With the sale of a rare manuscript of Mahatma Gandhi written 19 days before his assassination being aborted, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library hopes to get the priceless document for posterity.
"It is a big victory for India and the Indian government. With Christie's agreeing to withdraw Gandhiji's manuscript from Tuesday's auction, there is no danger of it going into private hands," NMML director professor Mirdula Mukherjee told PTI.
Hoping that they might get the manuscript, she said it is for the Ahmedabad-based Navjiwan Trust to decide whether they should preserve the manuscript.
"It is for the trust to decide whether we are the best institution to preserve the writings of Gandhiji. They have reposed their trust with us a number of times. And we are hopeful that this time too they will trust us," she said.
Christie's agreed to withdraw the Mahatma's manuscript from Tuesday's auction so that the Indian government can acquire it.
Christie's had earlier fixed a reserve price of 9,000 to 12,000 pounds for Gandhiji's manuscript.
India's decision to make a bid for the manuscript started after reports from London said it was a letter and not a handwritten manuscript of the father of the nation, Mukherjee said.
"When the picture became clear, we knew that we would be able to procure the manuscript as we did in 1996 when we served a legal notice to a British auction house for trying to sell a manuscript of Gandhiji's," Mukherjee said adding, India was planning to serve a legal notice on the auction house to stop the sale.
Mukherjee said in 1996 London-based Phillips Sons and Neale stopped the auction after they were served a legal notice by the Indian High Commission that the manuscript was "stolen property" and the ownership lies with Navjiwan Trust.
The manuscripts reached the auction house after Gandhiji's typist, V Kalayanam passed it to a temple and gave them permission to sell to raise money to build a temple.
The Indian government filed a case in Chennai and in London to stop the auction.
The Chennai court passed an injunction and ordered the auction house to stop the sale.
"Following the order, a legal settlement was entered into between the auctioneer, Navjiwan Trust and other parties. The manuscripts were then given to India," she said.
Mukherjee said the trust decided to hand the manuscript to the museum as they had the means to preserve them.
"We are hoping that no money will be exchanged this time too to acquire the manuscript," she said.
The handwritten article was published in Harijan. Gandhi's manuscript was among the letters of famous personalities that were to go under the hammer on Tuesday.
