Character Analysis
This guy is one of Gandhi's sons. His big scene in The Story of My Experiments with Truth is when he's 10 years old and gets super sick with typhoid plus pneumonia and signs of delirium (3.22.1). Yeesh.
The doctor wants to give Manilal meat broth and eggs, but Gandhi decides that advice goes against the family's vegetarianism, saying his faith is being tested. "Even for life itself we may not do certain things," he says (3.22.5). Manilal agrees with his father, and Gandhi tries his home remedies. But Manilal remains sick, and Gandhi's faith is severely tested. Eventually, however, his son is healed.
The Manilal episode demonstrates just how strongly Gandhi believes in vegetarianism and just how much faith he and his family have.