Venkataram Kalyanam, secretary to Mahatma Gandhi who witnessed his assassination – obituary
He kept an archive of manuscripts gathered during Gandhi’s final months that proved controversial when put up for auction
Venkataram Kalyanam in 1996 with letters written by Gandhi
Credit: d krishnan/ap
Venkataram Kalyanam, who has died aged 98, was secretary to Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi for three years before his assassination by a Hindu extremist in January 1948, and afterwards kept a cache of documents which caused huge excitement when they came up for auction at Phillips, London, in 1996; but the mooted sale also caused controversy and the auction was cancelled at the last moment following objections from the Indian government.