The home  in Orchards, northern Johannesburg, which Gandhi used as a residence, was up for sale. A condition of sale, however, is that the new owners must preserve the historical significance of the house.

Following the publication of the article, the property’s co-owner, Nancy Ball, said interest in the home, known as “The Kraal,” had gone through the roof.

“It’s just like manna from heaven,” said Ball.

The story appeared in Indian and British publications last week.

Ball and her husband, Jarrod, had trouble finding a buyer with an interest in preserving the house’s historical legacy.

Now the couple are fielding offers from a number of buyers with just such a motive.

They include Gandhi’s great-granddaughter and chairman of the Gandhi Committee, Kirti Menon, and a Malaysian business tycoon who, according to Ball, “runs his company along Gandhian principles”.

The businessman, who wants to remain anonymous, put in an unsuccessful bid during a high-profile auction of some of Gandhi’s effects, including his spectacles, in New York earlier this year.

He plans to turn the house into a Gandhian ashram, which would teach leadership and meditation, Ball said.

Similarly, Menon, who had previously been unaware of the house’s existence, wants to turn it into a Gandhi centre, the focus of which will be on education and cultivating leadership, based on the freedom fighter’s teachings.

She does not currently have the money to buy the house and wants to raise funds to acquire it.

She said she has been in touch with other prospective buyers but she declined to divulge their names.

The house was advertised for R2.5-million when listed by Sotheby’s earlier this year, based on valuations by real estate agents in the area, according to Ball.

But that number, she said, “was out for us, by virtue of the historical significance of the place”.

She would not disclose the current asking price for the house.

“There is a sort of Gandhi brand, just as there is a Mandela brand. And there are people out there who want to acquire it for that value,” she said. “We’re not going to let that happen.”

Ball, an artist originally from the US, has lived in the house for 28 years but is now retiring with her husband to Cape Town.

“We’re going to orchestrate this very carefully. We’re not going to sell to just anybody,” she said.

The Indian government has not yet made an offer but “there is interest there, when there didn’t seem to be any interest before”, Ball said.

She is expecting a visit from the Indian minister of commerce, Anand Sharma, next month.