Kasturba Gandhi

She had been married to Mohandas Gandhi for over six decades, yet only a few details about their marriage are known to the world. Even though a remarkable woman with an independent streak, her works were always overshadowed by those of her more famous husband’s.

She suffered from two heart attacks in January 1944 and never recovered fully. She died on 22 February 1944, in the arms of her husband.

Kasturba was born on April 11, 1869, in Porbandar, to Gokuldas Makanji, a merchant, and his wife Vrajkunwerba Kapadia. Not much is known about her early life except for a few basic facts.

Her father was a friend of Karamchand Gandhi, the father of Mohandas Gandhi. Both the men decided to get their children married in order to bring their families closer.

Child marriage was a commonly practiced custom in 19th century India and thus the marriage of Kasturba was fixed with Mohandas, and the children were betrothed to each other when they were seven years old.

The young couple got married in 1882 and started living together as husband and wife. Initially they got to know each other as friends and played together before they became mature and realized the actual implications of married life.

Kasturba was illiterate at the time of her marriage and Mohandas took it upon himself to educate her. He painstakingly taught her the alphabets, and taught her to write. But she could not learn much because of her domestic responsibilities and also because she did not share her husband’s enthusiasm for education.

With time their relationship evolved and soon she gave birth to her first son, Harilal, in 1888. When Mohandas left India to study in London, she could not accompany him as she had to stay back to raise their son.

Over the next few years she remained deeply involved in familial chores and gave birth to two more sons: Manilal in 1892 and Ramdas in 1897.

Her husband meanwhile was gaining in fame due to his political activism. She too worked closely with her husband and accompanied him to South Africa when he went there to practice law in 1897. She gave birth to the couple’s fourth son, Devadas, in 1900.

Since Mohandas was busy in political activism, he was unable to give their sons much of his time. So a major portion of the great responsibility of raising the sons also fell upon the young mother’s shoulders.