A series of signed and autographed letters by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru sold for almost double the pre-sale estimates at a Sotheby's auction here today.
A series of letters and articles signed or autographed by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru sold for almost double the pre-sale estimates at a Sotheby's auction here today.
Three of Gandhi's letters in Urdu to maulana Abdul Bari, Islamic scholar and leading Khilafat figure, with an estimated price of £2,500-3,000 (Rs1.99-2.38 lakh), sold for £4,750 at the auction of English literature, history, children's books, and illustrations that saw a total sale worth £904,775.
The letters refer to Hindu-Muslim relations, including communal tension in Lucknow, and the personal friendship of Gandhi and Bari.
Writing one letter from prison, Gandhi thanks Bari for gifting him cotton for spinning.
The identity of the buyers of these letters and articles was not immediately known.
A series of 29 letters and four autograph notes signed by Nehru to friend Mridula Sarabhai, together with a signed document, a signed greeting card, and 29 envelopes (estimated price of £5,000 or Rs3.97 lakh) sold for £8,750.
Nehru's letters discuss various subjects, including the events in Kashmir, Sarabhai's political campaigns, the rehabilitation of Muslims evicted from their homes during Partition, and a humanitarian project for homeless children in Delhi.
"I must act according to my own judgment. I know perhaps better than you do of the consequences of what is happening and what is likely to happen, consequences not only in Kashmir but the whole of India and Pakistan," says one of Nehru's letters written on August 3, 1953, just before the dismissal of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah as prime minister of the state.
A khadi cloth signed by Gandhi and said to have been woven by him went under the hammer for £2,125. The cloth, which was a gift from Gandhi to South Africa-born actress Moira Lister, had an estimated price of £2,000 (Rs1.59 lakh).
Lister was a friend of maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur. The hand-woven white cotton cloth with a simple purple border is signed by Gandhi in Gujarati and also by Sarojini Naidu as well as Gandhi's personal secretaries Mahadev Desai and Pyarelal.
Two autographed postcards (£1,500-2,000, or Rs1.19-1.59 lakh) signed by Gandhi to Urdu poet Hamid Ullah Afsar also figured in the auction and sold for £1,875.
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