June 30, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 14, 1428

NEW DELHI, June 29: In a letter written 19 days before his death, Mahatama Gandhi had admonished those who were opposing Urdu, asking them not to copy “the bad manners of Pakistan with a vengeance” while advocating that it should be recognised as a national script along with Devanagri.

A report by Press Trust of India said on Friday that the letter, a rare manuscript will go under the hammer at Christie’s in London on Tuesday. Gandhi said opposing Urdu will “put a wanton affront” on the Muslims, who “in the eyes of Hindus have become aliens in their own land”.

Writing in his journal ‘Harijan’ on Jan 11, 1948, Gandhi, who appeared disturbed with the dwindling circulation of its Urdu edition, said in the letter that Urdu “is set free from bondage of orthodoxy”. He asserted that those who learn it will “lose nothing but gain”.

At the same time, he urged Muslims to learn Devanagri to “enrich their intellectual” capital and subscribe to his journal.

Following is an excerpt from the Gandhi manuscript, including cancelled passages. Text between brackets has been crossed out in the original: — “(I have at) Two weeks ago I (referred to this) hinted in the Gujarati columns that Harijan printed in the Urdu script was likely to be stopped as its sale was steadily dwindling. Apart even from financial considerations, I saw no meaning in publishing it, if there was no demand for it.”