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Authors: Mahatma Gandhi

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 … I directed my attention to other details that were supposed to go towards the making of an English gentleman. I was told it was necessary for me to take lessons in dancing, French and elocution.… I decided to take dancing lessons at a class and paid down three pounds as fees for a term. I must have taken about six lessons in three weeks. But it was beyond me to achieve anything like rhythmic motion. I could not follow the piano and hence found it impossible to keep time.… I thought I should learn to play the
violin in order to cultivate an ear for Western music. So I invested three pounds in a violin and something more in fees. I sought a third teacher to give me lessons in elocution and paid him a preliminary fee.… He recommended Bell’s
Standard Elocutionist
as the textbook, which I purchased.…

But Mr. Bell rang the bell of alarm in my ear and I awoke.

I had not to spend a lifetime in England, I said to myself. What then was the use of learning elocution? And how could dancing make a gentleman of me? The violin I could learn even in India. I was a student and ought to go on with my studies. I should qualify myself to join the Inns of Court. If my character made a gentleman of me, so much the better. Otherwise I should forego the ambition.

This infatuation must have lasted about three months. The punctiliousness in dress persisted for years.…
4

 … In India I had never read a newspaper. But here I succeeded in cultivating a liking for them by regular reading. I always glanced over the
Daily News, The Daily Telegraph
and
The Pall Mall Gazette
. This took me hardly an hour. I therefore began to wander about. I launched out in search of a vegetarian restaurant. The landlady had told me there were no such places in the city. I would trot ten or twelve miles each day, go into a cheap restaurant and eat my fill of bread but would never be satisfied. During these wanderings I once hit on a vegetarian restaurant.…

The sight of it filled me with the same joy that a child feels on getting a thing after its own heart.… I noticed books for sale exhibited under a glass window near the door. I saw among them Salt’s
Plea for Vegetarianism
. This I purchased … and went straight to the dining room. This was my first hearty meal since my arrival in England.…

I read Salt’s book … and was very much impressed by it.… I blessed the day on which I had taken the vow before my mother. I had all along abstained from meat in the interests of truth and of the vow I had taken, but had wished at the same time that every Indian should be a meat-eater, and had looked forward to being one myself freely and openly some day and to enlisting
others in the cause. The choice was now made in favor of vegetarianism.…
5

A convert’s enthusiasm for his new religion is greater than that of a person who is born in it.… Full of the neophyte’s zeal for vegetarianism I decided to start a vegetarian club in my locality.… The club went well for a while but came to an end in the course of a few months. For I left the locality according to my custom of moving from place to place periodically. But this brief and modest experience gave me some little training in organizing and conducting institutions.
6

I was elected to the Executive Committee of the Vegetarian Society and made it a point to attend every one of its meetings but I always felt tongue-tied.…

This shyness I retained throughout my stay in England. Even when I paid a social call the presence of half a dozen or more people would strike me dumb.

It was only in South Africa that I got over this shyness though I never completely overcame it. It was impossible for me to speak impromptu. I hesitated whenever I had to face strange audiences and avoided making a speech whenever I could. Even today I do not think I could or would even be inclined to keep a meeting of friends engaged in idle talk.

I must say that beyond occasionally exposing me to laughter, my constitutional shyness has been no disadvantage whatever. In fact … it has been all to my advantage. My hesitancy in speech, which was once an annoyance, is now a pleasure. Its greatest benefit has been that it has taught me the economy of words. I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. And I can now give myself the certificate that a thoughtless word hardly ever escapes my tongue or pen. I do not recollect ever having had to regret anything in my speech or writing. I have thus been spared many a mishap and waste of time.… Proneness to exaggerate, to suppress or modify the truth, wittingly or unwittingly, is a natural weakness of man and silence is necessary in order to surmount it. A
man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech, he will measure every word. We find so many people impatient to talk.… All this talking can hardly be … of any benefit to the world. It is so much waste of time. My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth.
7

