Gandhiji's manuscript auctioned at Sotheby's

London, July 13: Not even two weeks after India proudly managed to stop the auction of a letter by Mahatma Gandhi at Christie's, another valuable manuscript by him was auctioned at Sotheby's for 45,600 pounds. The manuscript auctioned is a draft with revisions of a series of articles for Young India discussing a range of political and cultural subjects: the caste system ("...untouchability is surely disappearing&with its disappearance the way to swaraj [self-rule] is becoming safe and easy..."); and the Khadi campaign ("A mountain of yarn balls").

Other issues in the manuscript include "A widow's gift"; the effects of the colonial education system, which "has emasculated the English educated Indian" ("...[t]he process of displacing the vernacular has been one of the saddest chapters in the British connection..."); and ongoing non-violent protest in Mulshi where villagers were threatened with dispossession from their land.

It also included "Another Secret treaty" on the secret treaties signed by the British government during World War I; and "Too late!", on the Tilak Swaraj Fund and a temperance campaign; the final piece being incomplete; in pencil, 33 pages.

The manuscript sold to a private buyer contains 11 autograph letters signed by Gandhi ("MK Gandhi", "Bapu"), and one autograph postcard signed, comprising: six letters to Badrul Hasan, discussing his work for Gandhi's campaigns ("...I am delighted you expect to collect Rs 25000...") and his writing ("...You don't concentrate enough&therefore your argument does not flow freely...").

There is Young India, dispensing advice on a range of subjects, and encouraging him to learn Gujarati and traditional spinning; two letters and a postcard to Dr Jafar Hasan, on subjects including the Urdu and Hindi languages ("...I am the author of the definition of Hindi ... as being that language which is spoken by the Hindus&the Muslims of the North&written either in Devnagri or Persian script..."), and his work on Hindi poetry.

It also had three letters to other members of the family, including one letter on the death of Badrul ("...I loved him as my son. He was a young man of great promise&I had built high hopes on him..."); in pen and pencil, 20 pages. The auction also included 12 autograph letters signed, including letters by: Muhammad Iqbal, praising and discussing Jafar Hasan's book on Hindi poetry, in Urdu, 1 page, 1930; Sri Aurobindo, on spiritual matters ("...These are matters of great delicacy and subtlety which it is difficult to explain in the terms of ordinary experience..."), 1 page, 24 January 1931, together with notes in Urdu discussing Aurobindo and Mother; Sarojini Naidu, sending condolences, 2 pages, 21 April 1931; and nine other letters in English and Urdu.

All were mounted in an album, in total 79 pages plus blanks, two items crudely taped, one letter by an unknown correspondent split in three, Gandhi postcard and two other items detached from album, one album leaf loose, some soiling, adhesive staining, tears, and creasing.

CATALOGUE NOTE

"...There can be no Satyagrah in an unjust cause. Satyagrah in a just cause is vain if the men espousing it are not determined and capable of fighting it and suffering to the end and the slightest use of violence often defeats a just cause. Satyagrah excludes the use of violence in any shape or form whether in thought speech or deed. Given a just cause, capacity of endless suffering and avoidance of violence victory is a certainty." (Satyaraha in Mulshi) A powerful and vigorous series of articles written during the satyagraha campaign of non-cooperation (1920-22), during a visit to Gujarat in one of Gandhi's many pilgrimages through India. In the piece quoted above, Gandhi draws inspiration from a local campaign by peasants against land dispossession, and scorns any compromise which would disadvantage the poor ("...I daresay the problem of disease and poverty can be easily solved ... if the decrepit humanity were shot and their bodies utilised for manure...") Gandhi writes in characteristically moral, uncompromising, and optimistic terms about subjects close to his heart. He is ferocious in response to revelations of a secret treaty that had been signed by the British with the Hashemites during World War I, and takes double-dealing in the Middle East as indicative of moral corruption at the heart of the British government: "If it is true it shows the depth to which the British ministers descended for the purpose of gaining their end. And now that the end is secured they treat their own written word as so much waste paper.

Is it any wonder that millions of Indians have lost faith in Great Britain and refuse to cooperate with her so long as she will not retrace her steps and purify herself of the corruption that is eating into her moral being." These articles were printed together in April 1921 in Young India.

Gandhi was the general editor of this weekly journal and many of his writings appeared there, including the three inflammatory articles which led to his conviction for sedition in 1922.

As well as the manuscript, the album includes a series of letters that chart Gandhi's relationship with a young Congress activist apparently working for Young India. These letters reveal both his immense goodwill towards the young man, and also the severe standards he set for those who would follow him.

Characteristic are Gandhi's comments on one of his articles: "I have just read your note on Swadeshi [self-sufficiency]. You have a good style and good thoughts. But that is not enough for me. I want you to give facts and figures that prove argument or assertions." The auction house said: "Autograph manuscripts by gandhi rarely appear at auction."

UNI

Related Stories

>