12 June 2003 07:01
GANDHI`S TOLSTOY FARM TO BE RE-LAUNCHED
(SUBS: PICTURES AVAILABLE AT WWW.SAPAPICS.CO.ZA) (REPEATS TO FIX HEADLINE) The road from Lawley to Lenasia is
ordinary: it is cut by a railway track and flanked by a squatter camp and a brick factory. But just past the factory off
a dirt road and forgotten by the rest of the world, a crumbling wall serves as informal monument to an idea that changed
the world. It was here some 90 years ago that Indian nationalist leader and statesman Mahatma Gandhi lived and brought
together a commune he described as a "co-operative commonwealth" -- a band of supporters, Christian, Muslim
and Hindu, who lived out his ideals of tolerance, respect and peace. And, it was here, that Gandhi developed and
consolidated Satyagraha --his campaign of passive resistance that eventually drove the mighty British empire from the
Indian sub-continent. Gandhi arrived in South Africa during 1893 to represent an Indian merchant in court. In 1894,
after winning the case, the merchant threw him a farewell party before his return home. Discussions at the party turned
to a controversial bill being debated in the Natal Assembly, which sought to disfranchise Indians. The merchants pleaded
with Gandhi that they needed his help. He agreed to stay for only one more month. He spent the next two decades fighting
racial segregation. In 1907, he found himself in the then-Transvaal focusing his efforts against the Asiatic
Registration Act of 1907 and the Transvaal Immigration Act. The first required all Indian males living in Transvaal to
register by thumb-prints, and the second restricted the entry of Indians into the province. At one point during the
campaign, more than 2,000 Indians were imprisoned. Gandhi paid relief money to the families of the imprisoned men and
women, but it was costly. In 1909, Gandhi went to London to present the Indian case to the British government. When he
returned five months later, he found that his passive resistance movement had weakened. During his absence the
government had intimidated his supporters and deported some of them to India. He realised that he needed a place where
he could instil a sense of purpose into his followers, and where the families could take refuge. He decided that buying
a farm near Johannesburg would allow him to do this. Herman Kallenbach, an architect of German descent and a supporter
of Gandhi's ideas, bought a 1,100 acre farm 36 kilometres outside Johannesburg near what is now Lenasia and gave it
to Gandhi on May 30, 1910. Kallenbach, deeply touched by the Leo Tolstoy's work "My Confession",
suggested the name "Tolstoy Farm". Gandhi wrote to the Russian novelist: "No writing has so deeply
touched Mr. Kallenbach as yours; and as a spur to further effort in living up to the ideals held before the world by
you, he has taken the liberty, after consultation with me, of naming his farm after you". Here Gandhi managed to
get Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Indians, blacks and whites to respect each other. Every day he read verses from the
Bible, the Koran and the Bhagvadgita. When the Muslims fasted for Ramadaan everyone on the commune fasted; during Lent
everyone took part; every Hindu festival was celebrated. By arming them with knowledge he succeeded in getting people of
vastly different cultures and beliefs to live and work together. The rural setting was important to Gandhi -- residents
had ample opportunities for farming and gardening. The farm had over 1,000 fruit trees. The commune was self-sufficient:
they made their own cloth and clothing and he even sent one of the men to a monastery, outside Durban to learn how to
make sandals. The emphasis was on simple communal living where individual self-interest was curbed for the good of all.
When Gandhi returned to India in 1915, the land was transferred to a WH Humpreys. In the 1950s, Anglovaal bought the
land and then sold it to current owner Corrobrick. These days there is little evidence of the buildings that stood
during Gandhi's time. There is a foundation and a broken structure of a house --thought to be Herman
Kallenbach's. A drive has begun to rehabilitate the site and the Gauteng tourism department has given the Gandhi
Centenary Committee R840,000. The committee, made up of residents of Lenasia, want to build a museum and a resource
centre to benefit the surrounding communities -- a proper tribute to a man who spent his life fighting for the poor.
Kirthi Menhin, the chairwoman of the committee, said the project was still in the preliminary phase. "We are hoping
to have things on the road by the end of the year. We have to look at the long-term sustainability of the project,"
she said. The committee recently held a fund-raising marathon from Johannesburg to Durban which raised around R6,000.
The committee would not recreate the buildings that existed during Gandhi's time there, Menhin said. "We
don't want to just create an historic monument -- merely putting up a structure is a very limited way of
remembering someone's work." Jacques Stoltz, manager of product development at Gauteng tourism, said it was
important to the community to create something in keeping with Gandhian philosophy. "This will not be just another
monument. Tolstoy Farm was about a way of life linked to Ghandhian philosophy. There will be a training centre for
developing income-generating skills for the surrounding communities," Stoltz said. The museum would probably house
the photographs and letters from Gandhi that are currently held in private collections. "Gandhi's legacy is
spread out across the city. This location could very well turn into the central point to document Gandhi's stay in
South Africa," Stoltz said. He said discussions were still underway with Corrobrick over the future of the land.
Stoltz said tourists from India had shown increasing interest in visiting the site. "Tourists come out from India
wanting to find out more about Gandhi's life in South Africa. This is one of the reasons we came aboard."
Gandhi's grand-daughter, Ilaben Gandhi, said she was pleased by the latest developments. "Tolstoy Farm was
very important place to Gandhi. Once he acquired that place he began to change -- it was a transformation in his
life." He was an ordinary young man who came to South Africa on business but his experience of South Africa's
racist attitudes and colonial policies changed the course of his life, she said. Gandhi's first and most famous
encounter with white prejudice here was on a train to Pretoria. Despite having bought himself a first class ticket,
Gandhi was thrown off the train after a white man refused to share his compartment with a "non-white". Gandhi
spent a cold night at the station waiting for help. Ilaben said many people were unaware of Gandhi's role in South
Africa. "Apartheid erased a lot of information on our history. In South Africa, Gandhi's name has been
blemished as being racist and imperialist. We are making a move to correct the perception." Gandhi has been slated
for not taking up the cause of voteless black South Africans. He was, however, sympathetic to their plight. When he was
first jailed in South Africa he realised that black prisoners did not receive salt with their food while the Indians
did. He resolved to give up to salt. Ilaben said her grandfather was described as an idealist and even a saint but in
reality he was a very practical man. "He confronted poverty by empowering people with their hands and the land. In
India he used the spinning wheel -- it cost next to nothing and every person had the means to make money. He was
concerned with economic development," she said. Gandhi was shot dead on January 30, 1948. The reason? The very
multi-cultural ideals that were born at Tolstoy Farm. His killer Nathuram Godse was a Hindu who believed the Mahatma was
harming the cause of Hindus by being friendly to Muslims. Sapa 06/12/03 09-58 C=100
[AIW [Asia Africa Intelligence Wire]] |
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