O P Sharma
Kasturba Gandhi was a pious and virtuous woman and in her own right holds high place in the Indian society. She was married to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Father of the Nation) in 1882 when she was merely 13 years of age and illiterate but later on Gandhiji taught her to read and write and she gradually carved out a pride place in the minds of millions of people.
Born on April 11, 1869; Kasturba was daughter of a prosperous businessman Gokuldas of Porbandar in Gujarat. She was quite simple, sublime and a devout wife. When Gandhiji left for London in 1888, she did not accompany him as she was tendering as a mother the son, Harilal born earlier that very year. The couple had four sons and it was in 1906 that Gandhi ji decided to observe Brahamacharya and both observed the vow of chastity.
Devout Woman
Gandhi was himself a man of his words, strict discipline and high moral values which he constantly practised during his long political public life. He was involved in his experiments with truth and strictly adhered to the gospel of non-violence and truth during the freedom movement. He often got jail terms or remained engrossed in political work resulting in lesser attention to his own domestic household or family matters.
Under towering Mahatma Gandhi; Kasturbaji, it seems, willingly merged herself in his personality. Admittedly, she was “sole moving spirit” behind the tallest of Indian freedom movement leader Mahatma Gandhi.
Partner in Struggle
There is enough evidence to indicate that Kasturba worked alongside her husband from the days of agitation in South Africa to improve working conditions for the Indians there and also during the period of India’s freedom struggle. In fact, she eventually joined the struggle to better the lot of millions of Indians. In September, 1913, Kasturba was arrested and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.
On numerous subsequent occasions in India, she took Gandhiji’s place when he was in prison and was always closely associated with the freedom movement providing a source of encouragement especially to women volunteers.
Kasturba would have developed into a very considerable figure in her own right but sadly she rarely received the attention she deserved. She showed an independence of spirit and Gandhi’s autobiography records an incident when he was almost tempted, in a moment of acute anger, to throw her out of the home. He had asked that she should contribute, as did everyone else at their Ashram, to menial tasks; and though she agreed, she refused to clean the toilets, and flatly refused to do so. There were also disagreements between them on the care of their sons, whom Kasturba (like some others as well) believed had been neglected by their father. Gandhi, on the other hand, took the view that as his sons, they were not entitled to special privileges. Harilal, in particular, caused his mother great sorrow and when he once arrived at her bedside during her last illness, she burst into tears.
“Gandhiji once told Kasturba that her father imposed on her a companion whose weight would have killed any other woman. I treasure her love she must remain courageous to the end”. Kasturba believed courageously to the very end.
Once Gandhiji, while reacting to being a “cruel husband” told his friend G.A. Natesan in Madras “I have more than once implored her to live away from me and save herself from the discomfort and live happily with her children. But she would not. She, like the faithful Hindu wife, insists on following me wherever I go.”
Source of Strength
Mohandas Gandhi and Kasturba remained married for sixty-two years, but it is one of the marriages about which we know very little, though Gandhi’s own life has been recorded in very minute details. We do not really know, for example, how she felt about the presence of other women who were to become Gandhi’s followers and devotees.
Though volumes have been written about the life, contributions and ideals of the Father of the Nation and his proud legacy but pretty little has been chronicled on his better half. Perhaps, the women had yet to have their really rightful status. ln our times, however, the education, empowerment and enlightenment have brought females to the forefront with promise of equality and gender justice enshrined in our Constitution framed in January, 1950. There were sacred bonds of affectionate relationship between Gandhi and Kasturba based on mutual respect and confidence as husband-wife in Indian cultural system. During the ‘Quit India’ movement, Kasturba joined her husband in detention at the Aga Khan’s Palace in Poona (now Pune) and it was there that she passed away at 7.35 pm on February 22, 1944 while Gandhiji was at her bedside. After her death, Gandhiji was never the same and later observed “We were a couple outside the ordinary. It was (n 1906 that by mutual consent and after, unconscious trials, we definitely adopted self-restraint as a rule of life. To my great joy this knit us together as never before. We ceased to be two different entities without my wishing it; she chose to lose herself in me. The result was she became truly my better half. She was woman always of very strong will which in our early days I used to mistake for obstinacy. But that strong will enabled her to become, quite unwittingly, my teacher in the art and practice of non-violent non-co-operation.
Kasturba was a symbol of inspiration, source of strength and true life partner to the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. Kasturba also affectionately known as Ba, who still lives in the hearts of millions of people.
(Starline Syndicate Service)
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