Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 3

Author(s): R P Poddar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

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VAISHALI RESEARCH BULLETIN NO.3
written to him (Tolstoy) on October 1, 1909 from London, Gandhi says: "I had the privilege of studying your writings also, which left a deep impression on my mind." While forwarding his own book The Indian Home Rule to Tolstoy, in the accompanying letter dated April 4, 1910, from Johannesburg Gandhi says: "As your devoted follower I send you herewith a brief booklet which I have written." In the course of his letters to Tolstoy written during 1909-1910 Gandhi shows his great anxiety to solicit the former's esteemed cooperation in giving wider publicity to the South African Satyagraha movement and Tolstoy, in his turn, definitely and positively blessed the movement and recognized its significance for mankind because it was a vindication of the superiority of love over governmental force and organized brutality.
It may be stated here that Tolstoy read Gandhi's Indian Home Rule as he also read the biography of Gandhi written by Doke and wrote in a letter to him (Gandhi) dated may 8, 1910. "....... by discovering your biography by Doke, I happen to know you through that Biography which gripped me and it gave me a chance to know and understand you better,"
It is possible to state that Gandhi learnt from Tolstoy three lessons because these are the central teachings of the latter's books mentioned by him.
(1) Gandhi's innate belief in the sanctity of the call of conscience might have been strengthened by Tolstoy's view that the divine kingdom is within a man's heart as stated in his The Kingdom of God is Within You. In other words, the kingdom of God is not a super-historical or transcendental or eschatological entity, nor is it to be identified with the church but it is located in the pure heart and conscience of man.
(2) Gandhi's adherence to non-violence might have been deepened by Tolstoy's emphasis on the efficacy of positive love as the eternal law of life. Gandhi constantly in his late writings extends the meaning of Ahimsa. To him it is not merely the negative attribute of abstention from injury to other living beings but is the positive virtue of love and compassion. This interpretation he might have derived from The Gospels in Brief. In an obituary on the death of Tolstoy published in The Indian Opinion, Gandhi hailed Tolstoy as a Maharshi or Fakir and wrote that the essence of the latter's teaching was the belief in the superiority of soul-force which implied the pursuit of compassion even to the enemy.
3. Gandhi wrote that originally he believed in violence. But the reading of The Kingdom of God is Within You "cured me of my scepticism and made me a firm believer in ahimsa." (Tendulkar, Mahatma, Vol. XII, p. 317 ).
4. Collected Works, Vol.X, pp. 369-70,