Kasturba Gandhi 154th Birth Anniversary: Kasturba Gandhi was born on April 11th, 1869 to Gokuladas Kapadia, a businessman, and Vrajkunwerba Kapadia, her mother. In 1833, when she married Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, she was one year older than Mohandas, who was 13 at the time. She was a prominent figure in the Indian Independence Movement, despite being largely overshadowed by her spouse throughout history.
Since she had never attended formal schooling, her spouse later taught her to read and write. She has four adult sons, but it is said that she never entirely recovered from the loss of her first child.
According to historian Vinay Lal, Kasturba never readily acquiesced to her husband’s wishes, and Gandhi’s autobiography provides remarkable evidence of her tenacity and independence of judgment, as well as the sharp disagreements she had with him during the first two decades of their marriage, when he unreasonably attempted to bring her under his control.
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Little-known facts about Kasturba Gandhi:
- Kasturba’s jewellery was also sold in order to generate funds for Gandhi’s legal education in England.
- She was frequently separated from her spouse with their young children, particularly when he travelled to South Africa and England. Eventually, they settled together in South Africa.
- She participated in South African politics, was courageous, and once aided Gandhi escape a white mob that was threatening him. She founded the Phoenix Settlement near Durban, where she assumed a position of authority and gained the respect and cooperation of all.
- In 1913, she was imprisoned for protesting against the mistreatment of Indian immigrants. While incarcerated, she led other women in prayer and urged educated women to teach illiterate women to read and write.
- She once led the women of Rajkot in a nonviolent liberation movement, for which she was imprisoned and placed in solitary confinement for over a month.
- When Gandhi took the vow of chastity in 1906, many reports indicate that she was opposed to it because it contradicted her role as a traditional Hindu wife.
- She stood in for Mahatma Gandhi while he was imprisoned and even addressed his devotees.
