In India’s history, letters have played a significant role — in driving revolutions, calling for freedom of women, strengthening political relations and diplomatic ties, and keeping thousands of love stories alive.

Letters led to elephants being sent to Tokyo, setting up India’s first Indian Psychoanalytical Society and led to Anandibai Joshi becoming India’s first female doctor.

Here are 10 such letters that have left an indelible mark in India’s history:

Manilal Doctor, an envoy of Mahatma Gandhi, played a major role in securing legal rights and freedom for indentured labourers in Fiji in the early 1907.

It started with a letter written by these Indians to Gandhi, which he published in the newspaper Indian Opinion. The letter, which highlighted the ill-treatment of the British, was read by Doctor.

He stayed in Fiji for four years and helped labourers, who were forced to work on cane and sugar plantations without getting paid, by fighting their cases in court, writing their letters and petitions.

He played a big role in ending the indenture system and also helped Indians get their political and economic rights.

During the Emergency in 1975, Madhu Dandavate, former union finance minister, and his wife Pramila, former member of Parliament, were jailed in Bengaluru and Yerawada respectively.

Separated after 23 years of marriage, the couple, products of the freedom struggle, exchanged nearly 200 letters over their 18 months of incarceration.

Their letters, which discussed music, poetry, books, philosophy and politics, were a testament of how their love translated into resistance against an authoritarian regime.

When Pramila seemed despondent, Madhu wrote, “As long as our spine is in place, who can possibly touch our life together?”

Their letters show us that their love was not selfish, they toiled for freedom and dignity for themselves, and the nation.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru are a........

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