Biographical Sketch: Kasturba Gandhi
Biographical Sketch: Kasturba Gandhi Kasturba Gandhi was a renowned figure for all of India and was always there to help Mohandas Gandhi out. Kasturba was born on April 11, 1869 to Gokuladas Makharji, a wealthy business man. She married Mohandas Gandhi in 1882 when she was only 13 years old. At that time she could not read or write because she hadn’t had the proper schooling. Mohandas taught to both read and write and that would come in handy later when she was delivering speeches that led India to its independence. This was also a dangerous move considering the roles and places of India and the caste system. Kasturba and Mohandas had their first child right before Mohandas had to leave for a business trip so Kasturba stayed in India to tend to the child. After the first one they had three more together until in 1906 Mohandas decided to observe brahamacharya and from there on they never had sexual relations. She was very religious minded and broke many barriers in the caste system and also supported her husband in all of his political views. She also had her own view and spoke out against working conditions in South Africa for Indians which is just one example of her many times speaking out. She supported hygiene, discipline, reading, and writing to women and children. Kasturba suffered from chronic Bronchitis and the stress on top of that she had tremendous amount of stress during the Quit India Movements arrest also aggravated her illness. She contracted pneumonia but her husband disagreed with the use of penicillin. She died of a major heart attack on February 22, 1944. Gandhi died in January 30, 1948 after Kasturba and he were married for 62