TAMIL
The Mahatma’s life partner
LA. SU. RENGARAJAN
KASTURBA — Mahatmavin Manaivi Ezuppum Kelvigal: Mythili Sivaraman; Bharathi Puthakalayam, 421, Anna Salai, Teynampet, Chennai-600018. Rs. 20.
BOOKS ON Mahatma Gandhi are endless, but, those on his life partner Kasturba very few. Writers on Gandhiji scarcely project Kasturba’s role in the making of the Mahatma or in the freedom struggle. Gandhiji himself has very little to say about his wife in his autobiography.
In this slender book, the author has briefly but poignantly projected the predicaments of an orthodox Kasturba caught in the crossroads of social, political and spiritual maelstrom of the great soul her husband was.
Readers are reminded of not much known role of Ba in the Satyagraha movement in South Africa and later in India. In September 1913, she led a 16-member group of men and women passive resisters marching from Durban to cross the Transvaal border and court arrest. Kasturba was sentenced to three months jail with hard labour.
In India, she was imprisoned twice. In 1942, following mass arrests and detention of Congress leaders including Gandhiji sequel to the passing of ‘Quit India’ resolution on 8th August, Kasturba was also arrested on her way to address a meeting in Bombay in which Gandhiji was scheduled to speak.
She was detained in the desolate Aga Khan palace near Poona along with Gandhiji. There, she passed away on February 22, 1944.
The author faults Gandhiji for his uncharitable remarks about his wife freely aired in his letters to close associates. But to whom poor Kasturba could have spoken about her husband, that too a Mahatma? She can only bury her views in her mind,” comments the author, who is a noted spokesperson for women’s cause.
The book in 64 pages pertinently raises such unanswered questions on behalf of Ba.
Missing in this book is a glaring instance of Gandhiji’s insolence when in 1929 he blew out of proportion a minor human failing on the part of Kasturba.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Book Review
