He matriculated in 1887 and then went to college at Bhavnagar. But he could not follow the Lessons for they were in English. They were too difficult for him. After the first term, he left college.
One day, a family friend suggested that he should become a Barrister. Gandhi was willing and his father's brother agreed to finance him, saying, "I will not stand in your way. It is your mother's permission which really matters. If she permits you, then godspeed."
His mother was willing, provided he promised to keep off wine, women, and meat. Readily did Gandhi take an oath and had his mother's blessings to go. He sailed from Bombay for London on the 4th of September, 1888.
During the voyage, a fellow passenger drew him into conversation. He asked Gandhi why he was shy, what he ate, and who he was. He gave him all details. When Gandhi said he had taken an oath not to eat meat, the passenger said one could not possibly live without meat in England, as it was very cold there.
"I thank you for your kind advice, but I have solemnly promised my mother not to touch meat and therefore, I can't think of it. If it be found impossible to get on without it, I shall return to India."
"What is the use of a vow made before an illiterate mother and in ignorance of conditions in England?" replied the passenger. "It is no vow at all."
"I am helpless. A vow is a vow and it cannot be broken."
In due course, he reached England and stayed in London for three years.
These were the most eventful years of his life. The change from Bhavnagar to London was immense.
He lead a life of simplicity which made him morally strong as the years passed by, as did his mother's influence and her last minute injunctions to him kept him straight in the midst of provocations and temptations of London life.
While in London, he kept an account of every farthing. Every little item spent on bus fare or postage or on newspapers was entered in his account book and the daily account was closed for the day before he went to bed.
Here he cultivated the habit of regular reading newspapers like "The Daily News", "The Daily Telegraph", and the "Pall Mall Gazette." He spent an hour on them every day.
He would walk about ten to twelve miles a day and then enter a cheap vegetarian restaurant to eat his simple fare of bread and butter. During these wanderings, he came upon Henry Salt's "Plea for vegetarianism" which he bought for a shilling. He read it from cover to cover in the dining room of a vegetarian restaurant and was very much impressed by it. On the day he read the book, he wrote "I may claim to have become a vegetarian by choice. But God had come to my aid."
During his stay in London, Dr. P.J. Mehta visited him. When he was talking, Gandhi casually picked up the doctor's top hat and passed his hand over it the wrong way and disturbed the smooth surface of the fur. Dr. Mehta got angry, stopped him from doing it, and gave him a sermon on European etiquette.
"Do not touch other people's things; do not ask questions as we usually do in India on the first acquaintance; do not talk loudly; never address people as 'Sir' while speaking to them as we do in India. Only servants and subordinates address their masters that way."
In the beginning, he stayed in a hotel in London. Later, to save money, he moved into rented rooms. But he felt uneasy even in the new ones. He would always think of home and country. Memories of all sorts disturbed his sleep. "My mother's life always haunted me. At night tears would stream down my cheeks."
A friend of Gandhi wanted to make him strong by meat-eating. "Otherwise, you will remain weak and a duffer and will never feel at home in English society" he said to him. He, therefore, planned to make Gandhi eat meat without him knowing it. One day he took Gandhi to a hotel and ordered the food. The first course was soup. Gandhi wanted to know whether it was vegetable soup. His friend would not reply but became angry and said: "You are too clumsy for decent society. If you cannot behave yourself you had better go. Feed in some other hotel and wait for me outside."
This delighted him. Out he went and saved his conscience. He became a stauncher vegetarian thereafter. He gave up eggs (as they were considered as meat by his mother) and also all dishes made with eggs.
But Gandhi decided to learn the other social habits of the English. He bought new clothes and a chimney-pot hat costing nineteen shillings. He spent on an evening suit and asked for a double watch-chain of gold from his brother in Rajkot. As ready-made ties were out of fashion he learnt to tie one for himself. His hair not being soft, it meant a regular struggle with the brush to keep it in position. He wasted ten minutes every day before a huge mirror, watching himself, arranging his tie and parting his hair in the correct fashion.
As if all this were not enough, he decided to take dancing lessons and learn to play the violin. He also engaged a teacher to give him lessons in elocution. He did all towards the making of an English gentleman.
He was living in a suite of one sitting room and a bedroom. But he came across a number of students living more humbly than he. One of them was staying in the slums in a room at 2 sh. a week and living on two pence worth of cocoa and bread for meal. He felt he also could surely live in one room instead of two. That would save him four to five pounds a month. He thereupon rented a single room, invested in a stove and began cooking his own breakfast at home. He began to cook English dishes. Carrot soup was his specialty. "The process scarcely took me more than twenty minutes; there was only oatmeal porridge to cook and water to boil for cocoa." He ate lunch outside. Thus, he learnt to live on a shilling and three pence a day.
This was also a period of intensive study. "Plain living saved me plenty of time and I passed my examination", he wrote.
This new way of life was more in keeping with the means of his family. "My life was certainly more truthful and my soul knew no bounds of joy" he said enthusiastically.
As days passed by, he started a vegetarian club in his locality. Dr. Oldfield became its President, and Edwin Arnold its Vice-President and Gandhi was the Secretary.
"This life and modest experience gave me some little training in organising and conducting institutions" he reminisced in later years.
Yet, with all these social activities, he continued to be shy throughout his stay in London. Once at a vegetarian restaurant he was asked to speak. He had prepared his speech, and stood up to read it but he could not. He wrote: "My vision became blurred and I trembled." Finally, Muzumdar, his friend, had to read out the speech for him. There was another incident. On the eve of his departure for home, a public speech had to be made. He had thought out how and what he should speak when he stood up to speak, he began humorously about the maiden speech of Addison – how he conceived thrice and brought forth nothing. Alas! He himself could proceed no further; he says "My memory entirely failed me, and in attempting a humorous speech, I made myself ridiculous. 'I thank you gentlemen for having kindly responded to my invitation', I said abruptly and sat down."
In London he pretended to be a bachelor, but this led to an embarrassing situation for an old lady friend was trying to fix up an engagement for him with another lady. Gandhi was in a quandary and he wrote a letter in which he confessed that he was a husband and a father too. By return of post came the reply: "I have your frank letter. We were both glad and had a hearty laugh over it. The untruth you say you have been guilty of is pardonable."
"I thus purged myself of the canker of untruth" he said.
He sailed for India on 12th June, 1891.