Ruhe’s sale back with 4,600 rare photos of Bapu

Controversial collector expects approx Rs4.3 cr from ‘private sale’; claims pics were gifted to him by its original holders or heirs. The picture is for illustration purpose only. It was taken in Assam in 1946 while Bapu was collecting donation for Harijan Fund. It is part of Kanu Gandhi’s personal collection of Gandhi photographs, but it is unclear whether this too is part of the collection on sale.

Ruhe owns 12,000 Gandhi photos
Like it or not, Peter Ruhe has more than 12,000 photographs of Gandhiji which, he claims, he has collected from heirs of various people across India. He had written to the Sabarmati Ashram trust in March 2007, offering to sell rare pictures and film footage of Mahatma Gandhi for 8 lakh euros (Rs5.5 crore). Incidentally, Ruhe had made his offer almost soon after the central government announced a grant of Rs10 crore for the Ashram, as budgetary allocation for the financial year 2007-08.

Royalty sought from Rajmohan
Peter Ruhe, the German trader in films and photos of the Mahatma, had sought royalty even from Gandhi’s own grandson, Rajmohan Gandhi. Ruhe had demanded payment for Bapu’s pictures used in Rajmohan’s latest book, ‘Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, His People and an Empire’. Incidentally, Ruhe had also demanded royalty for the Mahatma’s pictures used in Narayan Desai’s book, ‘My Life is My Message’.

A collection of 4,600 rare photographs of Mahatma Gandhi is to be sold and, once again, the seller is the ‘Gandhian’, Peter Ruhe. This time, however, the photo collection will not be auctioned but sold to the buyer in a privately-negotiated deal known in auctioneer’s parlance as ‘a private sale’.

It seems that Ruhe has opted for ‘private sale’ because auction of Gandhi memorabilia in the past had caused a huge controversy in India. Sources said that another reason for the ‘private sale’ could be that Ruhe has not taken permission from the heirs of the copyright holders of the material.

Documents in the possession of DNA reveal that a collection of 4,600 photos together with negatives, commercially produced postcards and other reproductions, along with other material on the Mahatma are on sale. The asking price for the entire collection is £500,000 (approximately Rs4.30 crore).

A lengthy 16-page brochure prepared by Sotheby’s (the London-based auction house which is handling the private sale) mentions that the photographs were taken by Kanu Gandhi and Vithalbhai Jhaveri.

The collection includes images of Gandhi as a child, as a young lawyer in Western attire and as the leader of Satyagraha in South Africa. However, in a vast majority of the photographs, he is in India, wearing a dhoti and round spectacles. The collection also includes a 16 mm and 8 mm film footage and a copy of a photograph of Gandhi as a child.

According to information available with DNA, Peter Ruhe is going to be the sole beneficiary of this sale. Ruhe claims that he has “bought or was gifted these photographs by its original holders or heirs.” However, family members of the photographer, the late Kanu Gandhi, deny his claim.“We have not sold or given any material to Peter. He used to come to Rajkot and talk to Abhaben.

He was provided full access to the entire collection of Kanubhai by my mother. He used to live on the same premises for days and do his work. He may have got access to the photographs there,” said Geeta Mehta, adopted daughter of Abha and Kanu Gandhi.

Kanu Gandhi was the Mahatma’s nephew who spent his time with Gandhiji from 1932 and 1948. With the blessings of Bapu, Kanu married Abha. After Gandhiji’s assassination in 1948, he shifted to Rajkot and was engaged in various activities based on Gandhi’s principles at Kasturbadham and Rashtriyashala in Rajkot until his death in 1986. Despite every effort, the heirs of Vithalbhai Jhaveri could not be contacted. Vithal Jhaveri was a film-maker and writer who was involved in the freedom struggle from the time of the Dandi march and was one of the founders of a radio service for the Congress in 1942. He also directed a documentary titled, ‘Mahatma: Life of Gandhi’, in 1968. He had also co-authored a book on Gandhiji.