalayanam passed it to a temple and gave them permission to sell it to raise money to build a temple in Hawai.
The Indian government filed a case in Chennai and in London to stop the auction.
The Chennai court passed an injunction and ordered the auction house to stop the sale.
“Following the order, a legal settlement was entered into between the auctioneer, Navjivan Trust and other parties. The manuscripts were then given to India,” she said.