Sevagram panorama cropped

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) was an anticolonial activist, lawyer, and politician. Less famously, but no less importantly, Gandhi was also a back-to-the-land farmer, a founder of communes, and a seeker of utopia. The Living with Gandhi Archive is an accessible site for the study and exploration of Gandhi's residential experiments with utopia. Here you can read about the four intentional communities that Gandhi founded in South Africa and India; view photographs of each of these four sites from Gandhi’s time as well as the present; learn about many of Gandhi’s coresidents; and explore additional resources to learn about daily life at these communities and the collective quest for utopia.

Phoenix Settlement

Phoenix Settlement residents
Gandhi founded Phoenix Settlement in 1904 near Durban, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. This was Gandhi’s first intentional community, and his primary home until 1910.

Tolstoy Farm

Founding Tolstoy Farm
Gandhi co-founded Tolstoy Farm with his friend Hermann Kallenbach in 1910 outside Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. This was Gandhi’s second intentional community, and his home between 1910-1914.

Sabarmati Ashram

Sabarmati Ashram prayer session
Gandhi founded Sabarmati Ashram in 1917 near Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. This was Gandhi’s third major intentional community, and his home until he disbanded it in 1933.

Sevagram Ashram

Gandhi seated with coresidents
Gandhi founded Sevagram Ashram in 1936 in Segaon Village, Maharashtra, India. This was Gandhi’s final experiment with utopia, and his home from 1936 until his death in 1948.

Behind the Living with Gandhi Archive

The Living with Gandhi Archive has been created using LEAF (Linked Editing Academic Framework). Research for this project has been supported by academic fellowships from Bucknell University, the Enhancing Life Project, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Karline McLain

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Dr. Karline McLain conducting research at the Satyagraha House and Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa

Karline McLain, PhD, is a Professor of Religious Studies at Bucknell University.  Her most recent book is recommended as a companion text for this digital archive: Living with Gandhi: Experiments in Utopia (forthcoming in the Asia Shorts book series by the Association for Asian Studies in 2026). She is the PI (primary investigator/lead researcher) of the Living with Gandhi Archive.

Karline McLain is also the author of The Afterlife of Sai Baba: Competing Visions of a Global Saint (University of Washington Press) and India’s Immortal Comic Books: Gods, Kings, and Other Heroes (Indiana University Press).  Her teaching and scholarship explore the religion, history, and culture of South Asia.  Her public talks examine Gandhi’s communities and his philosophy of universal wellbeing in the context of everyday life.

 

 

 

Diane Jakacki

Diane Jakacki, PhD, is Digital Scholarship Coordinator and Affiliate Faculty in Comparative and Digital Humanities at Bucknell University. Along with Brian Croxall, she is the co-editor of What We Teach When We Teach DH: Digital Humanities in the Classroom (University of Minnesota Press, 2023). Her research focuses on digital humanities and pedagogy, early modern British literature and drama, digital scholarly production and publication. She is the PI (primary investigator/lead researcher) of the REED London Online project and site tech lead for the Linked Editorial Academic Framework (LEAF) virtual research environment.

Curran Lyons

Curran Lyons is a contributing photographer to the Living with Gandhi Archive.

Chad Colwell

Chad Colwell is a contributing videographer to the Living with Gandhi Archive.