# Letter to a Hindu (14 December 1908) is issued as a nonviolence text later introduced by Gandhi

Date: 1908

## The fact

On 14 December 1908 [Tolstoy](/people/leo-tolstoy) dated Letter to a Hindu, a reply on Indian subjection and non-participation in violent rule. Gandhi later introduced an English printing.

It is one event.

## Context

The Marxists Internet Archive carries the letter with Gandhi’s introduction; the Gandhi Heritage Portal is a separate institutional page. Correspondence is influence, not a shared ashram office. Do not assign 1919–47 campaigns to 1908 Yasnaya Polyana.

Leo Tolstoy’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

Conventional years are 1828–1910. Surviving public files are later museum pages, collected-works sites, library catalogues, and encyclopedias. Tolstoy did not typeset those later pages.

Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers are the surviving public file.

## Evidence and sources

The public 1908 letter text and the Gandhi Heritage Portal independently document the Tolstoy–Gandhi nonviolence file.

Official or archival record: Tolstoy, Letter to a Hindu (1908) with Gandhi’s introduction (https://www.marxists.org/archive/tolstoy/1908/letter-to-a-hindu.html; Marxists Internet Archive / public Tolstoy text).

## Significance

Democratic-resistance path. High confidence on the 1908 letter; medium on unique later campaign coefficients.

## What is established and what is not

Established: the 1908 letter exists and Gandhi later circulated it. Not established: that Gandhi’s 1906 Transvaal oath was this letter.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Leo Tolstoy.

They are not a public rating.

The driver `democratic-resilience` is attached because the mechanism named in Significance follows from this instrument, not because a standing list of welfare headings needed another tick. Leo Tolstoy did not file a later UNESCO form, a later Loeb colophon, or a later museum label as a personal act. A portrait or conventional bust is not this mechanism. Allegation, reconstruction, and established occurrence stay distinct. A letter is not an ashram. Keep 1908 off 1930. Keep the carrier date of later English distinct from the received historical year stored in the date field. Do not read a later English edition as a recovered autograph of Leo Tolstoy.

## People

- Leo Tolstoy: https://factrail.ai/people/leo-tolstoy

## Drivers

- Democratic Resilience: https://factrail.ai/drivers/democratic-resilience

## Sources

- https://www.gandhiheritageportal.org/
- https://www.marxists.org/archive/tolstoy/1908/letter-to-a-hindu.html

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/lt-letter-to-a-hindu-1908