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About this quote

What does it mean?
The quote states that Indian enslavement by violence stems from a history of violence and a failure to recognize love's eternal law.
In plain terms
Violence be self was because people live by violence, ignoring love.
What can you take from it?
Cultivate love to break cycles of violence.

Where it applies

  • peacebuilding
  • education
  • spiritual practice

Putting it to work

  • teach non‑violent principles
  • promote empathy

Questions to consider

  • What is the 'eternal law of love'?
  • How can societies shift from violence?

Another view

Assumes a single cause for complex social issues.

More from Leo Tolstoy

  1. When the Indians complain that the English have enslaved them it is as if drunkards complained that the spirit-dealers ...have enslaved them. You tell them tha…

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  2. As soon as men live entirely in accord with the law of love ...which excludes all resistance by violence, and therefore hold aloof from all participation in vi…

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  3. What does it mean that thirty thousand men, not athletes but rather weak and ordinary people, have subdued two hundred million vigorous, clever, capable, and f…

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