Eight-foot statue of Mahatma Gandhi unveiled in Johannesburg's Tolstoy Farm

An eight-foot-tall statue of Mahatma Gandhi has been unveiled at Tolstoy Farm, commune that he h started during his tenure as a lawyer here in South Africa in early 20th century.

larger-than-life clay statue, unveiled on Sunday by High Commissioner of India, Prabhat Kumar, w joins large busts of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, both commissioned by sculptor Jalandharnath Rajaram Chanle, from Sevagram Ashram in India.

“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,” said Kumar as he unveiled statue.

Kumar recalled that Gandhi’s friend Herman Kallenbach h donated farm to establish a self-sufficient commune.

“This was because people from our community here were struggling against (discriminatory) pass laws and or laws,” he said, referring to laws that required n-white citizens to carry passbooks for indigeus Black African community and Astatic registration papers for Indians. Many men and some women voluntarily went to jail with Gandhi to resist se laws.

“y h to also bring up ir families and to sustain those families, Kallenbach bought this farm and donated it to Mahatma Gandhi,” Kumar said as he recounted how se families grew fruits and vegetables on Tolstoy Farm with which y sustained mselves.

envoy said that same community spirit h to be re-established at Tolstoy Farm as he commended Mahatma Gandhi Remembrance Organisation (MGRO) and its he, Mohan Hira, for what y h done to revive Tolstoy Farm.

By 1990s, Tolstoy Farm h been wholly vandalised and left derelict after last tenants h moved out.

Surrounded by informal settlements, everything was stripped bare, including iron and wood house that Gandhi h lived in. Only foundation, hidden by shoulder-height grass, remained.

Hira, w 84, almost single-handedly started a drive to restore Tolstoy Farm. For his efforts, Hira received Pravasi Bharatiya Award, India’s highest civilian award for Diaspora Indians, in January this year.

“For last few years, MGRO has brought attention of Tolstoy Farm back to all of us and High Commission (in Pretoria) and Consulate General (in Johannesburg) will spare effort in making Tolstoy Farm self-sufficient in future. This will be our task,” Kumar said.

Kumar also appealed to local community to get involved in and support this venture as he shared how he h been inspired by reing about and hearing from freedom fighters who h been re what Tolstoy Farm was like.

For this statue, Hira brought out Chanle, who first did a cycle tour of Gandhian sites in South Africa before spending three weeks at Hira’s residence in nearby sprawling Indian township of Lenasia, where white mirity aparid government forcibly resettled Indians from all over Johannesburg for deces.

“It h always been my dream to have a larger-than-life statue of Mahatma at Tolstoy Farm from time I first started cutting down grass surrounding remains of his house,” Hira said emotionally as guests gared in library that has been built next to house with support from Indian government.

next phase for Tolstoy Farm is to involve local communities in running empowerment programmes to make m self-sufficient and alleviate poverty, Hira said.