Which settlement did Mahatma Gandhi establish near Johannesburg in 1910?

Mahatma Gandhi established Tolstoy Farm near Johannesburg in 1910. The settlement was created during the South African Satyagraha campaign and served as a community for families involved in the struggle.

Gandhi named the farm after the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, whose ideas about moral resistance, simple living, and nonviolence influenced him. The land was provided by Hermann Kallenbach, a German-Jewish architect and close associate of Gandhi.

Residents worked collectively and followed a disciplined communal routine. The farm included children and adults, and Gandhi emphasized education, manual labor, self-restraint, and cooperation rather than social hierarchy.

Tolstoy Farm is distinct from Phoenix Settlement, which Gandhi founded near Durban in 1904. Tolstoy Farm was created later and closer to Johannesburg. Both communities supported Gandhi’s experiments in shared living and helped sustain Indian resistance to discriminatory laws in South Africa.