Saturday, February 22, 2014

Life Sketch of Kasturba

Life Sketch of Kasturba


Kasturba was born in Porbandar in April 1869, a few months before Gandhiji and in the same town. Her father, Gokuldas Makanji, was a merchant and a friend of Gandhiji's father, Karamchand or 'Kaba' Gandhi. Both the parents decided to knit their families closer together by marrying their two children. At that time early marriage was a common custom in Saurashtra, as in many other parts of India. So, the betrothal of the two children, Mohandas and Kasturbai, took place in their seventh year. The actual wedding, however, was celebrated in 1882, when the two began to live together as husband and wife at the early age of thirteen. Referring to his marriage Gandhiji later observed in his Autobiography as follows-"I do not think it meant to me anything more than the prospect of good clothes to wear, drum-beating, marriage processions, rich dinners and a strange girl to Play with..........Little did I dream that one day I should severely criticize my father for having married me as a child. Everything on that day seemed to me right and proper and pleasing. There was also my own eagerness to get married ".


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