LOS ANGELES, CA.- A February 1920 Gandhi letter emphasizing peaceful tactics against the British sold today for $24,686, which includes the buyer’s premium.
Nate D. Sanders auctioned off the letter.
The two-page letter was addressed to Edmund Candler, the Director of Publicity for the Punjab after a violent melee by the British in the city in April 1919. Gandhi writes in part, “…You may depend upon my making a ceaseless effort to promote peace with honour and to avoid violence under all circumstances. But my doctrine of non-violence is making slow headway because of the rude conduct of Englishmen generally towards Indian passengers on the trains and the Mahomedan distrust.”
Gandhi's Satyagraha movement encouraged indigenous Indians to resist the British occupation by using peaceful non-violent means and complimented the emerging nationalist Swaraj movement for Indian self-rule.
Just months after Gandhi’s letter, the Indian National Congress voted to accept Swaraj in September 1920.
Gandhi’s letter was estimated to sell between $15,000 and $20,000.
