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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