Gandhi memorabilia policy goes against teaching: grand-daughter

Gandhi gave away many items.

He was a minimalist, a man who spurned material possessions and fought for independence from Britain dressed only in a homespun loincloth and simple sandals.

But 60 years after his death, the possessions of Mohandas Gandhi, known worldwide as Mahatma (Great Soul), regularly come under the auctioneer's hammer. Each time, the Government in New Delhi or an Indian businessman feels obliged to buy them for the nation.

But now a grand-daughter of Gandhi has called on the authorities to stop trying to obtain every piece of memorabilia associated with the independence movement leader, saying its intervention at international auctions pushes up prices and detracts from his original message.

Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee, who is also a member of the committee that advises the Government on such sales, said the time had come to rethink the long-standing policy.

In her office at New Delhi's Birla House, the site of her grandfather's assassination, she said: "He lived with the minimum of things. He dressed like a farmer in the fields, a man in action. In Delhi, when he was here, he had no shoes and no socks."

Gandhi Bhattacharjee, whose father, Devdas, was the youngest of Gandhi's four sons, said the freedom leader's values were at odds with attaching a high value to items that may once have been in his possession.

Moreover, because he gave so many things away - "if someone gave him a spoon he gave it away because he only needed one spoon to eat" - there was no shortage of memorabilia linked to him that could be put up for sale.

She said while some things, such as manuscripts, should be saved for the nation, she had now advised the Government it need not seek to obtain everything linked with him.

"There are still some people who think that every time there is something, we should try and get it back," said Gandhi Bhattacharjee, who was just 14 when her grandfather was killed by a Hindu extremist. "It inflates the prices. But it also takes up our energies [from dealing] with the problems we have today."

She said India had been slow to address the problems of poverty, discrimination and prejudice Gandhi had fought to change.

"We are still waiting for the real liberation of the Indian people, respect for all life, for all forms of life, without exploitation of man or nature."

Ironically, many items that have come up for auction have been sold by members of the extended Gandhi family.

This year, a 1910 Zenith sterling silver pocket watch was part of a controversial sale in the United States. The watch had originally been given by Gandhi to his grandniece, Abha Gandhi. The American who sold a total of five items, James Otis, said he had obtained all of them from members of the family or other auctions.

In March, when Otis auctioned the possessions, the Indian courts sought an order to stop him. The sale went ahead and Indian alcohol and aviation billionaire Vijay Mallaya stepped in with a £1.1 million ($2.53 million) bid that secured the items, which he said should be saved for India.

This was despite the fact that the advisory committee of which Gandhi Bhattacharjee is a member told the Government there was no need to try to intervene in the sale.

This month, though, the sale of a bronze statue that Gandhi gave to a female Irish friend went ahead without fanfare. The statue was reportedly sold for £7000 ($16,000) without the Indian authorities getting involved, a possible indication that her committee's advice had been heeded.

- INDEPENDENT