The Satyagraha
House Johannesburg Now
you can stay in the house where
Gandhi developed his philosophy
This house, in
the residential neighbourhood of
Orchards in Johannesburg, was the
home of Mohandas Gandhi from 1908 to
1909. Within these walls, the future
Mahatma created and developed his
philosophy of passive resistance:
Satyagraha in sanskrit. A pacifist
method of protest that he employed
in India to lead the country to
independence.
The house was built in 1907 by
Gandhi’s close friend, the German
architect Hermann Kallenbach, and
today it begins a new life.
Renovations overseen by a team
comprising a historian, a curator,
an architect, two interior
designers, and their respective
teams, have restored the original
spirit of the house, bringing back
an important page in the history of
both South Africa and Mahatma
Gandhi.
The Satyagraha House is now a
registered part of the country’s
historical heritage and presents an
innovative accommodation concept
linking guesthouse to museum.
In all, seven rooms are spread out
between the original house, called
the Kraal in reference to its
architecture resembling a
traditional African farm, the
cottage added a few years later, and
the modern wing built in 2010.
Eyewitness
Account of Dandi March Sumangal Prakash,
a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, tells the true story of the epic Salt
March
NRI Radio, NRIfm.com
presents the only surviving eyewitness account of Mahatma Gandhi's
historic Salt March also known as Dandi March. When Mahatma Gandhi
(a lot of people spell his name as Ghandi) called Indians to break the infamous Salt
Law, many people thought it to be another eccentricity
of the Mahatma. In fact, It was an ingenious idea that
reminded every Indian that an exploiting British government
had even taxed the cheapest food ingredients like salt.
By encouraging Indians to break this law
Mahatma Gandhi wanted
to involve Indian masses, including the poorest of the
poor, to defy the unjust law imposed by an oppressive
foreign government.
The Salt March or Dandhi
March began on the
morning of the 12th March 1930. A 25-year old disciple,
Sumangal Prakash, was then living in Gandhi's Sabarmati
Ashram, Ahmedabad and he was one of those 78
Ashram residents whom Gandhi picked up as fellow
marchers. Vijay Rana, the editor of NRIfm met Sumangal Prakash in 1985 at his
residence in Pahar Ganj in Delhi. He had to search him
for more than an hour and nobody in the neighbourhood
knew him.
Dressed in hand washed
Khadi Kurta, the frail old man was living in pretty
austere conditions. His sitting room barely had any
furniture except a clean white bed and a broken plastic
cane chair, that he offered to his interviewer. His
loving old wife poured tea from an aluminium kettle. It
was an humbling experience to be with them.
While narrating the story
of Dandi March, his voice was filled with such energy
and enthusiasm that I could never imagine from such a
old man. In this extraordinary interview at Radio NRI Sumangal
Prakash gives the graphic account of the morning of 12th
March 1930 and also when Mahatma Gandhi arrived in Dandi.
(During this research I have found that a lot of people rather incorrectly
spell his name as Mahatma Ghandi)
Radio
Drama Last
Day in the Life of Mahatma Gandhi
On
the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi Radio
NRI editor Vijay Rana recreates the events of that
fateful day in this radio docu-drama. Gandhi’s day begins at
3.30 am, followed by his morning meeting. He then gives final
touches to a new draft constitution for the
Congress party. He
proposes that Congress should renounce power and dedicate
itself to service of the poor.
And finally
Mahatma Gandhi met Sardar Patel
asking him to sort out his differences with Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru. Then ‘a mad man’ put an end to his life,
while he was on way to his evening prayer meeting.
The day ended with Nehru’s announcement to the
nation, ‘The light has gone out of our life…’ Nehru also
hoped that in the coming years ‘that light will give solace
to innumerable hearts’.
Written by Vijay Rana, the radio drama was presented
specially for Radio NRI, by
UK's leading NRI actor KK Tandon and the veteran BBC
broadcaster Mamta Gupta.
Satyagraha The Opera
Philip
Glass puts Gandhi in the pantheon of God
Legendary composer
Philip Glass's universally acclaimed Sanskrit opera Satyagraha is
another milestone in Mahatma Gandhi's global legend. This critically
acclaimed opera is creating waves in London. To help the foreign
audience, the English translation of Sanskritised libretto appears
on the corrugated iron backdrop that is imaginatively used to
portray the colonial age as well as the poverty that Gandhi so
intentionally embraced. Vijay Rana, the editor of NRIfm spoke
to Alan Oak who gives a flawless performance as Gandhi who
tells the inside story of this great show. Oak also gives a glimpse
of his singing in Sanskrit.
By encouraging Indians to break this law
Mahatma Gandhi wanted
to involve Indian masses, including the poorest of the
poor, to defy the unjust law imposed by an oppressive
foreign government.
