Phoenix Settlement and Tolstoy Farm

 


Phoenix Settlement 


Tolstoy Farm 

Mohanchand Karamchand Gandhi founded two ashrams for community living in South Africa. The Phoenix Settlement was the first ashram-like settlement established near Durban, KwaZulu-Natal in 1904. This was the home for Gandhi and his family from its founding until his return to India on 9 January 1915. Tolstoy Farm, the second ashram in South Africa, was initiated and organized in Johannesburg in 1910 during his South African Movement. It was meant for training and preparing people for non-violent satyagraha and served from 1910 to 1913 as the headquarters for campaigning satyagraha against discrimination against Indians in Transvaal, where it was located. Hermann Kallenbach, a Gandhian supporter, allowed Gandhi and seventy to eighty others to live there as long as their local movement was in effect. Kallenbach suggested the name for the community, which soon constructed three new buildings to serve as living quarters, workshops, and a school. Searjent Pragji Desai also helped in this program. There were no servants on the farm, and all the work, from cooking down to scavenging, was done by the inmates. It was named after Russian writer and philosopher Leo Tolstoy, whose 1894 book, "The Kingdom of God is Within You", influenced Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence. In fact, Tolstoy learned about Satyagraha from Tirukkural written by the famous Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar.  








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