“” THE KRAAL”” :: Mahatma Gandhi's House In South Africa Up For Sale

Monday, July 27, 2009

http://www.hotklix.com/link/news/India/Gandhis-house-in-S-Africa-up-for-Sale

A house in Johannesburg, where Mahatma Gandhi had lived for three years when he was in South Africa, has been put up for sale by the owner, but it has so far found no takers with even the Indian-origin community members showing little interest in buying it.
Hidden away on a quiet street in Orchards, north of central Johannesburg, the house was designed by Gandhi's confidant and architect Hermann Kallenbach.
Its distinct thatched roofs and rondavel style gave the house its informal name "The Kraal". Gandhi lived in the house with Kallenbach for three years from 1908.
The owner of the house Nancy Ball, who has been living in the house for the past 25 years, wants to move to Cape Town and she has put the house on the market after failing to attract someone with an interest in preserving its historical legacy, the Times newspaper reported.
However, she did not reveal the price of the house.
She enlisted the support of Stephen Gelb, founding director of the Centre of Indian Studies in Africa at the University of Witwatersrand, on a voluntary basis, to try to find a suitable buyer.
Gelb tried to solicit the interest of prominent Indians in South Africa and even explored the possibility of Wits acquiring the property for use as a residence for visiting professors.
"There is little interest among members of the Indian-origin community and also from Wits University," Gelb told the Times.
Ball said: "Mahatma Gandhi left a lot of his peace here. It's a very special place."
The House in Orchards in Johannesburg is one of several legacies left by Gandhi in South Africa. In Johannesburg, there is another area known as Gandhi Farm, where Mahatma Gandhi and his followers stayed and practiced their philosophy of Satyagraha.
In Durban, the most famous Gandhi legacy is the Mahatma Gandhi Settlement in Phoenix, north of Durban, where Gandhi initially devised his Satyagraha philosophy.
Gandhi's fight against racial discrimination in South Africa in the late 1800s and early 1900s is today recognized with several institutions, streets and religious and cultural organisations named after him.

 

30 Jul 2009

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Philanthropist-to-buy-Gandhis-house-in-S-Africa-gift-to-GOI/articleshow/4838460.cms

MUMBAI: A philanthropist plans to buy the house in Johannesburg where Mahatma Gandhi had stayed for over three years and give it to the Government of India for preserving the same as a memorial.
City-based businessman Pradeep Bhavnani, in a letter to President Pratibha Patil, has requested her to give him permission through the official channel for transferring money to the owner of the house in order to finalize the deal.
Bhavnani said in the letter that he would donate the house to the government so that it could be preserved as a museum or a memorial as a tribute to the nation.
"The buyer has accepted my offer of Rs 2.5 crore for the house. I now look upon the government to grant me official permission so that I can dedicate this house to the nation", Bhavnani said.
The owner of the house, Nancy Ball, who lived in this house for the last two decades, has decided to move out and put it up for sale.
Known as "The Kraal", the house is located on a quiet street in northern Johannesburg suburb of Orchids. Mahatma Gandhi had stayed there for three years since 1907.

 

Can someone sent me pictures of Mahatma's House in South Africa. Kindly mail the pictures at >> rmbawa@hotmail.com. Will upload the pictures on this blog.