Immerse bloodied soil in the sea: Gandhi's granddaughter

New Delhi: The blood-soaked pinch of soil from Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination site that was auctioned in London should be immersed in river or ocean waters, his granddaughter Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee today appealed to its buyer. In a statement, she said auctioning of Gandhi’s memorabilia sounds outrageous and one remains helpless as this trend keeps going on. “Most unfortunately Gandhi’s items can be duplicated, multiplied and sold, bought and auctioned in a thoughtless way,” she said. [caption id=“attachment_281542” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Representative image. A letter written by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Reuters”]  [/caption] “Whether that bit of soil is genuine or authentic from the ground where Gandhi was assassinated, we cannot verify. It is not too late even now for us to appeal to the buyer of this item to immerse it in the waters of oceans or rivers anywhere in the world,” she said. The pinch of soil and blood-stained blades of grass from the place where Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 sold for 10,000 pounds at an auction in London on 17 April. Many other Gandhi memorabilia also went under the hammer including his iconic round-rimmed glasses and the ‘charkha’ or the spinning wheel. She also said it is not always necessary or right to want every item of Gandhi to be brought back to India. “Of course, there are important contexts when certain items should be brought back to India. These items of human heritage should be protected, preserved and documented in the best possible way by individuals and institutions whether in India or outside India,” she said. PTI