A garland presented to Mahatma Gandhi during the famous Salt March (Dandi March) in 1930 recently came up for auction in London for an estimated guide price of £20,000-30,000.
The garland, in folded paper wrappers inscribed in Gujarati, is said to have been presented to the Father of the Indian Nation during the Indian Independence Movement as his march passed near the home of Dr Balvantrai N. Kanuga – Gandhi’s personal physician – in Ahmedabad. A photograph accompanying the garland shows his wife, Nanduben Kanuga, placing the garland around Gandhi’s neck.
Kristina Sanne, Head of Sale at the Lyon & Turnbull auction house, indicated that while the rare item did not go under the hammer during the ‘Islamic and Indian Art’ sale earlier this month, it remains open to the highest bidder.
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“We have had quite a lot of interest since the sale and hope to sell it to the highest bidder. It deserves a great home,” she said.
The garland is composed of a large teardrop-shaped medallion of pink cloth backed on card, applied with silver and gold thread and sequins in an elaborate decorative pattern. It is edged with gold tinsel, with four smaller rectangular medallions and two triangular medallions similarly decorated and all connected with gold threads to form a necklace. It passed on through descent from the collection of the late Dr Balvantrai N. Kanuga, who along with his wife spent extensive periods at Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram as fellow satyagrahis. An amateur photograph of Gandhi being presented with the garland is inscribed on the reserve to read: “Gandhiji Nanduben Kanuga. On the day of Dandi March. At Bungalow 12th March 1930”.
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The literature with the auction lot states: “This garland was presented to Gandhi to mark an auspicious beginning to the Salt March, a major non-violent protest in India in March-April 1930. The Salt March was one of the most successful campaigns in Gandhi’s struggle against British rule in India to win equal rights and freedom for Indians.
“Starting at his ashram (religious retreat) at Sabarmati (near Ahmedabad), the march reached Dandi after a journey of some 240 miles. On the morning of April 6, Gandhi and his followers picked up handfuls of salt from along the seashore. In so doing, they technically ‘produced’ salt and broke the law.”