Character Analysis
They say that behind every great man is a great woman…and Kasturbai Gandhi is no exception. From child bride to kick-butt behind-the-scenes wifey, she's pretty amazing.
But, Gandhi's wife plays a subordinate role to the autobiographer throughout his story; she's a great companion but is never really shown as an entity separate from Mr. G himself. The author explains her devotion to him by saying it's part of Hinduism:
A Hindu wife regards implicit obedience to her husband as the highest religion. A Hindu husband regards himself as lord and master of his wife who must ever dance attendance upon him. (3.1.2)
Kasturbai Gandhi still has a mind of her own, however. When they're first married, she disregards the unfair, jealous rule he lays down that she can only go places with his permission:
The restraint was virtually a sort of imprisonment. And Kasturbai was not the girl to brook any such thing. (1.4.2)
Get it, girl.
Kasturbai is very brave and sticks to her beliefs in other matters as well. When she's seriously ill, the doctor wants her to eat meat, but she says:
"I will not take beef tea. It is a rare thing in this world to be born as a human being, and I would far rather die in your arms than pollute my body with such abominations." (4.28.11)
Basically, she has the same defiance as her husband when it comes to maintaining vows and diet.
Despite her courage and independent streak, she's submissive to her husband. As just one example, when the family is headed to South Africa, he picks out her clothes: "I therefore determined the style of dress for my wife and children" (3.1.4). She also doesn't oppose his brahmacharya vow against sex, and when she receives gifts from the public for her husband's work, she acquiesces to his desire to return them to the community (3.12.22).
We don't learn much about Kasturbai or the rest of Gandhi's family in The Story of My Experiments with Truth. The focus is on its famous author.