Scholars demand access to Gandhi146;s letters

Correspondence with secy being sorted by National Museum, historians say make it public

For the first time, the private correspondence of Mahatma Gandhi, once managed by secretary Pyarelal Nayar, are being opened and being sorted at the Nehru Memorial Museum 038; Library. But experts say it8217;s not enough 8212; the papers need to be made public.

These correspondence include notings and personal correspondence of Gandhi and other leaders such as MA Jinnah and Subhash Chandra Bose. They also include files on state Congress committees, Mira Behn8217;s diaries, and even poems written by 19th century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.

But historian Ramchandra Guha says that Gandhi led a transparent life and it8217;s time that the papers are made accessible to scholars. 8220;He donated most of his personal papers to Navjeevan Trust. These papers should be opened to the public,8221; he says.

Historian Sumit Sarkar, on the other hand, said that while some of the Pyarelal Papers have been published before, not all have appeared on print. 8220;Certainly it should be opened, even if it8217;s repetitive, it doesn8217;t matter.8221;

Museum officials say that about 50 per cent of Pyarelal Papers, numbering 4,250 files and stored in some 425-odd boxes, relate to Gandhi8217;s correspondence. Guha suggested that Gandhi8217;s personal correspondence should be seperated from Pyarelal8217;s private correspondence. The sorting, which began last year, is expected to be completed in three months.

The museum currently has some 1,000 private papers in its custody, of which about 12 collections are closed. Other than Pyarelal, who has edited and published many of Gandhi8217;s letters, Oxford-based academician S Gopal and the Jawaharal Nehru Memorial Fund, which publishes Nehru8217;s Collected Works, have been given permission to see the papers.

But Dr N Balakrishnan, the museum8217;s deputy director, maintains that it8217;s the prerogative of the Pyarelal family to decide whether or not to open the papers. 8220;The papers cannot be opened without the clearance of the Nayar family.8221;

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While Pyarelal was secretary of Gandhi between 1942 and 1948, the year Gandhi was assassinated, the papers date back to early 1900s. Several letters by Gandhi in South Africa also form part of the collection.

For many years, the papers were stacked in Pyarelal8217;s residence in Central Delhi8217;s Shanker Market. After his death in 1982, his sister Sushil Nayar, who was once Gandhi8217;s personal physician, donated the papers to the museum, but reserved the right of admission to see the papers.

Before her death in January 2000, Nayar wrote to the museum to say that the papers should remain closed for 30 years, unless she is able to sort them out 8220;which may take time8221;.

Currently, her nephew, Harsh Nayyar, a New York-based actor who played the part of Nathuram Godse in Richard Attenborough8217;s 1982 film, Gandhi, is the legal heir to the papers.