In September 1888, a 19-year-old Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi sailed from Bombay to England with a clear goal: to study law and become a barrister. What began as a quest for Western education and social acceptance turned into a profound journey of self-discovery. His attempt to transform himself into an “English gentleman” would become one of the most formative experiences of his early life, teaching him invaluable lessons about identity, authenticity, and the importance of staying true to one’s roots.
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Arriving in a foreign world
When Gandhi stepped off the ship at Tilbury Docks in late October 1888, he was painfully shy and overwhelmed. The bustling metropolis of Victorian London was completely alien to the young man from Porbandar. Even during his seven-week voyage, he had spent most of his time in his cabin, too embarrassed to ask which dishes contained meat. He survived on fruit and sweets brought from home, already struggling with the promise he had made to his mother before departure.
Before leaving India, Gandhi had made a solemn vow to his mother that he would not touch wine, women, or meat during his stay in England. This promise would prove both challenging and character-defining. In Victorian England, vegetarianism was considered a peculiar habit, and finding meat-free meals became an immediate struggle. He would walk ten to twelve miles searching for vegetarian restaurants, often settling for bland bread and jam when he found nothing suitable.
The pursuit of the English gentleman ideal
A turning point came when Gandhi’s friend, Palpatram Shukla, invited him to dinner at the Holborn Restaurant. When soup was served, Gandhi timidly asked the waiter if it was vegetable soup. This innocent question angered Shukla, who snapped at Gandhi that he was “too clumsy for society” and told him to leave if he could not behave himself. This humiliation stung deeply, and Gandhi later recalled promising Shukla that he would become polished and make up for his vegetarianism by cultivating other accomplishments that fit one for polite society.
Outward transformation
Determined to shed his clumsiness and fit into British society, Gandhi embarked on what he would later call “the all too impossible task of becoming an English gentleman.” He believed that the clothes he had brought from Bombay were of the wrong cut for London. He went to the Army and Navy Stores in Victoria Street and bought new Western clothes. He purchased a silk top hat for nineteen shillings and spent ten pounds on an evening suit from Bond Street, the center of fashionable London.
A contemporary Indian student, Sachchidanand Sinha, encountered Gandhi walking through Piccadilly Circus in February 1890 and recorded his appearance. Gandhi wore a high silk top hat, a stiff Gladestonian collar, a flashy rainbow-colored tie, a fine striped silk shirt, morning coat, double-breasted waistcoat, dark striped trousers, patent leather boots with spats, and carried leather gloves and a silver-mounted walking stick. To complete his transformation, he even requested a heavy gold chain from his brother in India to hold a pocket watch across his jacket.
Cultural refinement efforts
Gandhi believed that becoming a true English gentleman required more than just fashionable clothing. He enrolled in dancing lessons at three pounds per term, attending classes twice a week. However, after three weeks, he realized that the smooth rhythms of Western ballroom dancing were beyond him. Undeterred, he then tried violin lessons, paying another three pounds for instruction. He also took elocution classes for a guinea, hoping to suppress his Indian accent and speak with the polished tones of an educated Englishman.
This phase of imitation consumed both his finances and his energy. His monthly expenses reached significant amounts, creating a substantial financial strain for a student living on limited funds sent by his family. More importantly, despite all these efforts, Gandhi found himself feeling increasingly uncomfortable and disconnected from his true self.
The moment of clarity
The turning point came unexpectedly while Gandhi was reading Bell’s Standard Elocutionist, a textbook for his elocution lessons. As he later wrote, “a bell rang in my mind’s ears” with a simple realization: Was he going to spend the rest of his life in England? How would dance lessons help him back home in India? He could learn the violin when he returned. He was in England as a student, and he should acquire only one asset: learning.
Abandoning the facade
With this realization, Gandhi wrote to his elocution and dance teachers explaining his decision to stop the lessons. He took his violin to his music teacher, who understood and appreciated his honesty about recognizing that learning dance and music had been “a kind of delusion.” The desire to be an English gentleman had held him in its grip for approximately three months before he finally broke free from its influence.
Gandhi made a crucial decision that would define his future philosophy. He moved to cheaper lodgings and drastically reduced his expenses to just one shilling and three pence per day. He started cooking his own breakfast of porridge and cocoa, dining on bread and cocoa at night. This simple lifestyle taught him self-reliance and showed him that happiness did not depend on material possessions or social acceptance.
Finding authentic purpose
Ironically, it was in London that Gandhi discovered a meaningful connection to his own cultural heritage. His struggle to maintain vegetarianism led him to discover a vegetarian restaurant on Farringdon Street. There, he purchased Henry Salt’s treatise “A Plea for Vegetarianism” for one shilling. Reading this book transformed his perspective entirely. Gandhi later recalled that from the day he read Salt’s book, he became a vegetarian by choice rather than mere obligation. What had been a restrictive vow to his mother became a joyful commitment grounded in ethical conviction.
Gandhi joined the London Vegetarian Society and was elected to its executive committee in September 1890. Through this organization, he met progressive thinkers and reformers who exposed him to ideas about simple living, social reform, and ethical principles. This diverse group showed him that meaningful change could come from grassroots organizing rather than top-down authority.
Embracing simplicity and authenticity
Gandhi’s experiences in London gradually shifted his values from material success to spiritual and ethical development. His failed attempts at becoming an English gentleman taught him that external appearances and material possessions could not bring true satisfaction or respect. This realization marked the beginning of his lifelong commitment to simplicity and non-possession. He began to see voluntary simplicity not as deprivation but as freedom from the burden of unnecessary wants.
While Gandhi continued his legal studies at the Inner Temple and successfully passed his examinations, the real education happened in his personal transformation. He was called to the Bar on June 10, 1891, and enrolled at the High Court the next day. However, anyone who saw him dressed fashionably could never have suspected the frugal life he had chosen to live.
Lessons that shaped a leader
Gandhi’s quest to become an English gentleman lasted only three months, but the lessons learned during this period shaped the rest of his life. He discovered that true belonging comes from within, not from external validation or conformity to another culture’s standards. His shift from trying to be the English gentleman to embracing his authentic self marked the beginning of a deeper understanding of his purpose in life.
The realization that he was neither fully English nor fully Indian, but uniquely his own person, laid the groundwork for his later ideologies. His ideas on non-violence and self-reliance, which would become the backbone of his political philosophy and approach to social reform, were rooted in this early experience of choosing authenticity over acceptance. By returning to his authentic self, Gandhi unlocked a deeper form of personal and social freedom that would resonate in his fight for Indian independence.
Gandhi’s journey in England was far more than an academic chapter. It was a profound personal transformation that highlighted the significant struggle between the pressure to conform to external cultural norms and the desire to remain true to oneself. His experience serves as a powerful reminder that the path to genuine strength and influence lies not in imitating others but in discovering and cultivating one’s own authentic identity.
What do you think? Have you ever found yourself trying to fit into expectations that didn’t align with your true self? What helped you recognize and return to your authentic identity?
References
- https://www.innertemple.org.uk/who-we-are/history/historical-articles/gandhi-jayanti/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi
- https://banotes.org/gandhi-contemporary-world/gandhi-london-education-transformation-ideologies/
- https://thedailyguardian.com/when-gandhi-tried-becoming-an-english-gentleman/
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