AN AUCTION of some of Mahatma Gandhi’s personal possessions in New York next month, including the trademark round glasses which he jocularly said gave have him the vision to free India, has triggered a campaign for the items to be returned to India.
The Mahatma’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi said he had asked Antiquorum Auctioneers to postpone the March 4th/5th sale until enough money was raised locally to bid for the items, but the request had been turned down.
He described the auction of items including Gandhi’s sandals and Zenith pocket watch as a “grave insult” to Indians, who still revered the man who led the freedom struggle against British colonial rule. The items are believed to be owned by a German collector who obtained them from Gandhi’s grand-niece, Ghita.
Tushar Gandhi claims they were given to Ghita for display in museums, and that it was not “morally right” for her to provide a letter of authenticity for the sale. “She should remember that her parents would never, ever have thought of making money out of selling these things. They worshipped these items,” he said.
Ramachandra Rahi, secretary of the Gandhi Memorial Foundation in New Delhi, said “every thought” of Indians and India’s culture were being sold in America. “All of Gandhi’s things should be ideally placed in a museum or place where [the] public has access to them,” he added.
Indian MPs have urged the government to buy the relics, expected by the auctioneers to fetch over £30,000 (€33,940).
The sandals being sold were given to a British army officer in 1931 before the first of three unsuccessful round table conferences in London to negotiate self-rule for India. Gandhi had presented the glasses to an Indian army colonel.
Two years ago London auctioneers Christie’s withdrew a letter handwritten by the Mahatma days before his assassination in 1948 after the Indian government expressed interest in acquiring it.