The Indian government has paid $1.28 million to purchase over 1,000 letters, documents and telegrams between Mahatma Gandhi and Hermann Kallenbach, reported India Real Time.
In a book released last year by Pulitzer-Prize winning author Joseph Lelyveld: “Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India,” Lelyyeld implied that Gandhi and Hermann Kallenbach, a German-Jewish architect, may have been more than friends after originally meeting in South Africa.
The book was banned in many parts of India, including Gandhi’s home state of Gujarat, where the focus on Gandhi’s sexuality was upsetting for many, especially the suggestion that he may have been gay.
The letters between Gandhi and Kallenbach originally made up part of a proposed Sotheby’s auction, put on sale by Kallenbach’s grandniece, reported the Wall Street Journal.
India’s Ministry of Culture said the decision to purchase the archive between the two men was made was made after experts who reviewed the archival material, mostly letters between the two men, recommended it should be acquired “as a matter of highest priority.”
Picture: Sotheby’s
