->UrielAcosta at 00:22, 28 December 2021

2021-12-28T00:22:51Z

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{{short description|Letter from Leo Tolstoy about the Indian independence movement in 1908}}
"'''A Letter to a Hindu'''" (also known as "'''A Letter to a Hindoo'''") was a letter written by [[Leo Tolstoy]] to [[Tarak Nath Das]] on 14 December 1908.<ref name=gandhi>{{Citation
| last = Parel
| first = Anthony J.
| author-link = Anthony Parel
| contribution = Gandhi and Tolstoy
|editor=M. P. Mathai |editor2=M. S. John |editor3=Siby K. Joseph
| title = Meditations on Gandhi : a Ravindra Varma festschrift
| pages = 96–112
| publisher = Concept
| place = New Delhi
| year = 2002
| contribution-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kcpDOVk5Gp8C&pg=PA96 |access-date=2012-09-08}}
</ref> The letter was written in response to two letters sent by Das, seeking support from the Russian author and thinker for India's independence from [[British Raj|colonial rule]]. The letter was published in the Indian newspaper ''[[Free Hindustan]]''. The letter caused the young [[Mahatma Gandhi|Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi]] to write to Tolstoy to ask for advice and for permission to reprint the ''Letter'' in Gandhi's own South African newspaper, ''[[Indian Opinion]]'', in 1909. Gandhi was living in South Africa at the time and just beginning his activist career. He then translated the letter himself, from the original English copy sent to India, into his native [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]].<ref name=gandhi/>

In "A Letter to a Hindu", Tolstoy argued that only through the principle of love could the [[Indian people]] gain independence from colonial rule. Tolstoy saw the law of love espoused in all the world's religions, and he argued that the individual, [[nonviolent]] application of the law of love in the form of [[protest]]s, [[Strike action|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]].

In this letter, Tolstoy mentions the works of [[Swami Vivekananda]]. This letter, along with Tolstoy's views, preaching, and his 1894 book ''[[The Kingdom of God Is Within You]]'', helped to form Mohandas Gandhi's views about nonviolent resistance.<ref name=gandhi/>

The letter introduced Gandhi to the ancient [[Tamil language|Tamil]] moral literature, the [[Tirukkuṛaḷ]], which Tolstoy referred to as 'Hindu Kural'.<ref name="tirukkuṛaḷ">{{cite web
| url = http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/2733/
| title = A Letter to A Hindu: The Subjection of India-Its Cause and Cure
| last = Tolstoy
| first = Leo
| date = 14 December 1908
| website = The Literature Network
| publisher = The Literature Network
| access-date = 12 February 2012
| quote = THE HINDU KURAL}}</ref> Gandhi then took to studying the Kural while in prison.<ref name="MohanLal_Encl">{{cite book |author=Mohan Lal |title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Sasay to Zorgot |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KnPoYxrRfc0C&pg=PA4341 |year=1992 |publisher=Sahitya Akademi |isbn=978-81-260-1221-3}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Leo Tolstoy bibliography]]
* [[Tirukkural]]
* [[Christian anarchism]]
* [[Mahatma Gandhi]] (1929) ''[[The Story of My Experiments with Truth]]''
* [[Turn the other cheek]]
* [[Tolstoy Farm]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikisource|A Letter to a Hindu}}
* [http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/2733/ A Letter To A Hindu, by L. Tolstoy, with introduction by M. Gandhi]
* [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7176 A Letter To A Hindu] by L. Tolstoy, with introduction by M. Gandhi

{{Leo Tolstoy| state=uncollapsed}}
{{Gandhi}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Letter to a Hindu, A}}
[[Category:Letters (message)]]
[[Category:1908 documents]]
[[Category:Works by Leo Tolstoy]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Mahatma Gandhi]]
[[Category:Tolstoyan movement]]

A Letter to a Hindu - Revision history

->UrielAcosta at 00:22, 28 December 2021