Kasturbaa Gāndhi કસ્તુરબા ગાંધી
Born	(1869-04-11)11 April 1869 Porbandar, Bombay Presidency, British India
Died	22 February 1944(1944-02-22) (aged 74) Aga Khan Palace, Poona, Bombay Province, British India
Other names	Ba
Known for	Wife of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Religion	Hinduism

Kastürbā Gāndhi (born Kasturba Makhanji)^[1] (Gujarati: કસ્તુરબા ગાંધી, Hindi: कस्तूरबा गाँधी) (11 April 1869 – 22 February 1944) was the wife of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, marrying him in an arranged marriage in 1882.

Early life and background[link]

Born to wealthy businessman Gokuladas Kapadia of Porbandar, Kasturba was arranged to be married to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Both were thirteen years old at their wedding. When Gandhi left to study in London in 1888, she remained in India to raise their newborn son Harilal. She had three more sons: Manilal (1892), Ramdas (1897), and Devdas (1900).

Political career[link]

Working closely with her husband, Kasturba Gandhi became a political activist fighting for civil rights and Indian independence from the British. After Gandhi moved to South Africa to practice law, she traveled to South Africa in 1897 to be with her husband. From 1904 to 1914, she was active in the Phoenix Settlement near Durban. During the 1913 protest against working conditions for Indians in South Africa, Kasturba was arrested and sentenced to three months in a hard labor prison. Later, in India, she sometimes took her husband's place when he was under arrest. In 1915, when Gandhi returned to India to support indigo planters, Kasturba accompanied him. She taught hygiene, discipline, reading and writing.

Health and death[link]

Kasturba Gandhi with Mohandas Gandhi in the 1930s.

Gandhi and his wife Kasturba Gandhi (1902)

Kasturba suffered from chronic bronchitis due to complications at birth. While her husband could move his mind from one thing to another, she would sometimes brood over troubles. Stress from the Quit India Movement's arrests and hard life at Sabarmati Ashram caused her to fall ill. Kasturbai fell ill with bronchitis which was subsequently complicated by pneumonia.

In January 1944, Kasturba suffered two heart attacks. She was confined to her bed much of the time. Even there she found no respite from pain. Spells of breathlessness interfered with her sleep at night. Yearning for familiar ministrations, Kasturba asked to see an Ayurvedic doctor. After several delays (which Gandhi felt were unconscionable), the government allowed a specialist in traditional Indian medicine to treat her and prescribe treatments. At first she responded—recovering enough by the second week in February to sit on the verandah in a wheel chair for a short periods, and chat… then came a relapse. The doctor said Ayurvedic medicine could do no more for her. To those who tried to bolster her sagging morale saying "You will get better soon," Kasturba would respond, "No, my time is up." Shortly after seven that evening, Devdas took Mohandas and the doctors aside. In what he would later describe as "the sweetest of all wrangles I ever had with my father," he pleaded fiercely that Ba be given the life saving medicine, even though the doctors told him her condition was beyond help. It was Mohandas, after learning that the penicillin had to be administered by injection every four to six hours, who finally persuaded his youngest son to give up the idea. "Why do you want to prolong your mother's agonies after all the suffering she has been through?" Gandhi asked. Then he said, "You can't cure her now, no matter what miracle drug you may muster. But if you insist, I will not stand in your way."^[2]

After a short while, Kasturba stopped breathing. She died in Gandhi's arms while both were still in prison, in Poona (now Pune).^[3]

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kasturba Gandhi

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