![India procures documents related to Mahatma Gandhi](/media/k2/items/src/635d37a815d283b66842dffff1ec80bc.jpg)
The Kallenbach family has recently put thousands of documents related to Mahatma Gandhi for auction but India purchaed the documents well ahead of the auction from the same source in a private transaction before Southeby. The government of India had to shell $1.1 million to obtain the documents according to Sanjiv Mittal, Minister of Culture said. Herman Kallenbach, who was a close associate and friend of Gandhi during his life in South Africa had the possession of the archive earlier.
Officials have said that these documents would be safely preserved in the National Archive in Delhi. Sanjiv Mittal believed that these letters would be of great importance to fill the gaps in the history and also provide vast amount of informationon the life of Gandhi.
If sold in the auction, the collection was said to earn around $777,000 to $1.1M.
Most of the letters were written to Gandhi by friends and family while a few were written by Gandhi himself. The facts regarding the controversial relationship between Hermann Kallenbach and Mahatma Gandhi would be more clear after an understanding of the letters.
AW India