Gandhiji with members of the Vegetarian Society , London


Original Location + Cardinal Points: London, England,  Europe

Present Location: Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, New Delhi

Date/Period: 1890 

Medium: Photograph

Introduction

The young Gandhi (front centre-right) at the VFU Conference in Portsmouth, May 6, 1891. The Vegetarian Society, London was founded in 1847 which published its own weekly journals. Gandhi joined this society and subscribed to the weekly. Gandhi was a member of the London Vegetarian Society in London, beacme its executive Secretary and subsquently wrote articles for periodiocal of the Society.

Social Significance

The Vegetarian Movement in England was something more than its name implied. It was a kind of backwash of the ideas expressed in the Transcendentalism of Emerson, Thoreau and Walt Whitman. Thoreau Societies and Walt Whitman Groups had sprung up in England. Along with them were such organizations as the Socialist League and the Fellowship of New Life. The Vegetarian Society had close links with those organizations. So it happened that the vegetarianism that Gandhi discovered in England was rooted in the current humanitarian and socialist ideals. As Pyarelal writes: “They were Socialists because they were humanitarians and because they were humanitarians they were drawn into the ferment of the Vegetarian Movement.” He points out that though Gandhi did not become acquainted with Thoreau’s works till 1907, Thoreau’s thoughts percolated down to him indirectly through the English vegetarians. The well from which he imbibed was thus the one in which the civilization of both the East and the West had often dipped and grated together.

Stories and Legends

In England Mohandas had to live on boiled vegetables, bread, porridge, cheese and other insipid food. He was always hungry. He was told that there were some vegetarian restaurants in London, but nobody could tell him where. One day while wandering around, he came across the Central Vegetarian Restaurant at 16 Saint Bride Street, off Farringdon Street. He was overjoyed; and after many days, had a hearty meal. Soon he came to know that there was an active Vegetarian Society in London. This Vegetarian Society in England published its own weekly journal. The young Gandhi not only joined the Society but was drawn into its executive committee and became the Secretary. Sir Edwin Arnold, eminent among the vegetarians, was the Society’s President for a while. Gandhi, barely eighteen years old now, arrived at the truth that “the real seat of taste was not the tongue, but the mind”—a remarkable discovery for a youth of his age. He came into contact with the “pillars of vegetarianism”, and this was the starting point of his life-long interest in dietetics.