Biomechanics

A letter to a Hindu was a letter written by Leo Tolstoy in late 1908, in response to two letters sent by Tarak Nath Das requesting his support for India's independence from colonial rule.

In it, Tolstoy claimed that the Indian people could only achieve their independence through the law of love, which he considered present in all the world's religions. He argued that its nonviolent application in protests, strikes and other forms of peaceful resistance was the only alternative to a violent revolution.

Moreover, this letter helped shape Mohandas Gandhi's views on nonviolent resistance. In fact, he wrote to Tolstoy asking permission to reprint it in his newspaper Indian Opinion in 1909, at which time Gandhi had just begun his career as an activist.