Tolstoy Farm, South Africa

Connection with Gandhiji
Gandhiji established a community settlement near Johannesburg for the Satyagrahis in 1910. Named after Leo Tolstoy, it became the laboratory for experiments in self-reliance, co-education, food, and diet, sanitary arrangements, schooling, co-education, and community living in general. It was disbanded in 1913.

Background
• As the Satyagraha struggle extended for a longer period, the issue of Satyagrahis being released from jail and maintenance of their families came up. It was felt that all the families ‘should be kept at one place and should become members of a sort of co-operative commonwealth.’
Phoenix Settlement was near Durban, some 500 km. away from the place of Satyagraha. The new place had to be near Johannesburg. Gandhiji’s friend Mr. Kallenbach had bought a farm of about 1,100 acres with fruit-bearing trees and a spring. He gave it for free. It was around 33 km from Johannesburg. • Both Gandhiji and Kallenbach were followers of Tolstoy and ‘endeavoured to practice much of his doctrine.’Hence the place was named Tolstoy Farm and Satyagrahis were invited to stay there.

At Tolstoy Farm
• The settlers at Tolstoy Farm were Hindus, Musalmans, Parsis, and Christians and were hailed from Gujarat, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, and North India. Forty were young men, two or three old men, five women, and twenty to thirty children.
• Gandhiji decided that if the Christians and Muslims asked for meat or even beef, it must be provided to them as their struggle had been organized on behalf of all classes of Indians. But they showed willingness for vegetarian food.
• The simple structures of corrugated iron were erected by the Farm settlers with the help of architect Kallenbach and some masons. All settlers had to live in tents for the first two months as the buildings were under construction.
• It was decided that the settlers should go to Johannesburg by railway, only for the community’s work. Pleasure trips must be made on foot. It took six to seven hours to reach Johannesburg on foot.
• It was decided that there will be no servants for household work as well as for farming and building. An iron hand mill was purchased for grinding wheat. Groundnut butter was made by roasting and then grinding groundnuts. It was four times cheaper than ordinary butter.
• The dressing was changed and a labourer’s dress of cheap trousers and shirt was adopted for the inmates. Ladies took charge of sewing the dresses.
• Many other activities including sanitary arrangements, sandal-making were introduced and effectively managed at the Farm. A school was started for the children of the inmates though ‘it was not quite a success’ according to Gandhiji. Religious teaching was also a challenging task. But the children were saved from ‘the infection of intolerance’. • Co-education was the most fearless experiment conducted at the Farm. Gandhiji had deep faith in nature cure and simple living of Tolstoy Farm encouraged him with positive results. He also experimented with food and diet at the Farm. • Gopal Krishna Gokhle stayed for a night at Tolstoy Farm during his visit to South Africa in 1912. • Gandhiji summed up the experiences of Tolstoy Farm in these words: ‘Tolstoy Farm proved to be a center of spiritual purification and penance for the final campaign. I have serious doubts as to whether the struggle could have been prosecuted for eight years, whether we could have secured larger funds and whether the thousands of men who participated in the last phase of the struggle would have borne their share in it if there had been no Tolstoy Farm.’ • Tolstoy Farm was disbanded on January 9, 1913, to take up the Satyagraha struggle once again. The families were shifted to Phoenix Settlement.

Site Address/Contact Details
Tolstoy Farm, South Africa
Johannesburg,
Linden 2104,
South Africa
Email: info@tolstoyfarm.com
Website: https://www.tolstoyfarm.com