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| Hypocrisy over Gandhi’s belongings | | |
There may be some irony in a liquor baron known for his lavish lifestyle buying at an auction the memorabilia of a simple man who dressed in nothing more than a loincloth. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would probably have gasped upon hearing the amount that was paid to procure a few items he had used. But more than the irony, what is worth noting is the hypocrisy embedded in the brouhaha over the auction of the memorabilia of Gandhi in New York. Many Indians and the government of India suddenly woke up to the fact that things used by the Father of the Nation were going under the hammer. The government of India went to the ridiculous extent of trying to stop the auction through an injunction. Among the many questions that this auction and the reactions to it raise, three are relevant. First, it has never been a secret that there are many collectors and even ordinary people abroad who possess letters written by Gandhi and other eminent Indians, and even things used by them. The government of India has never taken any steps to retrieve these items for proper archiving or for preserving in a museum. The government and the society get into a tizzy only when individuals who possess these valuable things, for reasons of their own, decide to sell them and get a market price for them. It is only then that Indians become very pious, righteous and patriotic. Till then amnesia reigns.
This forgetfulness is not unrelated to the prevailing societal and official attitudes towards India’s past and its preservation. That India’s past is rich in its heritage goes without saying; letters, private papers, photographs, objects used by famous individuals also form a part of this heritage, apart from the more obvious things like monuments, buildings, archaeological sites and so on. Yet Indian museums and archives are among the worst in the world — in terms of preservation and procurement. This has led to the very valid argument that objects relating to India’s heritage are best left in museums abroad where they are well looked after. The sudden rush to retrieve Gandhi’s memorabilia raises the question of what happens to them once they are in the possession of the government. Will they be properly looked after or will they be put on some shelf in a museum and then forgotten? If Gandhi can be forgotten, what better prospect can his meagre possessions have? It is easy, of course, to blame only the government for this sorry state of affairs. What is more difficult to admit is that Indian society has very little awareness about its own heritage and its preservation. The vandalization of monuments and buildings is the most obvious example of this. Such acts are carried out by common people, political parties and other organizations who place self-interest over heritage. One purchase in an auction cannot cure neglect and amnesia.
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