Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was inspired by Leo Tolstoy to follow the path of ahimsa. Having read much of the Russian author’s work, Gandhi called him “a great teacher whom I have long looked upon as one of my guides”.

Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God is Within You left an abiding impression on Gandhi, and made him a firm believer in ahimsa.

Gandhi exchanged letters with Tolstoy in the last year of the latter’s life, which left an indelible impression on him.

It all started with an Indian revolutionary, Taraknath Das, asking for the Russian’s support for India’s fight against the British in 1909.

Tolstoy’s letter to Das was published in the ‘Free Hindustan’ newspaper, which made its way to Gandhi, who was in South Africa then. Image Courtesy: SAADA

Gandhi started his correspondence with Tolstoy seeking permission to republish the letter in his South African publication called ‘Indian Opinion’ under the title ‘A Letter to a Hindu’.

This exchange grew into a year-long correspondence that lasted until a few weeks before Tolstoy’s death on 7 November, 1910.

Tolstoy opened each chapter of ‘A Letter To a Hindu’ with a passage from the Mahabharata and challenged ideologies that promoted violence.

“There is one old and simple truth. It is natural for men to help and to love one another, but not to torture and to kill one another,” he wrote.

He told Gandhi, “Love is the only way to rescue humanity from all ills, and in it, you too have the only method of saving your people from enslavement.”

In another letter, Tolstoy spoke about non-violence and said, “Any employment of force is incompatible with love.”

Gandhi, in his introduction to Tolstoy’s ‘A Letter to a Hindu’, notes that the Russian author’s experience as a soldier in the Crimean War (1853-56) gave him a unique insight into what violence can do.

“If we do not want the English in India we must pay the price. Tolstoy indicates it: Do not resist evil [with violence], but also do not yourselves participate in evil — and no one in the world will enslave you,” wrote Gandhi.

Deeply influenced by Tolstoy, Gandhi called his farm in South Africa ‘Tolstoy Farm’, which served as headquarters for his Satyagraha campaign.

“Undoubtedly Count Tolstoy has profoundly influenced him (Gandhi),” wrote Reverend Joseph Doke, Gandhi’s first biographer.

“The old Russian reformer, in the simplicity of his life, the fearlessness of his utterances, and the nature of his teaching on war and work, have found a warmhearted disciple in Mr Gandhi.”