Mahatma Gandhi's charkha sold for 110,000 pounds at UK auction

Written By DNA Web Team | Updated:

Mahatma Gandhi's 'charkha' which he used in Yerwada Jail during the 'Quit India Movement' was today sold at an auction in the UK for a whopping 110,000 pounds, nearly double the expected price.

Gandhi's last will was also sold for 20,000 pounds at a specialist sale of historical documents and artefacts by the Mullock's Auction house in Shropshire.

"Gandhi's charkha was sold for 110,000 pounds at the auction while his last will fetched 20,000 pounds," Michael Morris, a Mullock's official,said.

The charkha (spinning wheel), with a minimum bid of 60,000 pounds, was used by Gandhi while he was in the prison in Pune and was later gifted to American Free Methodist missionary Revd Floyd A Puffer.

Puffer was a pioneer in Indian educational and industrial cooperatives. He invented a bamboo plow that was later adopted by Gandhi.

Gandhi presented the charkha to Puffer for his work in Colonial India.

Gandhi's will was written in Gujarati at the Sabarmati Ashram and is a highly important document which supersedes the will dated 1921 that had been sold at an earlier auction by the Mullock's.

The will provides an historic insight into Gandhi's thinking and his speculations for the future some five years on from his previous will.