[csaa-forum] Letters from Phoenix Settlement: Maintaining Mohandas Gandhi’s Heritage in South Africa, 1915 to 1976

[Timothy Laurie]

LETTERS FROM PHOENIX SETTLEMENT: MAINTAINING MOHANDAS GANDHI’S HERITAGE IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1915 TO 1976



Guest speaker: Prof. Uma Mesthrie (University of the Western Cape, South Africa)

Discussant: Prof. Devleena Ghosh (University of Technology Sydney)



When: Friday 18 October 2019

Where: CB10.04.460, UTS

Time: 2:00pm – 3:30pm



Hosted by the Communication and Cultural Diversity Research Group Colloquium, University of Technology Sydney



Abstract

Phoenix Settlement was established by Mohandas Gandhi in South Africa in 1904. Inspired by John Ruskin and Leo Tolstoy, he relocated the International Printing Press which published the weekly Indian Opinion, from the city to a farm. Here a small community of whites and Indians dedicated themselves to producing the paper whilst living a simple rustic life dedicated to public service. The history of Phoenix Settlement during Gandhi’s time is well-known and we have access to his autobiography and to the memoirs of those who lived there. This seminar focuses on the history of the place after his departure through the letters of those who lived at Phoenix – among them Albert West, Hermann Kallenbach, Manilal Gandhi and Sushila Gandhi, Ela Gandhi and Mewa Ramgobin. Many of the letters have not been accessible before and a large number of them have been translated from Gujarati to English. Letters provide an insight into the everyday and the emotions of the writer at the time in comparison to memoirs which are memories distilled and reformed over the passage of time. The focus here is on the ideals that governed Phoenix and the successes and disappointments of those who lived here after Gandhi departed from South Africa. In many ways a biography of Phoenix can be told through these letters as it changes over time with new residents in charge. It is a tale of managing Gandhi’s heritage in newer and changing circumstances.



Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie is a Senior Professor in the Department of History at the University of the Western Cape where she has also served as Deputy Dean for Research in the Arts Faculty. She is author/editor of From Cane Fields to Freedom: A Chronicle of Indian South African Life (Cape Town, Kwela Books, 2000); Sita: Memoirs of Sita Gandhi (Pretoria and Durban, Local History Museums and South African History on Line, 2003); and Gandhi's Prisoner? The Life of Gandhi’s Son, Manilal (Cape Town, Kwela Books, 2004).

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