The letter in English, dated March 6, 1930, with a personal letterhead of ‘Gandhi Niwas , Rajkot, India’, is written in blue ink.

A handwritten letter of Mahatma Gandhi to the secretary of Congress, a week before he started the Dandi March to defy the salt tax from Sabarmati Ashram, are among three of his memorabilia that are going under the hammer in Bengaluru on Gandhi Jayanti on Friday.

While a physical auction is taking place in the city, bids are being invited online too.

The letter in English, dated March 6, 1930, with a personal letterhead of ‘Gandhi Niwas , Rajkot, India’, is written in blue ink.

The letter just says: “I will go next Sunday. All the member should present in the meeting. The meeting is very important for us.” The Mahatma signed the letter as ‘MK Gandhi’.

He commenced the 240-mile, 24-day Dandi March on March 12 as part of the Civil Disobedience Movement and tax resistance. While the letter was written on a Thursday, the “next Sunday” was March 9. The important meeting that he was referring to could be a meeting ahead of the Dandi march.

Rajender Maru of Marudhar Arts, one of the few ASI-licenced auction houses in India, which is auctioning the memorabilia, said that the other handwritten letter of the Mahatma is in Gujarati. The letter received by Kumar Ranjit Singhji, the ruler of Nawanagar, on April 12, 1939, is written in blue ink on handmade paper, which is still in good condition.

The third item is a rare black-and-white photograph of the Mahatma with an undated signature in Hindi in black ink as ‘M.K. Gandhi’.

“Handwritten and signed letters of Mahatma Gandhi are unequivocally rare and are amongst the most sought after collectibles in the Indian autographs category. This is important due to its rarity,” Mr. Maru told The Hindu.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Sharath S Srivatsava / Bengaluru – October 01st, 2020