In September 1888, a nervous 18-year-old Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi boarded the SS Clyde from Bombay, bound for England. What awaited him was not just legal education, but a profound transformation that would shape his character and philosophy for decades to come. During his three years in London, Gandhi navigated cultural alienation, discovered vegetarianism as a moral choice, explored world religions, and quietly built the discipline that would later define his leadership of India’s independence movement.
Table of Contents
Arrival in London: puzzlement and resolve
Gandhi arrived in London after a seven-week voyage, having spent most of the journey in his cabin, too shy to interact with fellow passengers. He barely ate at the ship’s table because he could not bring himself to ask which dishes contained meat. This was not yet principled vegetarianism-it was obedience to a vow extracted by his mother, Putlibai, before he left India.
Before his departure, Gandhi had promised a Jain monk named Becharji Swami that he would abstain from wine, women, and meat during his stay abroad. His mother’s reluctance to let her youngest child venture into an unknown land was allayed only by this solemn vow. The decision to travel to England had not been easy-leaders of his Modh Bania subcaste had opposed the trip, even excommunicating him for violating what they considered Hindu religious principles.
Once in London, the bewildered young man from Gujarat found himself in the world’s largest city, home to approximately six million people. He initially stayed at the Victoria Hotel, then moved to lodgings with an Indian widow in Kensington. The food she served was technically vegetarian but, as Gandhi later described, rather bland-and he was too reticent to ask for more. He survived partly on sweets and provisions sent from India.
The vegetarian vow becomes a mission
Gandhi’s vegetarianism took a dramatic turn during one of his long walks through London. Struggling to find suitable food and often going hungry, he discovered a vegetarian restaurant on Farringdon Street. The sight filled him with joy-it was his first hearty meal since arriving in England.
In the doorway of that restaurant, Gandhi noticed books for sale. Among them was Henry Salt’s A Plea for Vegetarianism, published by the Vegetarian Society in 1886. He purchased it for a shilling and read it avidly. This book transformed his perspective entirely. As Gandhi later declared, from the day he read Salt’s treatise, he became a vegetarian by choice rather than merely by religious obligation.
Salt’s writings did more than justify Gandhi’s dietary practices-they connected vegetarianism to broader humanitarian and ethical principles. Gandhi threw himself into the vegetarian movement with what he called a neophyte’s zeal. He joined the London Vegetarian Society, subscribed to its weekly journal, and was elected to its executive committee in September 1890. He even formed a local vegetarian club in his Bayswater neighbourhood, though it dissolved when he moved elsewhere.
In May 1891, the London Vegetarian Society appointed Gandhi as their delegate to the Federal Vegetarian Union meeting in Portsmouth, where he finally met Henry Salt in person. Decades later, in November 1931, Gandhi would share a platform with the then-octogenarian Salt at a London Vegetarian Society meeting, publicly acknowledging the debt he owed to the author who had shaped his convictions.
Attempts to become an English gentleman
Gandhi’s early months in London were marked by an earnest-and somewhat comical-attempt to assimilate into English society. After being scolded by an Indian acquaintance for his awkwardness at a restaurant, Gandhi resolved to cultivate the accomplishments of polite society.
He purchased new clothes from the Army and Navy Stores in Victoria Street, including a chimney pot hat costing 19 shillings and an evening suit from Bond Street for ten pounds. A contemporary observer, Sachchidanand Sinha, described encountering Gandhi in Piccadilly Circus wearing a high silk top hat, a starched Gladstonian collar, a rainbow-coloured tie, a morning coat, patent leather boots with spats, and carrying a silver-mounted walking stick.
Gandhi enrolled for dancing lessons at three pounds per term, took up violin instruction for another three pounds, and even hired an elocution teacher to suppress his Indian accent. This infatuation with gentlemanly accomplishments lasted about three months before he regained his sense of proportion. He realised that with only three years in England, there was little point in mastering ballroom dancing-which, he admitted, proved beyond his abilities anyway.
Yet beneath this dandyish exterior, Gandhi practised strict economy. He meticulously accounted for every penny, reducing his daily expenses to one shilling and three pence. He cooked his own porridge and cocoa for breakfast, dined on bread and cocoa at night, and walked everywhere-habits that kept him healthy throughout his stay. This early training in financial discipline would later enable him to manage large public funds with complete integrity during India’s freedom struggle.
