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on 30th May 1910. Gandhi stayed there till his departure for India on July 18th 1914.
It is at this Farm that Gandhi felt the urge to experiment deeper in simplifying his life style, dietary reforms, vow of brhmacharya, relative and absolute truth and developed a code of conduct for the inhabitants of the Farm. This guide on code of conduct was firmed up by him later in India at Sabarmati Ashram where he published them as eleven vows in a book titled Yerawada Mandir. We shall talk about his experiments on the personal front later.
Tolstoy Farm became the headquarters for his Satygraha in South Africa to win social and political reforms for Indians there.
He mobilised selfless engagement of all shades of Indians regardless of their cast, religion, gender and occupation to become volunteers in Satyagraha. Object of Satyagraha was to fight against discriminative and oppressive acts/behaviour of the British and European ruling elite for enacting the laws and Indian administrators in Asiatic section enforcing laws such as The Pound 3 tax, Marriage act that derecognised marriage of Indians according to social customs, travel and trade restrictions in the four colonies zealously.
Along with Indian men living in the four colonies, he involved successfully Indian women and liberal Europeans. He also involved top leaders in India to participate in Satyagraha and espouse their cause in England and India. He invited Gokhale to visit South Africa. His colleagues at Tolstoy Farm as well as volunteers in Satyagraha followed the simple (renunciation / hermit) life based on self denial, face the toughest hardships to the extent of going to jail, liquidating their business (Kachhalia,
Pg.52 Gandhi & Jainism
