Two Britain-based NRI entrepreneurs -- curry king Gulam Kaderbhoy Noon and carpet czar Nathuram `Nat' Puri -- had bought the letters, dating back to the tumultuous period between 1918 and 1924, for œ 21,000 at a Sotheby's auction in July last year. The letters were with a grandson of the Maulana who's a documentary film-maker in London.

``I have guarded them with my life,'' says L M Singhvi, who had urged Noon and Puri (``two individuals I am very close to'') to pitch for the letters, after learning from an Urdu newspaper published in London that they were going under the auctioneer's hammer. ``Some of them are not very legible, some are very brittle, some have faded,'' adds the Rajya SabhaMember who was High Commissioner to London till the middle of last year.

What makes the letters particularly relevant today is Gandhi's passionate plea for communal amity, and the maturity with which he handled explosive issues like the forcible conversion of Hindus by the rebellious Mappilas of Malabar in 1921 and an instance of cow slaughter during Id at Hoshangabad. In a letter from Sabarmati Jail (Gandhi calls it the ``abode of freedom''), dated March 15, 1922, the Mahatma pleaded for the spinning of khaddar being taken up by the Hindus and Muslims to forge stronger bonds between the two communities.

``I have come to the conclusion that the only conclusive demonstration of Hindu-Muslim unity is the universal adoption by them of the spinning wheel and khaddar spun and woven by the hand,'' Gandhi wrote, and then went on to explain the moral significance of handspun cloth for Hindu-Muslim unity: ``For me, the spinning wheel and khaddar have a deep religious significance because itmeans Hindu and Muslim sympathy for the poor people who are dying today of hunger and disease.''

Earlier in the year, on January 24, 1922, the Mahatma raised the issue of forcible conversions in the Malabar in a spirit of accommodation that could be an example today for Hindu leaders grappling with the escalating attacks on Christians. Gandhi placed the onus of bringing peace back to the Malabar on Muslim leaders like the Maulana. ``I feel certain,'' wrote Gandhi, ``that this forcible conversion, destruction of temples and of human life will go on until we have the strongest command from the maulanas of the north and, if possible, from the All-India Khilafat Committee itself, with abundant quotations of Quranic texts about it.''

In another letter written from his close associate Saraladevi Chaudhuri's Lahore home on November 8, 1919, the Mahatma raised the ticklish issue of cow slaughter at the time of Id, but not without commending an initiative by a Muslim leader to put an end to the practice indeference to the sentiments of the Hindus.

``I have just heard from Hoshangabad,'' wrote Gandhi. ``The gentleman to whom I wrote says that the cow sacrifice on the last Id was the first of its kind in Hoshangabad and he says that attempts are being made to settle the dispute but nothing has been done. He invited you and me to go there, and if I was not just now immersed in the Punjab work, I should most decidedly go there. Could you not pay a visit, and I am sure that both the Mohamedans and the Hindus of Hoshangabad will give you a respectful hearing.'' The letter ends on a positive note: ``Will you please convey my thanks to Moulana Sahib of Phulwari for his decision to stop cow killing?''

Another letter that should interest historians is the one he wrote on March 2, 1922, a week before he was imprisoned for six months. It expresses a deep disappointment with the violent turn the Non-Cooperation Movement had taken, which led to it being suspended by Gandhi on February 7, 1922, a day after a violent mobat Chauri Chaura torched a police station and burnt 22 policemen to their death. In the letter, Gandhi expresses a sense of unease about his camp followers, who had voted in favour of the suspension at a special session of the Congress in Bardoli.

``I am disappointed,'' wrote a dejected Gandhi, ``because I have come away with a majority that perhaps has no faith even in the policy of non-violence. The vote has been given, I fear, not to the policy of non-violence, but to me. I feel thoroughly helpless. ... Many, I am satisfied, have been only mechanically non-violent. Of such non-violence, the effect can be very little, whether upon ourselves, or upon our opponents.''

The letters will be handed over to the President on January 29.