Shimla, July 4
Although auctioneers Christie’s have stalled the sale of the letter, being termed as the last one written by Mahatma Gandhi, his granddaughter today said it was only a document and certainly not the last one written by him before his assassination.

Tara Gandhi, an eminent social activist and daughter of Dev Das Gandhi, said she was glad that Christie’s had agreed to stall the auction to enable the Indian Government to acquire it, but that was not a letter but a simple document that was published in ‘Harijan’ on January 15.

“In fact, he had directed his secretary to destroy all papers written by him as he did not want that any of these should be sold,” she said. She said the much publicised document being termed as his last letter was written on January 11, 1948, and published in the January 15 issue of the ‘Harijan’ on Hindu-Muslim unity.

Tara Gandhi, who was 14-year-old when Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, said she did not know how the letter reached Christie’s. However, she said, the commercialisation of his belongings was not right. “We have yet to hear from Christie’s, but I feel they must have been unaware of the importance of the document,” she opined.

Tara Gandhi, vice-chairperson of the Kasturba Gandhi Trust and chairperson of the Gandhi Smriti Raksha Samiti, was in town to hold interaction with schoolchildren on the issue of disability. “Mahatma Gandhi did not belong to any one family, he belonged to the global community as his philosophy is followed the world over,” she said.

She said Mahatma Gandhi had written her a letter advising her to improve her language and handwriting. “As a 12-year-old child at that time, I did not realise the importance of the letter and destroyed that. Now, I regret having done so as it could have been read by children the world over,” she said.

“There was so much that one could learn from the man, but I only had limited interaction with him as I was only 14 when he was assassinated,” she said. Talking of the things that Mahatma Gandhi wanted her to do, she said he would always ask her to attend prayer meetings and at his insistence, she also learnt how to spin.

“I am vehemently opposed to commercialisation of Gandhi as he strongly believed in the philosophy of production by masses and not mass production.