The Gandhi manuscript that was to be auctioned

London, July 2: M.K. Gandhi’s draft article for Urdu Harijan, which was due to have been auctioned at Christie’s tomorrow, was today abruptly withdrawn from sale.

The announcement from Christie’s said: “The executors of Albin Schram have agreed to withdraw the Gandhi manuscript from Tuesday’s auction in order that it may be acquired by the Indian government.”

Attached was a statement from Amin Jaffer, international director of Asian art at Christie’s, who said: “We are pleased to have facilitated the negotiations which have resulted in an important historical record returning to India.”

The negotiations with Christie’s have been conducted by Asoke Mukerji, the acting Indian high commissioner, and Monika Kapil Mohta, director of the Nehru Centre.

There was no suggestion that the high commission had been heavy handed with Christie’s or had threatened legal action. “There is a long history of cooperation between the high commission and the Nehru Centre,” a spokesman for the high commission said.

The seven-page article, written only 19 days before Gandhi’s assassination, was due to have gone under the hammer, with a reserve price of between £9,000 and £12,000, as part of 570 mostly handwritten letters and documents collected by Schram, an Austrian banker who lived in Switzerland.

Following his death in 2005, his executors offered the collection for sale, hoping to raise about £2 million for his estate.

Although there were documents from Robert Burns, Winston Churchill and even Napoleon, it was “Lot number 379” which became the subject of heated debate.

When news broke that the Gandhi document was included in the sale, it triggered a controversy in India where some argued that the copyright of all such material had been willed by the Mahatma to the Navjivan Trust in Ahmedabad.

The document is especially valuable because in the article, with its corrections and amendments, Gandhi has urged greater tolerance for Muslims in post-Partition India.

There were appeals to Manmohan Singh and ultimately the culture ministry in Delhi instructed the Indian high commission in London to act in an attempt to stop the sale.

Christie’s disagreed on the question of copyright, and even earlier today, told The Telegraph that the auction would go ahead as planned because there was no legal reason to stop the sale.

Then, suddenly, came the dramatic change of heart.

The Christie’s spokesman said it was not without precedent for items earmarked for auction to be withdrawn and added that Christie’s had been acting as “agents” for the executors, who had taken the decision to withdraw the document. He stressed that Christie’s was pleased to have acted as intermediaries.

The high commission spokesman declined to say whether the document would be gifted to India or bought by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations acting through the commission.

He hinted that by “facilitating” the high commission’s “request” that the sale of the document be withdrawn, Christie’s had acted almost as go-between in dealings with the executors of Albin Schram’s estate.

“We look forward to completing the process of acquiring the document,” was all that the spokesman would say.