Let no one imagine that my experiments in dancing and the like marked a stage of indulgence in my life … even then I had my wits about me. That period … was … relieved by a certain amount of self-introspection on my part. I kept account of every farthing I spent and my expenses were carefully calculated. Every little item, such as [bus] fares or postage or a couple of [pennies] spent on newspapers would be entered and the balance struck every evening before going to bed. The habit has stayed with me ever since and I know that as a result, though I have had to handle public funds amounting to thousands I have succeeded in exercising strict economy in their disbursement and instead of outstanding debts have had invariably a surplus balance in respect to all the movements I have led.…

As I kept strict watch over my way of living I could see it was necessary to economize.…
8

 … The thought of my struggling brother who nobly responded to my regular calls for monetary help deeply pained me.…
9

So I decided to take rooms on my own … and also to [move] from place to place according to the work I had to do.… The new arrangement combined walks and economy as it meant a saving of fare and gave me walks of eight or ten miles a day. It was mainly this habit of long walks that kept me practically free from illness throughout my stay in England and gave me a fairly strong body.
10

 … This was also a period of intensive study. Plain living saved me plenty of time and I passed my examination.

Let not the reader think this manner of living made my life by any means a dreary affair.… The change harmonized with my
inward and outer life. It was also more in keeping with the means of my family. My life was certainly more truthful and my soul knew no bounds of joy.
11

[The purpose for which Gandhi came to England receives only a few lines in his reminiscences, far fewer than his dietetic adventures. He was admitted as a student at the Inner Temple on November 6th, 1888. In addition to law, he learned French and Latin, and physics.]

The curriculum of study was easy.… Everyone knew the examinations had practically no value.… There were regular textbooks prescribed for these examinations … but scarcely anyone read them.… Question papers were easy and examiners were generous.… [The examinations] could not be felt as a difficulty.

But I succeeded in turning them into one. I felt I should read all the textbooks. It was a fraud, I thought, not to read these books. I invested much money in them. I decided to read Roman Law in Latin.… And all this reading was not without its value later on in South Africa where Roman Dutch is the common law. The reading of Justinian, therefore, helped me a great deal in understanding the South African law.

It took me nine months of fairly hard labor to read through the Common Law of England.…

I passed my examinations, was called to the bar on the 10th of June, 1891, and enrolled in the High Court on the 11th. On the 12th I sailed for home.
12

[Gandhi does not seem to have been happy in England. It was a necessary interim period: he had to be there to get professional status. In
Young India
of September 4, 1924, he said his college days were before the time “when … I began life.”
13
Gandhi was not the student type, he did not learn essential things by studying. He was the doer, and he grew and gained knowledge through action. The Gita, Hinduism’s holy scripture, therefore became Gandhi’s gospel, for it glorifies action.]

1
M. K. Gandhi,
The Story of My Experiments with Truth
, Part I, Chapter 13, p. 38.

2
Ibid.
, Part I, Chapter 15, p. 43.

3
Louis Fischer,
The Life of Mahatma Gandhi
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951), Part I, Chapter 3, p. 24.

4
M. K. Gandhi,
Experiments
, Part I, Chapter 15, pp. 43–45.

5
Ibid.
, Part I, Chapter 14, p. 41.

6
Ibid.
, Part I, Chapter 17, p. 50.

7
Ibid.
, Part I, Chapter 18, pp. 50–53.

8
Ibid.
, Part I, Chapter 15, pp. 44–45.

9
Ibid.
, Part I, Chapter 15, p. 47.

10
Ibid.
, p. 45.

11
Ibid.
, p. 47.

12
Ibid.
, Part I, Chapter 24, pp. 66–68.

13
Louis Fischer,
Life of Gandhi
, Part I, Chapter 3, p. 28.

[  3  ]
GANDHI FAILS

[At Bombay] my elder brother had come to meet me at the dock.…

I was pining to see my mother. I did not know that she was no more in the flesh to receive me.… The sad news was now given me.… My brother had kept me ignorant of her death, which took place whilst I was still in England. He wanted to spare me the blow in a foreign land. The news, however, was none the less a severe shock to me.… My grief was even greater than over my father’s death.… But I remember that I did not give myself up to any wild expression of grief. I could even check the tears and took to life just as though nothing had happened.
1

