Mahatma Gandhi's former secretary has asked a London auctioneer to put off next month's sale of the freedom fighter's letters because India would like the documents kept available to researchers.
"The government says speculators will make money out of it and research scholars will be deprived of the material," said Venkataraman Kalyanam, who was secretary to Gandhi for three years before his assassination in 1948.Acting on an appeal from the government, Kalyanam said he faxed a letter to Sotheby's last week asking that the Nov. 14 auction be deferred.
Sotheby's auction house had estimated that the 450 documents would fetch about $1.5 million, Kalyanam said Saturday, speaking by telephone from the southern city of Madras.
The correspondence, he said, includes drafts of six letters from Gandhi to his friend Louis Mountbatten, the last British viceroy of India.
"The mahatma used to give me handwritten drafts of letters. After typing them, I used to keep the notes with me instead of tearing them up. . . . They are my personal property," said Kalyanam, who also retains some letters written to him by Gandhi and other leaders.
Gandhi was known as the mahatma, or great soul. He advocated a simple lifestyle, tolerance for oppressed castes and passive resistance against colonial rule.