When Tolstoy Wrote to Gandhi: The Untold Story of Their Letter Exchange

Discovering Tolstoy: Gandhi’s Awakening

Gandhi first encountered Tolstoy not through fiction but through philosophy. The book The Kingdom of God Is Within You struck him like a revelation. Its uncompromising message—that the teachings of Christ demanded love over violence—resonated deeply with Gandhi’s own search for truth. He later admitted that Tolstoy’s work “overwhelmed” him and gave him the courage to embrace Ahimsa, or nonviolence, not as a lofty ideal but as a practical guide to action.

In Gandhi’s words, Tolstoy was “a great teacher whom I have long looked upon as one of my guides”. This admiration laid the foundation for their eventual exchange.

A Letter to a Hindu: The Beginning of Dialogue

The story of their correspondence begins not with Gandhi but with another Indian revolutionary, Taraknath Das. In 1908, Das sought support from Tolstoy for India’s violent struggle against British colonialism. Tolstoy replied with a remarkable essay-length letter, dated 14 December 1908, which argued that India’s liberation could not be won through violence but only through love and moral resistance.

This letter, later published in the paper Free Hindustan, came into Gandhi’s hands in South Africa. Recognising its profound message, he asked Tolstoy for permission to republish it in his journal Indian Opinion. Tolstoy agreed, and Gandhi reissued it under the title “A Letter to a Hindu”. This marked the beginning of their epistolary relationship and set the stage for one of the most extraordinary cross-cultural intellectual exchanges of the 20th century.

Tolstoy’s Final Testament: The Law of Love

In his correspondence with Gandhi, Tolstoy returned again and again to what he called the “law of love”. This principle, he argued, was the only true moral law, the force capable of saving humanity from destruction. Force and love, he insisted, were mutually exclusive—where one existed, the other perished.

In his letter of 7 September 1910, just two months before his death, Tolstoy wrote with striking urgency:

“The longer I live—especially now when I clearly feel the approach of death—the more I feel moved to express what… is of immense importance… the renunciation of all opposition by force… the doctrine of the law of love unperverted by sophistries.”

Tolstoy’s clarity of thought—delivered with the gravity of a man at the edge of life—made a deep impression on Gandhi, who saw in these words both affirmation and guidance.

Elsewhere in his letters, Tolstoy emphasised the spiritual nature of this truth:

“Love, or in other words the striving of men’s souls towards unity and the submissive behavior to one another that results therefrom, represents the highest and indeed the only law of life …”

These words, written by a man at the end of his journey, carried the weight of a lifetime’s reflection. For Gandhi, they were both an affirmation and a challenge.

Gandhi’s Response: Toward Satyagraha

Gandhi, then leading the Indian community in South Africa, responded with humility and gratitude. He shared with Tolstoy his experiments in what he would later call Satyagraha—truth-force or soul-force. Gandhi’s practice of collective nonviolent resistance among the Indian diaspora in South Africa was, in many ways, the real-world application of Tolstoy’s moral philosophy.

Tolstoy, in turn, recognised the significance of Gandhi’s efforts. In March 1910, he wrote back, remarking that Gandhi’s approach to nonviolent resistance was not only important for India but for “the whole of mankind”. For Tolstoy, Gandhi was proof that the law of love was not merely theoretical—it could be lived and practiced.

Tolstoy Farm: Ideas Made Flesh

The influence of Tolstoy’s writings on Gandhi was not confined to letters. In 1910, Gandhi, with his friend Hermann Kallenbach, established a commune in South Africa which they named Tolstoy Farm. Here, families lived simply, worked collectively, and practiced the principles of nonviolence, truth, and self-reliance.

Tolstoy Farm became the training ground for Gandhi’s movement, a space where philosophy was tested against daily life. It was both homage to Tolstoy and a seedbed for Gandhi’s future campaigns in India. What Tolstoy expressed in words, Gandhi transformed into practice.

The Shared Legacy

Though their correspondence lasted barely a year—Tolstoy died in November 1910—their intellectual kinship left lasting echoes. Gandhi carried Tolstoy’s moral clarity into the heart of India’s freedom struggle, fusing it with indigenous traditions of Ahimsa. What emerged was a unique synthesis: Tolstoy’s universal law of love wedded to Gandhi’s pragmatic Satyagraha.

The chain of influence did not end there. Gandhi’s nonviolence, itself nurtured by Tolstoy’s thought, later inspired global movements—from Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States to Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Across decades and continents, the echoes of those letters continued to ripple.

Why Their Letters Still Matter

The exchange between Tolstoy and Gandhi was more than a dialogue between two thinkers. It was a transmission of moral vision across cultures, generations, and historical contexts. In an age riven by wars, colonisation, and violence, their letters spoke of an alternative path—one rooted not in might but in conscience.

Today, as societies wrestle with cycles of conflict and injustice, their correspondence remains startlingly relevant. Tolstoy’s insistence that love and violence cannot coexist, and Gandhi’s proof that nonviolent resistance can alter the course of history, together form a timeless message: real power lies not in domination but in truth and love.

Two Voices, One Legacy

When Tolstoy wrote to Gandhi, he could not have known that his words would shape a global movement. And when Gandhi replied, he could not have foreseen that he would become the century’s most powerful advocate of nonviolent resistance. Yet, in their letters, a bridge was built—between East and West, between philosophy and action, between thought and transformation.

The untold story of their exchange is not just a historical footnote—it is a reminder of how ideas travel, inspire, and live on. Tolstoy gave Gandhi the language of love as resistance; Gandhi gave Tolstoy’s vision a living embodiment. Together, they left humanity with a radical truth: that nonviolence, far from being passive, is the most transformative force in the world.

Also read: Top 10 Leo Tolstoy Quotes That Still Resonate Today