Businessman buys Gandhi's home, plans a museum

Mumbai, Aug 3: Mahatma Gandhi's Johannesburg house, which found no takers initially, has been reportedly bought by a Bandra businessman, Pradeep Bhavnani for about Rs 2.25 crore on Thursday, Jul 30.

The thatch-roofed house was put for sale by the owner, Nancy Ball after she found that no one who was interested in preserving the historical legacy.

After reports that not even the Indian community in South Africa has expressed any interest in the house, Bhavnani's move to buy the house comes as a relief.

Pradeep Bhavnani, who is senior BJP leader L K Advani"s nephew and a self-professed Gandhian is planning to turn it into a museum and then hand it over to the government of India.

"I felt hurt when I read that nobody was willing to buy the house," said Bhavnani.

"What was even more shocking to me was that the government hadn"t thought of buying the house. It is [part of] Gandhi"s legacy, and I felt our reputation as a nation was at stake." added the philanthropist.

He has contracted the owner, Nancy Ball and has shared his plans of turning the home into a museum.

After buying the house, he intends to buy 34 souvenirs and photographs from the Aditya Birla Group to install them in the museum. After inaugurating the museum on Oct 2, Gandhi"s birth anniversary, it will be handed over to Government of India on the same day said Bhavnani.

Mahatma Gandhi lived in this house from 1908 for three years as he fought against the racial discrimination in South Africa as a lawyer. The house that was designed by artist Hermann Kallenbach is called 'The Kraal'.

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