In Johannesburg, an imposing eight-foot-tall statue of Mahatma Gandhi has been ceremoniously unveiled at Tolstoy Farm, a commune that the iconic leader had founded during his stint as a lawyer in South Africa during the early 20th century.
This larger-than-life clay sculpture, introduced to the public on a Sunday, had the honor of being unveiled by India's High Commissioner, Prabhat Kumar. The statue now stands alongside substantial busts of both Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, both masterpieces crafted by the skilled sculptor Jalandharnath Rajaram Channole, hailing from the Sevagram Ashram in India.
In the words of Kumar as he inaugurated the statue, "This statue probably resembles Mahatma Gandhi when he left South Africa at that time. We have seen Mahatma Gandhi's photographs from 1914, and here he is much older. I think it's a grand tribute to him at Tolstoy Farm, where he lived for five or six years. From 1910 to 1914, he intermittently lived here."
Kumar took a moment to recall that the esteemed Herman Kallenbach, a friend of Gandhi, had generously contributed to the farm to establish a self-sufficient commune. This act was driven by the challenges faced by the Indian community in South Africa, primarily the discriminatory pass laws and other regulations. These laws mandated non-white citizens to carry passbooks and Astatic registration papers for Indians, leading to numerous individuals willingly embracing imprisonment alongside Gandhi in protest.
Describing the origins of Tolstoy Farm, Kumar stated, "They had to also bring up their families, and to sustain those families, Kallenbach bought this farm and donated it to Mahatma Gandhi." He emphasized how these families cultivated fruits and vegetables on Tolstoy Farm, providing sustenance for themselves.
Kumar praised the Mahatma Gandhi Remembrance Organisation (MGRO) and its leader, Mohan Hira, for their commendable efforts in reviving Tolstoy Farm. By the 1990s, the farm had fallen into disrepair and was extensively vandalized after the departure of its last occupants. Surrounded by informal settlements, the land had been stripped of everything, including the house made of iron and wood where Gandhi had resided. Only the foundation remained, hidden beneath shoulder-height grass.
Mohan Hira, now 84, undertook a remarkable initiative to restore Tolstoy Farm almost single-handedly. His dedication earned him the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Award, India's highest civilian honor for Diaspora Indians, in January of the current year.
Kumar articulated, "For the last few years, the MGRO has brought the attention of Tolstoy Farm back to all of us, and the High Commission (in Pretoria) and the Consulate General (in Johannesburg) will spare no effort in making Tolstoy Farm self-sufficient in the future. This will be our task." He urged the local community to actively participate in and support this endeavor, sharing how he had been inspired by the accounts of freedom fighters who had experienced Tolstoy Farm firsthand.
In the context of the statue's creation, Hira enlisted the skills of Channole, who embarked on a cycling tour of Gandhian sites in South Africa before spending three weeks at Hira's residence in the nearby sprawling Indian township of Lenasia. This township had been forcibly designated as the settlement for Indians by the white minority apartheid government of South Africa over several decades.
Hira emotionally expressed, "It had always been my dream to have a larger-than-life statue of the Mahatma at Tolstoy Farm from the time I first started cutting down the grass surrounding the remains of his house," during a gathering in the library adjacent to the house, constructed with support from the Indian government.
The future aspirations for Tolstoy Farm encompass engaging the local communities in empowerment programs aimed at achieving self-sufficiency and alleviating poverty, Hira conveyed.
Â
