Mahatma Gandhi painting donated to 1860 Heritage Centre
|Published
Roshni Ramlall, Deepak Ramlall and Vedanti Ramlall Dayanand hand over a painting of Mohandas Gandhi to 1860 Heritage Museum management A.V Mohammed, Satish Dhupelia, Selvan Naidoo and Krish Gokool. Picture by Zainul Dawood Roshni Ramlall, Deepak Ramlall and Vedanti Ramlall Dayanand hand over a painting of Mohandas Gandhi to 1860 Heritage Museum management A.V Mohammed, Satish Dhupelia, Selvan Naidoo and Krish Gokool. Picture by Zainul Dawood
Durban - A former Durbanite who is now residing in London has donated a painting of Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi to the 1860 Heritage Centre in Durban.
Vedanti Ramlall Dayanand made the presentation, on Sunday, a day her father Mithloo Ramlall (1917-1976) would have turned 102 years old.
She painted Gandhi with oil on canvas 79 cm by 50 cm to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of indentured labourers from India in Durban.
Dayanand was a former Natal Indian Congress (NIC) member and proprietor of Goodwork Shopfitters.
Vedanti said it took her between 8 and 10 hours to complete the painting. Vedanti lived in Riverside in Durban North, Inanda and later in Newlands West. She is a former school teacher and former inspector of education in KwaZulu-Natal.
She had taken early retirement and then left South Africa to live in London.
“I was inspired to take up art by my husband Bob Dayanand. My father was an activist and I recall the men hardships we had to endure. He was a pioneer of Inanda. We were subjected to home searches by the police. They would look for agenda’s and pham[hlets of meetings. Our telephone was bugged. I remember a policeman walking through our home with a dog and how we cried in fear. There were lots of spies around the place.
He emulated the non violent approach set by Gandhi. Sacrifce he made. He established this business.
The 1860 Heritage Centre chairman, Krish Gokool said the painting will be placed in the Gandhi Luthuli exhibition room.