M. K. GANDHI comes of an influential family of noble lineage, and was born in Porbander, on the 2nd of October, 1869, where his father, Karam Chand, was Prime Minister to the Thakur Sahib of Rajkot. He was the youngest of three children in the Dewan Sahib's family. After matriculating from Ahmedabad, Mohan Das, the subject of the present sketch, wanted to graduate from the Bhavnagar College, but a shrewd Brahmin friend, who was Gandhi's adviser, suggested that he should proceed to London and qualify for the Bar, if he meant to acquire influence and fame. Mohan Das' brother, with characteristic generosity, sold the greater part of his property to supply the younger brother with funds that would make the contemplated adventure possible. But his mother, who had heard of the numerous temptations to which youth may succumb in London, was greatly perturbed in her mind, and consented only when the young Mohan Das took a solemn vow —a threefold vow of renunciation—that he would on principle abstain from meat, wine and women.
In spite of strong incitements to the contrary, Gandhi refused to touch meat even on social functions, though he took rather kindly to dancing and violin i64 playing, which he soon gave up as being a not quite congenial recreation. It must have been an amusing sight when Gandhi, dressed in coloured flannels, arrived at Hotel Victoria, one September morning, in i888, and was puzzled to see so many Londoners' gaze fixed on his picturesque dress ! He was convinced that some very rough weather was in store for him in London ! Throughout his stay in London he scorned delights and lived laborious days, and his joy knew no bounds when in 189 1 he was called to the Bar as member of the Inner Temple, one of the most exclusive of the Inns of Court. He always lived frugally, seldom letting his weekly expense exceed i, and carefully abstaining from every form of luxury.
He made numerous English friends in London. He was very fond of listening to Archdeacon Farrar's sermons, but Dr. Parker of the City Temple was his
favourite preacher, of whom he never tired. A friend asked him to promise to read the Bible he presented to Gandhi, but by the time he finished Eiodus, Gandhi gave it up in despair, as he did not understand a word of what he read.
Gandhi met with the first serious disappointment in his life, when on his return from London in 1891, he learnt that his mother was dead. It was a cruel, stunning shock which his friends and relatives tried to withhold from Gandhi, concealing the news from him. Gandhi was duly received back into the family after submitting to the purificatory rites, secretly performed by the priests, even though the members of his community were at first so indignant over his contemplated visit to England that they entirely washed their hands of him. He wanted to settle down to legal practice in Kathiawar, when a famous Indian firm engaged his services, to defend an important law-suit to be launched in South Africa.
His experiences with the people in South Africa were very unpleasant and embittering, and greatly disillusioned him. For the first time, he felt that, as an Asiatic, he was looked down upon as member of a race that had no political standing. He was often offered insult while travelling, his furniture being pitched out after him. Ridicule and insult would be poured on him because of the dark pigmentation of his skin. Later, when he applied to be enrolled as Advocate of the Supreme Court, the Law Society of South Africa resisted the application on the ground that coloured barristers could not be given that status. But wiser counsels prevailed with the Supreme Court authorities, and the barrister of Inner Temple, London, was actually enrolled as Advocate.
After having met with a most cordial reception in London, these tragic and humiliating incidents sent cold shivers through his blood. But his courtesy and humility never forsook him, and he would often disarm opposition by the force of his genial and affable disposition.