‘Kasturba Gandhi helped steer path of her husband’

Nagpur: Kasturba Gandhi put in a lot of efforts to steer her husband’s path, right from his career to freedom struggle. But the biggest injustice towards Kasturba is that she is always seen through the lens of a wife, mother and grandmother and not as a solitary person, said Tushar Gandhi, a thinker and great grandson of the Mahatma, on Monday.
He was delivering a lecture in the 26th edition of knowledge series organized by SGR Knowledge Foundation and Chitnavis Centre on ‘Kasturba: A remarkable life’, at Banyan Hall.
Gandhi brought to light Kasturba’s essence which is often lost in her husband’s shadow. He said, “Like others, even I made the mistake of not recognizing Kastur’s contribution. It is time to take corrective measures and take notice of her role in Mohandas’s life so that future generations know about her real personality.”
Speaking about the earlier days of their life, Gandhi said, “Kastur and Mohandas shared a long journey. Married at the age of 13, they got to know each other from a tender age. They grew up in neighbouring societies and it is possible that they even played together as kids.”
“According to tradition, she had to leave her parents’ home in Porbandar and settle with her husband’s family in Rajkot after marriage. She learnt how to be a wife while living in the confines of the house. On the other hand, Mohandas bought a manual that had instructions on how to be a husband,” he said.
“He used to read a chapter everyday and implement the tenets on Kastur. One lesson in the manual taught him that a wife cannot do anything without seeking permission from her husband. He told Kastur to not step out of the house unless he permitted her for the same. This order bore no fruit as Kastur resisted and walked out anyway,” he added.
“There were a number of failed attempts of controlling her by asking her to seek permission relentlessly and directing her to return to her parents’ home, as instructed by the manual, since she stood her ground,” Gandhi said.
He said, “In his autobiography, Mohandas hails Kastur as his role model for non-violence principles.”
Gandhi said his life goal is to break away Mohandas from the grasp of the Mahatma title and portray him as a common man in the public eye. “When we think of Mahatma, it entails a sense of devotion and we detach ourselves from the thought that his ideologies can be inculcated by common man,” he said.
He held back tears while narrating about what Kasturba might have gone through when Mohandas was in Johannesburg prison.
(Reporting by Manshika Vaikkath)