Gandhi Ate Meat, too.

Gandhi's childhood friend, the "tragedy" in his life, Sheik Mehtab believed in the powers of meat-eating. He told the young Gandhi:

"We are a weak people because we do not eat meat. The English are able to rule over us, because they are meat-eaters. You know how hardy I am, and how great a runner too. It is because I am a meat-eater. Meat-eaters do not have boils or tumours, and even if they sometimes happen to have any, these heal quickly. Our teachers and other distinguished people who eat meat are no fools. They know its virtues. You should do likewise. There is nothing like trying. Try, and see what strength it gives." (4)

Mehtab also argued that meat-eating would cure Gandhi's other problems, including his irrational fear of the dark. Gandhi observed that both Mehtab and Gandhi's brother, also a meat-eater, possessed greater physical strength and athletic ability than himself. Gandhi saw indications that meat-eating produced stronger and more courageous men, not only in the British culture, but in India as well. The Kshatriyas, the warrior caste of India, had always eaten meat, and it was generally thought that their diet was one of the sources of their strength. (5) With these arguments, Mehtab eventually convinced Gandhi, well hidden from his parents, to eat meat. At first, Gandhi abhorred it. "The goat's meat was as tough as leather. I simply could not eat it. I was sick and had to leave off eating." (6) However, now that Mehtab knew that Gandhi was convinced of the benefits of eating meat, he would surrender. At extraordinary expense, he managed to get a room in a restaurant and have meat expertly prepared by a trained chef. After eating meat in this manner, hidden from his parents, Gandhi "became a relisher of meat-dishes, if not the meat itself." (7) Yet this came at a price for the painfully honest young Gandhi. He knew that every time he ate meat, he broke an implicit promise to his parents, especially his mother, who would have regarded her youngest son's meat-eating with horror. Gandhi vowed to give up meat, though he thought at the time, as he said in his autobiography, that "it is essential to eat meat, and also essential to take up food 'reform' in the country." He tempered his decision by promising himself that "when they are no more and I have found my freedom, I will eat meat openly, but until that moment arrives, I will abstain from it." (8) Thus, Gandhi based his decision not on the morals or ideals of vegetarianism, but on his desire to honor his parents. Gandhi, by his own admission, was not a true vegetarian. Only his respect for his parents forced him to remain a vegetarian. Gandhi believed in eating meat, because he believed that only by fighting, through physical strength, would his country be free.