My relations with my wife were still not as I desired. Even my stay in England had not cured me of jealousy. I continued my squeamishness and suspiciousness in respect to every little thing.… I had decided that my wife should learn reading and writing and that I should help her in her studies but my lust came in the way and she had to suffer for my own short-coming.…

 … My brother had children and my own child [Harilal] was now a boy of nearly four. It was my desire to teach these little ones physical exercise and make them hardy and also to give them the benefit of my personal guidance. In this I had my brother’s support and I succeeded in my efforts more or less. I very much liked the company of children and the habit of playing and joking with them has stayed with me till today. I have ever since thought that I should make a good teacher of children.
2

[Gandhi performed all the duties of a husband except to support his wife and child; he had no money.

Laxmidas Gandhi, a lawyer in Rajkot, had built high hopes on
his younger brother. But Mohandas was a complete failure as a lawyer in Rajkot as well as in Bombay.]

[It] was difficult to practice at the bar. I had read the laws but not learned how to practice law.…

Besides, I had learned nothing at all of Indian law.… I had serious misgivings as to whether I should be able to earn even a living by the profession.
3

About this time I took up the case of one Mamibai. It was a “small cause.” …

This was my debut in the Small Causes [Small Claims] Court. I appeared for the defendant and had thus to cross-examine the plaintiff’s witnesses. I stood up but my heart sank into my boots. My head was reeling and I felt as though the whole court was doing likewise. I could think of no question to ask. The judge must have laughed and the other lawyers no doubt enjoyed the spectacle. But I was past seeing anything. I sat down and told the agent I could not conduct the case, that he had better engage [another lawyer] and have the fee back from me. [The other lawyer] was duly engaged.…

I hastened from the Court not knowing whether my client won or lost her case but was ashamed of myself and decided not to take up any more cases until I had courage enough to conduct them. Indeed I did not go to court again until I went to South Africa.…
4

Disappointed, I left Bombay and went to Rajkot where I set up my own office. Here I got along moderately well.…
5

[Laxmidas, who had financed Gandhi’s studies in England, was even more disappointed at his brother’s failure to carry out a delicate mission for him.]

My brother had been secretary and adviser to the late [heir to the throne of Porbandar] and hanging over his head at this time was the charge of having given wrong advice when in that office. The matter had gone to the [British] Political Agent, who was prejudiced against my brother. Now I had known this officer when in England and he may be said to have been fairly friendly to me. My brother thought I should avail myself of the friendship and, putting
in a good word on his behalf, try to disabuse the Political Agent of the prejudice. I did not at all like this idea. I should not, I thought, try to take advantage of a trifling acquaintance in England. If my brother was really at fault, what use was my recommendation? If he was innocent he should submit a petition in the proper course and, confident of his innocence, face the result. My brother did not relish this advice. “… Only influence counts here. It is not proper for you, a brother, to shirk your duty when you can clearly put in a good word about me to an officer you know.”

I could not refuse him so I went to the officer much against my will. I knew I had no right to approach him and was full conscious that I was compromising my self-respect. But I sought an appointment and got it. I reminded him of the old acquaintance but I immediately saw that … an officer on leave was not the same as an officer on duty. The Political Agent owned the acquaintance but the reminder seemed to stiffen him. “Surely you have not come here to abuse that acquaintance, have you?” appeared to be the meaning of his stiffness and seemed to be written on his brow. Nevertheless I opened my case.… “Your brother is an intriguer. I want to hear nothing more from you. I have no time. If your brother has anything to say let him apply through the proper channel.” The answer was enough, was perhaps deserved. But selfishness is blind. I went on with my story. The [Agent] got up and said “You must go now.”

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