The loss of a companion
February 22, 2024
Reading one chapter from the Bhagavad Gita was an important part of Gandhi’s daily routine for decades, but that changed in the last four years of his life. Instead, all 18 chapters were read on the 22nd of each month, in memory of Kasturba Gandhi’s death on February 22, 1944.
Mohandas Gandhi was married to Kasturba in 1882 at the age of 12. I use the phrase “was married to” because the pre-teen boy had no say in the lifelong commitment. The young couple was frequently separated. At 18, Gandhi took off to London for law school, leaving Kasturba and their son Harilal behind. Another boy, Manilal, was born after his return, just before Gandhi left for South Africa in 1893.
By the turn of the century, the family was living together in South Africa. They had two more sons, Ramdas and Devadas, before Gandhi’s 1906 vow of celibacy. Biographer Louis Fischer suggests that Kasturba’s ill health might have contributed to his decision—another pregnancy might have been fatal. Kasturba joined the civil disobedience efforts in 1913 and went to jail for the first time, in order to protest a court decision which invalidated non-Christian marriages. Although her work is often overlooked, she remained an activist in her own right, even inspiring Gandhi to follow her on one occasion.
The last chapter of their life began with Gandhi’s arrest in the early hours of August 9, 1942. Kasturba was offered a chance to accompany him, but when he asked her to stay and speak in his place at a rally that evening, she immediately agreed. The British arrested her at the rally, and incarcerated them at the Aga Khan Palace. After six months of detention without charges, Gandhi began a 21-day fast in protest. Kasturba was by his side, caring for him. When a health crisis struck, she prayed to a sacred tulsi plant, and Gandhi pulled through, sailing through the last week of his fast.
There were some good times in jail. Gandhi had time to spend with her; they reminisced and sang old songs together. But after his fast, Kasturba’s own health deteriorated. The British reported she had two heart attacks over the next few weeks, and even more that winter. At the end of 1943, Gandhi wrote to a friend in London, describing Kasturba’s health as “oscillating between life and death. The complications are many and great.” Soon after, he wrote the jail superintendent that “she despairs of life, and is looking forward to death to deliver her.”
On the evening of February 22, 1944, her head in her husband’s lap, Kasturba Gandhi took her last breath. She was cremated on the palace grounds, her husband steadfastly remaining by the pyre, hour after hour, until nothing was left. “After sixty years of constant companionship,” Gandhi said, “I cannot imagine life without her.”
If you were dying, which would you value more highly—quantity of life or quality of life?