The Tolstoy Farm outside Lenasia is a quiet historical site beginning to experience a revival in activity and attention. Immortal in history books as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s home base in the Transvaal (now Gauteng) province during his 20 year stay in South Africa, Tolstoy Farm served as the young Indian lawyer’s laboratory for his experiments in communal living, self-reliance and political activism.
Before he gained global acclaim as a Mahatma, Gandhi and his young wife Kasturba along with Indians of different religions and whites from different parts of Europe, proactively lived, ate and farmed on a large plot that contained a thousand trees which included apricot, figs, almond and walnut trees. Here Gandhi experimented with his ideals when running a school for the children of his co-inhabitants. Here also, Gandhi experimented with ideas of diet, health and communal labour. Having already tasted political activism in the Natal, Gandhi employed Tolstoy Farm as a base for his activities with his trusted lieutenant the Polish Jew Herman Kallenbach and steadfast wife Kastruba as support.
With the vagaries of time, the Farm named after the Russian philosopher and novelist Leo Tolstoy, has seen different fortunes. After a period of neglect and vandalism, Tolstoy Farm has seen a revival in it’s condition through the efforts of Mr Mohan Hira, a seasoned karate instructor and silent community leader, and his team at the Gandhi Memorial Trust. For his decades-long work in maintaining the property, adding a library and community center and having the Farm recognised officially as a heritage site, Mr Hira was recently awarded the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Award for Service by the President of India.
Owing to the influence of Gandhi’s ideas on Nelson Mandela, the presence of a bronze-coloured bust of Madiba at the farm, and the public interest around Mandela Day, the Amrut Foundation sponsored the plating of 67 trees at the farm. Significantly, the trees planted were the same types of trees mentioned to be present at the farm when it was occupied by Gandhi and his compatriots. These Apricot, nectarine, almond and fig trees were planted by the hands of children from Orange Farm, Lenasia and the settlement of Lawley, which neighbours the Farm. The children were guided with practical instruction on tree planting and the necessary care for trees to bear fruits. Mr Mohan Hira presented each participant with a certificate for their effort, along with the invitation to visit regularly and rear the tree they had planted.
For its part, the Amrut Foundation has shown a keen interest in a further revival of the site. Executive Director of Amrut Hemang Desai mentioned that he believed the site could be a place for family outings and personal study once some security measures for regular visits were put in place. He also promised the Foundation’s involvement in running a small-scale farming and entrepreneurship project on the Farm for community members from the surrounding areas as the Foundation’s second major involvement at the historical site.
For more on Amrut Foundation please visit www.amrutfoundation.org.za or www.facebook.com/amrutza/
