Kasturba Gandhi

Kasturba Gandhi was born to wealthy businessman Gokuladas Kapadia of Porbandar. She was married to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi through arrangement. Gandhi was thirteen and Kasturba was fourteen when they married.

Mahatma Gandhi taught her how to read and write. She joined her husband in political protests.

Kasturba was very religious minded. She took Gandhi's place when he was under arrest, and was always closely associated with the struggle in India, giving encouragement to women volunteers.

In the year 1906, Mohandas Gandhi made up his mind to practice Brahmacharya. Like a good wife, Kasturba always stood by the side of her husband, even if she didn't approve of some of his ideas.

Kasturba Gandhi suffered from the problem of chronic Bronchitis. To top it, the stress level caused during the Quit India Movement's arrests aggravated her illness. Her health began to decline. The situation got worse, when she got victimized by pneumonia. Her husband disagreed with her idea to go in for penicillin. On February 22, 1944, she had a major heart attack and she died.