Merch
News
Panchangam
Apps
Downloads
For Teachers
Resources
About
PEOPLE
IDEAS
PLACES
CULTURE
CREATE
STORIES
GAMES
Kasturba Gandhi
कस्तूरबा गांधी
The silent strength behind the Mahatma — the mother of the nation
Years
1869 – 1944
Known as
Kasturba Gandhi — the wife of Mahatma Gandhi
Birthplace
Porbandar, Gujarat
Field
Freedom Fighters
“I am not afraid of prison — the jail is the home of every true servant of Bhārat.”
— Kasturba Gandhi
The Story
Born in 1869 in Porbandar and married to Mohandas Gandhi at thirteen, Kasturba was an unlettered village girl who grew, through a lifetime beside the Mahatma, into one of the great women of the freedom movement. She was his first pupil and his sternest critic — the one person who could argue with the Mahatma and hold her ground.
She followed him to South Africa, where she joined the satyagraha campaigns and went to prison for the rights of the people of Bhārat. Back in Bhārat, she marched in the salt satyagraha, worked for the uplift of women and the removal of untouchability, and served in the ashrams with the same simplicity as the humblest worker.
In 1942, both Gandhi and Kasturba were imprisoned in the Aga Khan Palace after the Quit India call. There, in 1944, her failing health gave way; Gandhi held her hand as she died, and the whole nation mourned the woman who had been, in his own words, his 'better half'. She was the mother of the nation in every sense.
Core Ideas
The Companion of the Mahatma
Sixty-two years beside Gandhi through every struggle.
The Satyagrahi
She went to prison in South Africa and Bhārat.
The Social Worker
She worked for women and against untouchability.
The Quit India Prisoner
Imprisoned with Gandhi in 1942.
Death in Detention
She died in the Aga Khan Palace in 1944.
Why it matters today
Kasturba Gandhi is honoured as the mother of the nation — the woman whose quiet strength carried the Mahatma and whose sacrifice matched his own. Her memory is kept alive by the Kasturba trusts that work for rural women, and her life remains the proof that the freedom of Bhārat was built by its women as much as by its men.