A Letter to a Hindu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Letter to a Hindu was a letter written by Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy in 1908 to the Indian newspaper Free Hindustan. The letter caused the young Mohandas Gandhi to write to the world-famous Tolstoy to ask for advice and for permission to reprint the Letter in Gandhi's native Gujarati. Mohandas Gandhi was stationed in South Africa at the time and just beginning his life-long activist career. Gandhi translated the letter from Russian in 1909.

In A Letter to a Hindu, Tolstoy argued that only through the principle of love could the Indian people free themselves from colonial British rule. Tolstoy saw the law of love espoused in all the world's religions, and he argued that the individual, non-violent application of the law of love in the form of protests, strikes, and other forms of peaceful resistance were the only alternative to violent revolution. These ideas ultimately proved to be successful in 1947 in the culmination of the Indian Independence Movement.

This letter, along with Tolstoy's unarguable views and preaching, helped to form Mohandas Gandhi's views about non-violent resistance. Gandhi's familiarity with Tolstoy began with his reading of The Kingdom of God is Within You, which argues for a literal interpretation of Christian principles. Non-violent resistance was a major part of Tolstoy's own view of Christianity.