A thought for the day isn’t just a WhatsApp forward; it can be worth a fortune if it’s written in Bapu’s hand. On Wednesday, Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘A Thought of the Day’ sold for Rs 16.2 crore ($1.7 million) at a Saffronart auction, setting a world record for an Indian historical manuscript.
A Thought of the Day’, comprising 688 dated reflections handwritten by Mahatma Gandhi for Anand T Hingorani, sold for Rs 16.2 crore at a Saffronart auction.
Written over 23 months, A Thought of the Day comprises 688 dated reflections by Gandhi for his confidant, disciple, and publisher, Anand T Hingorani. The manuscript, offered as lot 80, emerged as the highest-valued work in the auction. Spanning more than two decades, Hingorani’s archive brought together personal correspondence, handwritten reflections, photographs, and objects such as a peti charkha that document not only defining moments in India’s freedom struggle, but also the friendship, mentorship and deeply personal exchanges between Gandhi and Hingorani
Handwritten material from the Anand T Hingorani archive alongside a peti charkha associated with the collection. The archive documents Hingorani’s long association with Mahatma Gandhi and the freedom movement.
Dinesh Vazirani, co-founder of Saffronart, said the Hingorani collection was a remarkable record of Gandhi’s life and thought. “What makes this collection particularly compelling is the opportunity to see one of the most significant figures in India’s history through the lens of a close, personal relationship. The exceptional response to Lot 80 reinforces its rarity and historical significance. Together, these reflections offer a rare insight into how Gandhi lived the principles he advocated publicly, making this an especially valuable record of his thought and practice.”According to author and historian Saaz Aggarwal, Hingorani collected Gandhi’s writings systematically, an effort that Gandhi appreciated and blessed. Hingorani began following Gandhi at the age of 13, swearing to wear only khadi. Nine years later, as a law student in Karachi, he came further under his spell when Gandhi visited Sindh in February 1929, according to Aggarwal. They met in person at the Lahore Congress of 1929, and Gandhi invited him to come and stay at his Sabarmati Ashram.Anand also marched with Gandhi to Dandi (the only Sindhi to do so) in the historic salt march, which defied the British salt tax by making salt on the beach. He courted arrest five times during the civil disobedience movement.Those periods of imprisonment left him hearing-impaired. Gandhi encouraged him to try various naturopathy treatments for his condition, but also joked that being deaf was not necessarily a bad thing, since it allowed one to avoid hearing much that was not worth listening to.
Share your thoughts in the comments
Be respectful · TOI community guidelines
In 1947, as independent India’s first government was being formed, Gandhi instructed Jawaharlal Nehru to appoint Hingorani as a cabinet minister, according to Aggarwal. Hingorani declined.Instead, he devoted himself to disseminating Gandhi’s ideas, eventually publishing more than 50 books on the Mahatma and building an extensive repository of his writings — a legacy that is now setting new benchmarks in the auction market.
