Phoenix represented an island of freedom in a society that moved from informal segregation in the early years of the twentieth century to full-blown apartheid in the 1950s. In 1920 Manilal confessed to a friend:
For a self-respecting Indian there is no room in this country. I feel happy and satisfied and at home only when I am in Phoenix where I can breathe the air of freedom. No sooner I step out of it there is the fear of being insulted and humiliated at any moment.
In the 1960s through to the 1980s through states of emergencies and repression Phoenix represented that tree space where all races devoted to a just society could gather freely.