The Danish Peace Academy
Tolstoy and Gandhi and their Legacy Today
By: Christian
Bartolf. 
Summary:
“Tolstoy and Gandhi followed the principle of Nonviolence in interpersonal and international relations between individuals and organisations. There are many aspects of Nonviolence in today's life which could give us benefit in case we are prepared and willing to learn from Tolstoy and Gandhi. Four aspects of Nonviolence according to Tolstoy and Gandhi are of utmost importance and meaning for us today:
1) Good Labour / Bread Labour
2) Vegetarian / Vegan Ethics
3) Pacifism / Antimilitarism
4) Trusteeship
If we summarize the “gospel of renunciation” according to Tolstoy and Gandhi, we find the following basic ideas for our future action:
- creating empathy and compassion for the weakest whose lives are endangered;
- identifying with the poorest to contribute to their/our social and moral uplift;
- Emancipating society from all forces of violent fear and destruction.
Global emancipation will be only possible through the suppressed outcast(e)s of society who follow Truth on the pathway of Nonviolence. We should give an example!”
“During the preparation of my lecture on Tolstoy's and Gandhi's legacy for an international conference on “Nuclear weapons and Nonviolence” in Copenhagen (Denmark) on 2nd October 2004, I recollected by heart the basic ideas of both of them with reference to Labour, Nature, Peace and Property.
- 1) Good Labour / Bread Labour:
Tolstoy as well as Gandhi were influenced by the Christian writer
Timofej Bondarev and his plea for Bread Labour and by John Ruskin
and his plea for Good Labour. Both writers inspired Tolstoy and
Gandhi tremendously. The Russian peasant writer Bondarev described
the life as a peasant and gardener (agriculture and horticulture)
as the ideal life. He recommended students and academics to spend
one month per year as peasant or gardener, not in the city but in a
village. The English writer John Ruskin emphasized the value of
Good Labour which gives benefit to all mankind, most of all to the
weakest and poorest of society. Both writers drew inspiration from
the Gospels on Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ. Both writers
were Christians whose message convinced Tolstoy and Gandhi.
- 2) Vegetarian / Vegan Ethics:
Tolstoy became Vegetarian when he visited the slaughter-house in
Russia) and observed the slaughtering of animals for meat
production. He wrote an impressing essay on Vegetarian Ethics when
he described “The First Step” on the fragile path to
realize good principles and to reform the individual life: first to
fast and to contemplate the essence and meaning of life, then to
become Vegetarian and afterwards continue with new steps towards
the “Gospel of Renunciation”. Gandhi had been an ardent
believer in the ideas of Vegetarian Ethics since his student days
when he became member of the London Vegetarian Society and when he
met Henry Salt, the most important writer on the history and
philosophy of Vegetarianism. During all his life, Gandhi made
experiments with Vegetarian diets of various kinds: saltless diet,
fruitarian diet, abstention from cow's milk etc. In addition,
he made experiments with Nature Cure, inspired by Central European
writers. Gandhi combined Vegetarian Ethics and Nature Cure. He
struggled hard to observe the principles of Chastity and
Renunciation in thought, word and deed. And we know, he frequently
accused himself in failing, in being weak, not strong on his path
of Nonviolence - the same with Tolstoy who went almost
desperate and insane. Both, Tolstoy and Gandhi, knew that they were
not able to live up to their principles completely, but
nevertheless continued their “Experiments with Truth” on
the path of Nonviolence.
- 3) Pacifism / Antimilitarism:
Tolstoy and Gandhi advocated the abolition of the military, of
military conscription and the military system! They were opposing
any kind of war or civil war or military aggression, even the use
of the military as means of defending the borders, the territory,
the people or the democracy. Of course, Tolstoy and Gandhi learnt
their lessons in their life: Tolstoy as a soldier in the Crimean
War, Gandhi as a stretcher-bearer in the South African Boer War and
the so called Zulu Rebellion and in the First World War. Both,
Tolstoy and Gandhi, became followers of the principle of
Nonviolence, pure and simple, and Pacifists who advocated the end
of any war, the end of all wars. But both of them knew how immense
the struggle would become to secure State action in the desired
direction, because each would be afraid and distrustful of his
neighbour. Tolstoy's active support for conscientious
objectors to military service, not only in Russia, but also in
several other countries, was the basis for his sympathy and
solidarity in his correspondence with young Gandhi in South Africa.
Gandhi, in his later years, did not insist on imposing his own
principles on his contemporaries, like e.g. Nehru, but he kept his
principles until his very last days when he wanted to actively
reconcile the relations between India and Pakistan.
- 4) Trusteeship:
Tolstoy and Gandhi believed in God and knew that their individual
lives were given to them by God. They knew that they were trustees
in all respects. Everything that was given to them was only lent to
them. That meant: They were not forever the owners of their body,
of their intellect, of their life. Their ideal was to live
according to the principle that they should gain the confidence of
the weakest and poorest of their fellow citizens by acting in such
a nonviolent way that would benefit to the welfare of all:
Sarvodaya. And they knew that their relation to property would be
the same: only for a certain period of time during which they
fulfilled their duty for the benefit of all, not only for a
majority, but for everyone, every human being. Trusteeship was, in
principle, just another concept which they could find in the
Christian Gospels. And they could apply this principle of
Trusteeship to Democracy, Industry, Culture and Society. Of course,
this principle was excluding brute force or violence against any
owner or class of owners, but no owner deserved his wealth and
possessions unless he realized his individual and social
responsibilities to support and help everyone in the society, most
of all those outcast(e)s without public voice and vote. That is why
Tolstoy wanted to become himself a peasant, that is why Gandhi
wanted to become himself a farmer and weaver, that is why Tolstoy
supported the Vegetarian Pacifist farmers and craftsmen of the
Doukhobors, that is why Gandhi supported the outcast(e)s in his
society, the so called untouchable Dalits or Harijans.
If we summarize the “gospel of renunciation” according to Tolstoy and Gandhi, we find the following basic ideas for our future action:
- creating empathy and compassion for the weakest whose lives are endangered;
- identifying with the poorest to contribute to their/our social and moral uplift;
- emancipating society from all forces of violent fear and destruction.
Global emancipation will be only possible through the suppressed outcast(e)s of society who follow Truth on the pathway of Nonviolence. We should give an example!”
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