Ananya Birla, the entrepreneurial scion of the Aditya Birla Group, has shared a few unseen letters written in Devanagari by Mahatma Gandhi to her great-great-grandfather, Ghanshyam Das Birla. She also revealed that GD Birla and Gandhi were “best of friends” and not just acquaintances. Ananya admitted that she had heard a lot of stories about the bond between Gandhi and her great-great-grandfather, but reading the letters revealed to her the “density of legacy” and inspired her to do everything possible to “preserve” it.
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“Diving into some family history today! Found these letters between my great-great-grandfather and Gandhiji, and they’re incredible,” wrote Ananya Birla while sharing a video of herself reading aloud the letters that Mahatma Gandhi wrote to her ancestor.
In one of the letters dated February 7, 1924, Gandhi expressed, “I do not trust anybody blindly, but it is our duty to have faith in mankind. When both parties are in the wrong, it is rather difficult to decide which one deserves greater blame.”
“I have therefore worked out a simple plan: Do good even to the evil-doer,” he added.
In another letter dated May 31, 1927, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi said, “God has not given anyone the knowledge of the last moment, so why should we worry about this inevitable thing?” She noted that the Sadhguru told her the exact same thing that the father of the nation once told her ancestor. Sadhguru told Ananya, “You don’t have to understand life, just experience life!”
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The third letter that Ananya read out loud was written on August 31, 1936. It read, “Ghanshyam Das, care lucky Calcutta. Come as soon as possible. Vallabhbhai waiting for you, wire reply immediately.”
Watch the video here:
The video was shared a few hours ago on Instagram. Since then, it has garnered over 1.3 lakh views and still counting. The video also has over 88,000 likes and numerous comments.
Here’s how people reacted to these letters:
“This is crazy!! Hope we get to see you read out many more letters between them,” wrote an individual.
Another added, “Have you considered getting them published as a book? It’ll be an amazing read.”
“Omg even my husband’s great-grandfather had these letters from Mahatma Gandhi and his name was Banarsi Dass Aggarwal ji. And when I see those handwritten letters I too get this intense feeling of preserving them as a token of legacy. Ananya I so resonate with you here,” expressed a third.
A fourth posted, “Memories for generations! Thank you for sharing this.”
“This is such a treasure trove!” shared a fifth.
A sixth joined, “Wow! This is so cool.”
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