Walking in Gandhiji's shadow: The extraordinary life of Kasturba

Kasturba took the difficult - and, for the times, unheard of - choice of stepping into political and social activism alongside her husband

- DEEPA GAHLOT

Every October 2, on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary, the country pays tribute. Maybe it is also time to honour the woman who stood by him through all the tribulations of the freedom struggle. Gandhi involved her in the movement, and she proved to be a true companion.

In her time, women were expected to stay home and look after the family; people do not even know the names of the wives of the other leaders at the forefront of the fight for independence. Kasturba Gandhi did not fade away into the background - partly because of her husband's reformist zeal, but also because of her own courage. It is a belated testimony to her indomitable personality, that the net lists her as "Indian political activist Mahatma Gandhi's wife" and not the other way round. Kasturba Kapadia's family arranged her match with Mohandas, the son of a family friend; they were both seven when they were engaged and 13 when they were married. In keeping with the tradition at the time, she stayed at her parents' home for a few years, leaving the adolescent husband pining for her (he wrote as much over the years of prolific writing).

Like many young women then, she was not totally subservient to her husband. On the mkgandhi.org site, historian Vinay Lal has been quoted: "Kasturba never acceded to her husband's wishes easily, and Gandhi's autobiography itself furnishes are remarkable testimony to her tenacity and independence of judgement, and the sharp disagreements she came to have with him when, in the first two decades of their marriage, he unreasonably sought to bring her under his control." Kasturba became pregnant when she was just 17 and lost her first child. Soon after their second son, Harilal, was born, Gandhi decided to go to London, while Kasturba remained in India. It must have been a difficult time for her, but it was also the fate of many women whose husbands migrated for work or education, leaving the wives to fend for themselves.