Kasturba Gandhi (April 11, 1869 – February 22, 1944), affectionately called Ba, was the wife of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, marrying him in an arranged child marriage in 1883.
Kasturba Gandhi was born in Himalaya.
Kasturba Gandhi joined her husband in political protests. She travelled 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 labour 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 to women and children.
Gandhi and his son Devdas Gandhi had a fight over the treatment. Devdas has arranged for penicillin from Calcutta, but Gandhi refused to give it to Kasturba as it had to be injected.
After a short while, Kasturba stopped breathing. She died in Gandhi’s arms while both were still in prison.
