The Week India – June 30, 2019

JUNE 30, 2019 • THE WEEK 77

that Gandhi’s obsession with celibacy

was akin to that of the early Christian

ascetics like St Augustine. Like the saint,

Gandhi also gave up sex in his thir-

ties. Leo Tolstoy, another infl uence on

Gandhi, also embraced celibacy in the

latter part of his life, calling it as a “man’s

liberation from his lusts”.

Tolstoy’s Th e Kingdom of God is Within

You infl uenced Gandhi’s doctrines of

non-resistance and satyagraha. Th e

doctrine of non-resistance demanded

that every injustice in social, political

and economic realms of human life

should be fought with just means. In

1908, Tolstoy wrote A Letter to a Hindoo

as a reply to Indian revolutionary C.R.

Das, who had challenged his ideas. Th e

letter argued that only through love could the

Indians free themselves from colonial rule.

Fascinated by the letter, Gandhi sought the

permission to publish it in his newspaper, the

Indian Opinion, in 1909. Tolstoy gave permis-

sion and they developed a bond of mutual

respect. He continued his correspondence

with Gandhi till his death. In 1910, when

Gandhi established his second ashram near

Johannesburg, he named it the Tolstoy Farm.

Th is farm became the cradle of his satyagraha

experiments.

Another book that shaped his political

consciousness is John Ruskin’s Unto this

Last, which he read during a train journey in

South Africa in 1904. “It gripped me,” Gandhi

wrote. “Johannesburg to Durban was a 24

hour’s journey. Th e train reached there in

FARM
DAYS
Gandhi (bottom right) with
his companions Albert
West (sitting, top left)
and Hermann Kallenbach
(with dog) at Tolstoy Farm,
South Africa

COURTESY:

GANDHI: AN ILLUSTRATED BIOGRAPHY/ROLI BOOKS/GETTY IMAGES