New Delhi: National Gandhi Museum plans to reach out to the Anand T Hingorani family and explore possible remedial measures following the auction of a collection of original writings and personal artefacts of Mahatma Gandhi, its director, A Annamalai, told TOI. Such material forms part of India’s shared heritage and should be preserved for future generations, he asserted.A total of 86 lots from the Anand T Hingorani collection, including Gandhi’s 688 handwritten reflections, were sold at a Saffronart auction in Mumbai on Aug 19. The collection, A Thought for the Day, fetched Rs 16.2 crore, setting a world record for an Indian historical document sold at auction. The identity of the buyer was not disclosed, though the auction house told news agency PTI that the buyer was from India and the manuscript would remain in the country.Annamalai told TOI that the museum was “shocked” by the auction. The museum, he said, has been collecting Gandhi’s original letters, manuscripts, prayers, speeches and personal belongings since its inception and has more than 40,000 such documents and artefacts, including ‘Gandhi Papers’.According to Annamalai, the museum had in the past appealed to families possessing Gandhi’s original writings and belongings to donate the originals while retaining photocopies, so that the material could be preserved as part of a shared historical record. However, in some cases, families appear to have retained the originals while providing copies to the museum, he said. “Now these materials have reached the third or fourth generation and some are being sold to private agencies,” he added.The originals carry historical value beyond their published versions, Annamalai stressed. Citing Gandhi’s handwritten prayer speeches, he said Gandhi would write them himself for the press to ensure that his words were accurately reproduced. “Even a change in a word”, he pointed out, “could alter the context or meaning of what Gandhi intended to convey.”Urging everybody possessing any document or item related to Gandhi to donate them to National Gandhi Museum, he said, “These are not merely private possessions. They are part of our shared history.” Preserving the originals would allow future generations and researchers to study Gandhi’s writings in their original form, he added.The Hingorani collection had letters, manuscripts, photographs and personal objects associated with Gandhi. It also included Gandhi’s ‘peti charkha’, which sold for Rs 1.02 crore, and a set of letters, telegrams and postcards on economic independence that fetched Rs 57.6 lakh.
