Unknown to many in the land of Mahatma Gandhi, on March, 4th and 5th 2009, at the Antiquorum Gallery in New York, some of India’s most iconic heritage will go under the auctioneer’s hammer.
A Zenith pocket watch, spectacles, slippers, plate and bowl of Mahatma Gandhi – father of the Indian nation – are all up for auction. This heritage has till now, been locked away in the custody of unspecified individuals who had received them as gifts.
Decades before she became India’s Prime Minister, Indira Nehru presented the Zenith pocket watch to Mahatma Gandhi – a possession he cherished dearly. When it was stolen from him at Lucknow station during a train journey, he was so distraught by its loss that he published an appeal in the HARIJAN newspaper. Moved by his appeal, the thief eventually returned the watch to the Mahatma who characteristically forgave the man for reuniting him with his beloved possession.
Mahatma Gandhi enjoyed his last meal before he fell to assassin’s bullets on 30th January 1948, from the very plate and bowl to be auctioned off in New York City. The slippers, being parcelled off with equal equanimity at the same event, were the Mahatma’s token of appreciation to a British officer who had taken photographs during a transit stop in Aden, en route to the Round Table Conference in London.
The spectacles being sold off with élan, were in fact, presented by Mahatma Gandhi to the then Nawab of Junagadh with the memorable words that framed a vision of optimism for India’s future: “I have seen the dream of a free India where all will be equal with these glasses. I gift you my eyes, they may help you to see the India of my dreams.”
The spirit of Mahatma Gandhi would insist that same money be used to educate the deprived and under-privileged. If he did wear those spectacles again he would be disillusioned to see the equal India he dreamt off still a distant dream.
Ironically, given his anathema for materialism, Mahatma Gandhi would certainly have rebuked his great-grandson Tushar Gandhi for attempting to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to re-possess his personal belongings.
While it is certain that the Mahatma would have disapproved of such a purchase, it is unfortunate that the government of India has taken no initiative whatsoever, to purchase such priceless memorabilia at whatever cost, before it is subjected to the humiliation of the auctioneer’s hammer.
Each pound of the auction block - parcelling India’s history - hammers out the reality of our misplaced priorities. It is all the more shocking to consider the fact that more public money is probably wasted in a single day on a Parliament that shirks conducting business or, on the Z-security of peoples’ representatives being protected from the people.
It is even more demoralizing to discover banter amongst Indian and American buddies on Facebook about “bidding for the Mahatma’s loin cloth, or purchasing his pince nez glasses”, grinding the Dandian salt of his erstwhile status in the dust of ridicule from his own countrymen.
Irrespective of who eventually owns the Mahatma’s belongings or, in which distant corner of the world they enjoy safe custody, the iconic memorabilia and the memories attached to each artefact shall remain priceless.
Now more than ever India needs to walk in the Mahatma’s footsteps) see India the way he did, sup from his plate of spiritual plenty setting aside differences of caste, creed and community.
Return of such memorabilia to the mother land just might inspire and educate our youth to envisage the India of Mahatma’s dreams; at a particularly fraught time in our history when non-violence and frugality are embarrassing, even obsolete words.
If Tushar Gandhi’s efforts come to naught then it can only be said that the Mahatma will remain a genie trapped in a bank locker till a time when India views a future for itself through his spectacles.
A Zenith pocket watch, spectacles, slippers, plate and bowl of Mahatma Gandhi – father of the Indian nation – are all up for auction. This heritage has till now, been locked away in the custody of unspecified individuals who had received them as gifts.
Decades before she became India’s Prime Minister, Indira Nehru presented the Zenith pocket watch to Mahatma Gandhi – a possession he cherished dearly. When it was stolen from him at Lucknow station during a train journey, he was so distraught by its loss that he published an appeal in the HARIJAN newspaper. Moved by his appeal, the thief eventually returned the watch to the Mahatma who characteristically forgave the man for reuniting him with his beloved possession.
Mahatma Gandhi enjoyed his last meal before he fell to assassin’s bullets on 30th January 1948, from the very plate and bowl to be auctioned off in New York City. The slippers, being parcelled off with equal equanimity at the same event, were the Mahatma’s token of appreciation to a British officer who had taken photographs during a transit stop in Aden, en route to the Round Table Conference in London.
The spectacles being sold off with élan, were in fact, presented by Mahatma Gandhi to the then Nawab of Junagadh with the memorable words that framed a vision of optimism for India’s future: “I have seen the dream of a free India where all will be equal with these glasses. I gift you my eyes, they may help you to see the India of my dreams.”
The spirit of Mahatma Gandhi would insist that same money be used to educate the deprived and under-privileged. If he did wear those spectacles again he would be disillusioned to see the equal India he dreamt off still a distant dream.
Ironically, given his anathema for materialism, Mahatma Gandhi would certainly have rebuked his great-grandson Tushar Gandhi for attempting to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to re-possess his personal belongings.
While it is certain that the Mahatma would have disapproved of such a purchase, it is unfortunate that the government of India has taken no initiative whatsoever, to purchase such priceless memorabilia at whatever cost, before it is subjected to the humiliation of the auctioneer’s hammer.
Each pound of the auction block - parcelling India’s history - hammers out the reality of our misplaced priorities. It is all the more shocking to consider the fact that more public money is probably wasted in a single day on a Parliament that shirks conducting business or, on the Z-security of peoples’ representatives being protected from the people.
It is even more demoralizing to discover banter amongst Indian and American buddies on Facebook about “bidding for the Mahatma’s loin cloth, or purchasing his pince nez glasses”, grinding the Dandian salt of his erstwhile status in the dust of ridicule from his own countrymen.
Irrespective of who eventually owns the Mahatma’s belongings or, in which distant corner of the world they enjoy safe custody, the iconic memorabilia and the memories attached to each artefact shall remain priceless.
Now more than ever India needs to walk in the Mahatma’s footsteps) see India the way he did, sup from his plate of spiritual plenty setting aside differences of caste, creed and community.
Return of such memorabilia to the mother land just might inspire and educate our youth to envisage the India of Mahatma’s dreams; at a particularly fraught time in our history when non-violence and frugality are embarrassing, even obsolete words.
If Tushar Gandhi’s efforts come to naught then it can only be said that the Mahatma will remain a genie trapped in a bank locker till a time when India views a future for itself through his spectacles.
1 comment:
what was utterly saddening was political parties clamoring to claim credit for bringing home the articles of the mahatma, because the "gandhi" tag is essentially theirs, what better time to claim credit when the election mode is on!
the pertinent question to be asked is how did all of those article find the way outside when it was supposed to have been gifted by gandhi. so, who were these indians who sold it and made profit out of a mahatma - well, if not his words and spirit were sold off. i'm pretty sure gandhi would have been extremely annoyed with all the talk & walk of intense materialism! in fact "collector's item" is essentially american or western. you can hardly find eastern societies investing their wealth on antiques and stuff - we do it following the west!
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