The manuscripts are mostly hand-written letters (to or from Gandhi) in original and photo-state forms, which were collected from various sources from across the country and abroad. The digitised manuscripts, from 1894 till his assassination in 1949, have been divided into seven heads— philosophy, religion, freedom movement, politics, health, personal and social issues, with the most of them falling under the last category. These are being translated into Hindi and English, as bulk of it is in Gujarati.

Trust secretary Amrutbhai Modi told The Indian Express that the idea of digitising them was conceived in early 2007 and the project completed by the end of December. “We have passed on the manuscripts in digital form as legacy of Mahatma for the posterity,” he said, adding that his trust was trying to keep the memory of Gandhi ji alive.

Claiming that the digital images of the scripts were much superior form of preservation, he said that the digitised form could be retrieved much easily for reference and research purposes. Digital copies, he said, would also be kept at Gandhi museums in Kolkata, Madurai, Pune and Patna. “This is being done to ensure that if manuscripts are damaged at one place due to some reason, its copies remain preserved at other places,” he said.

These manuscripts were earlier laminated with assistance of experts from INTACH, Lucknow, Nehru Museum and National Archives, New Delhi, after which the trust microfilmed them. However, the microfilming is incomplete.

Besides digitising, the trust has also undertaken massive renovation work of the museum spread over 39,000 sq ft and five other houses with built up area of 6000 sq ft at a total cost of Rs. 22 lakh. Preservation work of eight paintings and photographs on the life of Gandhi, including a six by six feet and another three by three feet, is also underway.

A website of the ashram, which will enable people to have a greater access to materials on Gandhi’s life and works, is likely to be launched by March, Modi said.