Mahatma Gandhi's prison 'charkha' to be auctioned in UK

Highlights include important documents, photographs and books, including an early publication advising German Jews to take up 'Satyagraha' during the holocaust.

Under the British Raj, cotton grown in India was shipped to the UK for making garments, which were then shipped back to India and sold at a price that the people could not afford.

In order to resist the British, Gandhi encouraged Indians to spin and weave their own cloth.

Since the traditional charkha was bulky and difficult to move, he needed an instrument that could be transported easily.

During his imprisonment in Yerawda jail, Gandhi had devised the portable spinning wheel that folds and has a handle for carrying.