In this extraordinary book, Arun Gandhi, the fifth grandson of the great Mahatma Gandhi and his wife Kasturba, debunks the inaccurate view that Kasturba was a clueless follower of her husband who did not understand the impact his achievements had on society. Arun Gandhi’s biography of his grandmother is told with grace and sensitivity and reveals not only how dedicated Kasturba was to her husband’s political and philosophical beliefs, but also how she endeavored and championed the fight against society’s injustices on her own accord. As Mahatma Gandhi stated, “I have put all my hopes in you women… I strongly feel that the ultimate victory of nonviolence depends wholly on women.” Kasturba took on that challenge with a will and traveled on her own from town to town, urging women to take part in acts of peaceful civil disobedience in the name of justice for all, risking arrest and imprisonment time and again.
Kasturba Gandhi: A Biography
chronicles the untold story of the
forgotten woman
, the force behind Mahatma Gandhi, and pays testament to the crucial role that both Kasturba and other women played in the fight for social justice; she and her female counterparts were not silent witnesses to the political unrest in both South Africa and India, but strong and active figures of resistance on the path of nonviolence. Arun Gandhi’s work has at long last brought attention to this remarkable woman, and sheds new light on a more accurate depiction of women’s roles in turn-of-the-century South Africa and India.