Kasturba Gandhi
Kasturba Gandhi, 1869-1944. social and political worker, wife of Mahatma Gandhi. Daughter of a prosperous businessman of Porbander, Kathiawar, she was married at the age of 13 to Mohandas Karam chand Gandhi, the son of the prime minister of Rajkot State. Illiterate at the time of marriage, she was taught to read and write by her husband. Kasturba had five children, one of whom died in infancy. In 1897, she joined her husband in South Africa, and worked there till 1914, along with her husband ; she led the women’s satyagraha there for which she was imprisoned. In 1901 both husband and wife took the vow of celibacy.
On return to India in 1915 she joined her husband in the cause Indigo workers in Champaran, Bihar, and took-an active part in the ‘No Tax Campaign’ in Kaira, Gujarat, in 1918. She was arrested in 1931 and again in 1932 for picketing liquor and foreign cloth shops. In 1939 she was arrested for participating in the Rajkot satyagraha and was released only when Mahatama Gandhi began his fast. She was arrested in August 1942, when proceeding to address a meeting of protest against the arrest of her husband and was lodged in a detention camp along with her husband in Pune. She looked after her husband when he undertook a 21-day fast in February 1943. Her health later broke down, and she died in detention on 22 February 1944. A Kasturba Gandhi Memorial Trust was set up through public subscription for the service of village women and children.
A deeply religious lady, she once considered untouchability as part of her religion, though she later renounced all caste distinction, and worked whole-heartedly for harijan welfare, and eradication of untouchability. She lived a very simple and austere life.