Exploring religion: the Gita, Bible, and spiritual insights
Through his vegetarian connections, Gandhi encountered members of the Theosophical Society, including the Olcott brothers and later figures like Annie Besant. These theosophists were studying the Bhagavad Gita alongside Edwin Arnold’s English verse translation, The Song Celestial, published in 1885.
When they asked Gandhi-assuming he would know Sanskrit-to help with certain words, he felt ashamed. As he confessed in his autobiography, he had never read the Gita either in Sanskrit or Gujarati. This embarrassment sparked a determination to study not only Hindu scriptures but also religious texts from other traditions.
Gandhi read The Song Celestial with growing admiration, later declaring it the finest English translation of the Gita. He also read Arnold’s The Light of Asia, a narrative poem about the Buddha. But it was the Christian Bible-particularly the New Testament’s Sermon on the Mount-that struck him most powerfully.
The teachings of Jesus in Matthew 5-7, especially the exhortation to turn the other cheek and return evil with good, resonated deeply with Gandhi’s Vaishnavite upbringing. He later wrote that his young mind tried to unify the teachings of the Gita, The Light of Asia, and the Sermon on the Mount. The principle that renunciation was the highest form of religion appealed to him greatly-a conviction that would shape his philosophy of non-violence and selfless action for the rest of his life.
Academic pursuits and lingering shyness
Gandhi was admitted as a student of the Inner Temple on 6 November 1888, paying fees of just over 140 pounds. He also attended classes at University College London, studying English literature. The legal curriculum at the Inns of Court was not particularly demanding-barristers were humorously known as dinner barristers because the main requirement was attending a certain number of dinners each term rather than rigorous study.
However, Gandhi approached his studies with characteristic thoroughness. He read Roman Law in Latin and studied Common Law from prescribed textbooks, though he later admitted he learned nothing of Indian law. He passed his examinations, was called to the Bar on 10 June 1891, enrolled in the High Court the following day, and sailed for India the day after that.
Throughout his time in England, Gandhi remained painfully shy. At vegetarian society meetings, he would stand up to speak and then sit down without uttering more than a few jumbled words. His farewell dinner on 11 June 1891 at the Holborn Restaurant proved no different. He had prepared a humorous speech about the politician Addison, who famously repeated “I conceive” three times without proceeding further. Gandhi got as far as the anecdote before his memory failed him entirely. He abruptly thanked the guests for coming and sat down.
The three vows: a foundation for life
What Gandhi carried back to India was more valuable than his legal qualification. He had kept his three vows to his mother-abstaining from meat, wine, and women-throughout his stay. This discipline, tested repeatedly by temptation and social pressure, had strengthened his character. He had discovered vegetarianism as an ethical position rather than mere tradition. He had encountered religious texts that would guide his philosophy of non-violence. And he had learned to live simply, accounting for every expense and finding contentment in austerity.
The shy, awkward young man who could not complete a simple speech would, decades later, address millions and negotiate with the British Empire. But the seeds of that transformation were planted in those three formative years in London, where a frightened student became a principled seeker of truth.
What do you think? How might Gandhi’s strict adherence to his vows during vulnerable years abroad have prepared him for the moral challenges of leading a non-violent independence movement? And what does his journey from obligation to conviction-particularly regarding vegetarianism-teach us about the difference between inherited beliefs and personally held principles?
References
- https://www.innertemple.org.uk/who-we-are/history/historical-articles/gandhi-jayanti/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mahatma-Gandhi
- https://millennialmatriarchs.com/2020/10/01/gandhi-the-vegetarian/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stephens_Salt
- https://ivu.org/marly-winckler/2170-gandhi-and-vegan-diet.html
- https://www.braingainmag.com/11-things-you-need-to-know-about-gandhi-london-years.htm
- https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/Mahatma-Gandhi-and-the-Bhagavad-Gita.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Song_Celestial
- https://americanvedantist.org/2014/articles/mahatma-gandhi-and-the-bhagavad-gita/
- https://southasia.ucla.edu/history-politics/gandhi/gandhi-law-student/
Leave a Reply