We can also discover in the little boy a hint of that passion for reforming others which

later became so dominant a trait of the Mahatma, though in this case the zeal almost
led him astray. Impelled by a desire to reform a friend of his elder brother's, one
Sheikh Mehtab, he cultivated his company and imbibed habits which he had to regret
later. This friend convinced him that the British could rule India because they lived on
meat which gave them the necessary strength. So Mohandas who came on orthodox
vegetarian family took to tasting meat clandestinely, for patriotic reasons. But apart
from the inherited vegetarian sentiment which made him feel, after he had once
swallowed a piece, as if "a live goat were bleating inside me", he had to wrestle with
the knowledge that such clandestine repasts would have to be hidden from his
parents which would entail falsehood on his part. This he was reluctant to do. And so
after a few such experiments he gave up the idea, consoling himself with the
reflection : "When they are no more and I have found my freedom, I will eat meat
openly."
While he was still in high school, he was married, at the age of thirteen, to Kasturbai
who was also of the same age. For a boy of that age marriage meant only a round of
feasts, new clothes to wear and a strange and docile companion to play with. But he
soon felt the impact of sex which he has described for us with admirable candour.
The infinite tenderness and respect which were so marked a characteristic of his
attitude in later life to Indian women may have owed something to his personal
experience of "the cruel custom of child marriage", as he called it.