'Mahatma for sale' hits the wrong note

If the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi had her way, the image and legacy of India's global peace icon would never be up for sale.

Unfortunately for Ela Gandhi, who this week condemned any attempt to commercialise her grandfather's likeness and life, profiteers are already hard at work peddling Gandhi history.

Ela was responding to the actions of German-based organisation GandhiServe, which this week launched GandhiMedia - an on-line shopping cart of photographs, films, footage, letters, cartoons, newspaper clippings, documents and artwork on Gandhi and India's independence movement.

The content was accumulated through research and contributions from scholars, as well as Gandhi's associates and family members.

Ela believes Gandhi would have opposed any commercial reproduction of his image.

"This whole website is a commercial business. I personally don't support it. We have a website, the Gandhi Development Trust, with pictures and information that is freely available. Even books on Gandhi are reduced to be available at the cheapest rate. It is wrong when his life is being commercialised for personal gain."

Ela says she voiced her disapproval to Peter Ruhe, CEO of GandhiServe, based in Berlin.

"He also asked me to give him things. I said no, I don't want my stuff to be put on his website so that he can commercialise it. All is freely available, so why should it be commercialised?"

The Gandhi Development Trust plans to put its own collection of photographs on its website, Ela added. Users will be free to download the images, so long as they are not used for commercial reasons.

GandhiServe has made no bones about its intention to sell Gandhi's likeness on clothing and novelty items. It claims on its website to be promoting "Gandhian values".

"Practically, it serves as the commercial wing of the charitable GandhiServe Foundation. The foundation funds its educational and research activities largely by the financial support of GandhiServe," it says.

The site's vast repository of images can be used to create custom products such as T-shirts, business cards, invitations and a variety of gifts - at a price.

For example, it will cost about R1100 to have up to 1000 postcards printed with an image of Gandhi's house in Phoenix.

Ruhe said Gandhi's youngest son, Devadas, wanted to visually document his father's daily life and so put together an extensive collection of film footage and photographs for the Gandhi Films Committee, which was used in the production of Richard Attenborough's film Gandhi.

"GandhiServe's mission is to carry on and complete the task of Devadas Gandhi."

Ruhe said GandhiMedia shows, for the first time, the entire photographic collection of Gandhi's grandnephew Kanu Gandhi, who was the only one allowed to take Gandhi's photograph at any time during the last 12 years of his life.