Gandhi letter not to go under hammer

3 July 2007

London/New Delhi: In a last-minute face-saver, the government appears to have struck a deal with the owners of a letter written by Mahatma Gandhi days before his assassination, with auction house Christie's withdrawing it from a list of items to go under the hammer today.

A spokesman for the auction house said the executors of Albin Schram had agreed to withdraw the Gandhi manuscript from the auction so that it could be acquired by the Indian government.

Amin Jaffer, international director of Asian art at Christie's, said: "We are pleased to have facilitated the negotiations which have resulted in an important historical record returning to India."

The decision to withdraw the Gandhi letters comes after several meetings between various ministries of the Indian government, including the Ministry of Culture, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian high commission in London.

The external affairs ministry had asked the Indian high commission in London to assist the culture ministry in attempts to get hold of the letter written by Mahatma Gandhi 19 days before his 1948 assassination.

In the January 11, 1948 letter written for the Harijan newspaper, which he edited, Gandhi makes an emotive appeal for tolerance towards Muslims.

"My view remains unalterable especially at this critical juncture in our history. It is wrong to ruffle Muslim or any other person's feeling when there is no question of ethics," Gandhi wrote, just 19 days before Nathuram Godse shot him dead.