Mahatma Gandhis rare manuscript acquired by Nehru Museum

The draft of a rare article written by Mahatma Gandhi was recently acquired by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.

New Delhi, Aug 1 : The draft of a rare article written by Mahatma Gandhi was recently acquired by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.

The seven page manuscript penned by Gandhi just 19 days before his death in 1948 was acquired by Indian Government from private U.K. based collector Christie's, after it was withdrawn from an auction.

The article that was due to go on sale in London on July 3, is signed "M.K. Gandhi" and dated January 11, 1948.

It was bought by the Indian Government for 15,000 pounds after paying some additional money of 3,500 pounds as taxes.

The manuscript was handed over to the Navjivan Trust, based in Ahmedabad that holds copyright for all of Gandhi's correspondence.

"I have handed over the letters to Jitendra Desai of Navjivan Trust," said Karan Singh, President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

The trust later gave the custody of the manuscript to the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, which already displays some of the letters written by Gandhi.

"The trustees have decided to preserve it with Nehru Museum for posterity.cholars can consult it in future," said Jitendra Desai, Director of Navjivan Trust.

Intended for publication in Gandhi's mouthpiece Harijan, the article laments the fact that the magazine was being forced out of publication in the Urdu language because of declining demand.

Gandhi saw this as a deliberate slight to minority Muslims at a time when the forced partition of India at Independence from Britain was still a violently divisive issue.

ANI