colony along Tolstoian lines.[1] He called upon his compatriots, gave them land, and made them take the solemn oath of poverty. He took upon himself the humblest tasks.
For years the silent colony resisted the Government. It withdrew from the cities, gradually paralyzing the industrial life of the country, carrying on a sort of religious strike against which violence—all violence—was powerless, just as the violence of imperial Rome was powerless against the faith of the
- ↑ A long letter from Tolstoi to Gandhi is published in the “Golden Number” of “Indian Opinion.” It was written September 7, 1910, shortly before Tolstoi’s death. Tolstoi had read “Indian Opinion,” and he was gratified to hear of the Indian non-resisters. He praised their campaign and says that non-resistance is the law of love, an aspiration to form part of the communion of human souls. It is the law of Christ and of all the spiritual leaders of the world.
My friend Paul Biroukoff found several other letters from Tolstoi to Gandhi in the Tolstoi archives at Moscow. He is planning to publish them in a volume entitled “Tolstoi and the Orient,” adding them to several other letters written by Tolstoi to various great men of the East.
