Den indiske revolutionären Taraknath Das skrev 1908 till den ryske författaren och fredskämpen Leo Tolstoj och bad honom om stöd för den indiska självständighetskampen mot det brittiska koloniala styret. Tolstojs svarade med ett långt brev, som, publicerades i den indiska tidningen Free Hindustan.

På så vis kom den unge Mahatma Gandhi att läsa det, på den tiden en ung fredsaktivist i Sydafrika. Gandhi skrev i sin tur till Tolstoj och bad att få publicera texten i sin egen sydafrikanska tidning Indian Opinion, där det trycktes på engelska med rubriken ”A letter to a Hindu”, senare utgivet i bokform.

Kontakten mellan den 39-årige Gandhi och den den 80-årige Tolstoj blev inledningen till en brevväxling mellan de båda ickevåldsaktivsterna, som varade till Tolstojs död1910.

Amerikanska Maria Popova berättar på sin inspirerande sajt Brain Pickings om kontakten mellan Gandhi och och den åldrade Tolstoj. Hon jämför ”mötet mellan två stora andar” med en annan brevväxling, mellan Einstein och Freud om våld och människans natur.

Tolstojs brev är en ”stridssignal” och en uppmaning till icke-våldsmostånd, skriver Maria Popova. Allra mest framgår det kanske i ett brev han skrev den 7 september 1910, åtta veckor innan han tog sitt sista andetag:

”Ju längre jag lever – och särskilt nu när jag tydligt känner att jag nalkas min död – desto större blir min vilja att uttrycka det jag känner starkare än något annat.”

Leo Tolstoj syftar med sina egna ord på ”avståendet från allt motstånd med våld och accepterandet av kärlekens doktrin bortom bortförklaringar.” ”Kärleken … är livets högsta och i djupare mening enda lag.” ”Varje användande av våld är oförenligt med kärlek”.

Tolstoj förundras över hur ett stort land som Indien med två hundra miljoner invånare kunde låta sig koloniseras av ett brittiskt kommersiellt företag. Han skriver:

”När människor lever i enlighet med de kärlekens lagar som lever i deras hjärtan och är uppenbara för dem, vilket utesluter varje användning av våld kan inte längre några hundra förslava miljoner, inte heller kan miljoner förslava en enda individ.

Fotnot: Letters from One: Correspondence (and more) of Leo Tolstoy and Mohandas Gandhi; including ‘Letter to a Hindu’ kan köpas som ebook via Amazon för $3 här.

I sin introduktion till Tolstojs ”A Letter to a Hindu” skriver Mahatma Gandhi:

INTRODUCTION

The letter printed below is a translation of Tolstoy’s letter written in Russian in reply to one from the Editor of Free Hindustan. After having passed from hand to hand, this letter at last came into my possession through a friend who asked me, as one much interested in Tolstoy’s writings, whether I thought it worth publishing. I at once replied in the affirmative, and told him I should translate it myself into Gujarati and induce others’ to translate and publish it in various Indian vernaculars.

The letter as received by me was a type-written copy. It was therefore referred to the author, who confirmed it as his and kindly granted me permission to print it.

To me, as a humble follower of that great teacher whom I have long looked upon as one of my guides, it is a matter of honour to be connected with the publication of his letter, such especially as the one which is now being given to the world.

It is a mere statement of fact to say that every Indian, whether he owns up to it or not, has national aspirations. But there are as many opinions as there are Indian nationalists as to the exact meaning of that aspiration, and more especially as to the methods to be used to attain the end.

One of the accepted and ’time-honoured’ methods to attain the end is that of violence. The assassination of Sir Curzon Wylie was an illustration of that method in its worst and most detestable form. Tolstoy’s life has been devoted to replacing the method of violence for removing tyranny or securing reform by the method of non-resistance to evil. He would meet hatred expressed in violence by love expressed in self-suffering. He admits of no exception to whittle down this great and divine law of love. He applies it to all the problems that trouble mankind.

When a man like Tolstoy, one of the clearest thinkers in the western world, one of the greatest writers, one who as a soldier has known what violence is and what it can do, condemns Japan for having blindly followed the law of modern science, falsely so-called, and fears for that country ’the greatest calamities’, it is for us to pause and consider whether, in our impatience of English rule, we do not want to replace one evil by another and a worse. India, which is the nursery of the great faiths of the world, will cease to be nationalist India, whatever else she may become, when she goes through the process of civilization in the shape of reproduction on that sacred soil of gun factories and the hateful industrialism which has reduced the people of Europe to a state of slavery, and all but stifled among them the best instincts which are the heritage of the human family.

If we do not want the English in India we must pay the price. Tolstoy indicates it. ’Do not resist evil, but also do not yourselves participate in evil—in the violent deeds of the administration of the law courts, the collection of taxes and, what is more important, of the soldiers, and no one in the world will enslave you’, passionately declares the sage of Yasnaya Polyana. Who can question the truth of what he says in the following: ’A commercial company enslaved a nation comprising two hundred millions. Tell this to a man free from superstition and he will fail to grasp what these words mean. What does it mean that thirty thousand people, not athletes, but rather weak and ordinary people, have enslaved two hundred millions of vigorous, clever, capable, freedom-loving people? Do not the figures make it clear that not the English, but the Indians, have enslaved themselves?’

One need not accept all that Tolstoy says—some of his facts are not accurately stated—to realize the central truth of his indictment of the present system, which is to understand and act upon the irresistible power of the soul over the body, of love, which is an attribute of the soul, over the brute or body force generated by the stirring in us of evil passions.

There is no doubt that there is nothing new in what Tolstoy preaches. But his presentation of the old truth is refreshingly forceful. His logic is unassailable. And above all he endeavours to practise what he preaches. He preaches to convince. He is sincere and in earnest. He commands attention.

[19th November, 1909] M. K. GANDHI