Author BM Bhalla tells Chahak Mittal that while writing Kasturba Gandhi: A Biography, he interpreted the events in the life of the protagonist by browsing through literature on her more famous husband

She has always been looked at through the prism of her husband. Commonly called ‘Ba’, Kasturba Gandhi was an ideal model, great support and the perfect co-voyager of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s journey from South Africa to India and his transformation into the Mahatma. She devoted herself to the dharma of being a true Hindu wife and followed it her entire life. However, as author BM Bhalla argues, “she was much more than that.” She weathered one storm after another and successfully faced unexpected challenges. She emerged to become one of the brightest faces of womanhood during India’s freedom struggle while remaining within the precincts of her home.

While the Father of the Nation has been the topic of many debates and discussions by various authors and by Gandhi himself, not many accounts mention Kasturba and her life at length. People know her through a few letters written to her by Gandhi that he has talked about in his Autobiography. However, she has no personal memoirs about her thoughts and experiences. Bhalla, in his book Kasturba Gandhi: A Biography, talks about how her contributions to India’s struggle for independence have not been given the critical importance they deserve. Excerpts:

Why Kasturba? How is she relevant today?

The book deals with the life of Kasturba, who took her own conscious decision to participate in the Satyagraha movement in South Africa along with a large contingent of uneducated poor Indian women there. Her story is very relevant today because uneducated poor women are still struggling for their rights.

Documenting a prominent person’s life could be challenging, especially if s/he is related to the history of the nation. How did you gather information for the book about Kasturba Gandhi?

Kasturba was not educated. She herself left no records of her thoughts, feelings, struggles, associations, experiences or any details of events she was a part of. She never thought of it nor was she intellectually equipped for it. So we don’t have Kasturba’s version of the events in which she was involved. Not many detailed accounts or reminiscences have been left by the members of her family or friends in public life.

Kasturba’s life and work can’t even be imagined or assessed independently; it was enmeshed in the day-to-day engagements of her husband and the alchemy of his life. Her situation did not allow her to initiate any action outside her home. All initiatives and innovations were initiated by her husband and obeying his dictates became an opportunity for her to learn, react and resist. So the facts about her life and work are part of the history of the eventful years in the 19th and 20th century in South Africa and India.

An author has to cope with the huge material about Gandhi’s struggle with himself and the mighty forces against which he pitched himself. Kasturba was a perpetual partner in these struggles. Her life and work can only be assessed in an imaginative and contextual framework of this historical epoch and it is indeed a challenging task for any author.

An author who is penning a biography always has this pressure of showcasing his protagonist in the right light since questions could be raised later over the accuracy and actuality of the facts presented in the book...

A biographer is an interpreter of events in respect of his protagonist and he has to decide what the “right light” for his interpretation is. The facts presented in the book have to be documented and the events as they unfold in the life of the protagonist should be presented accurately. Yet the author’s own set of values gives a certain slant to his interpretations. How convincingly he argues in presenting the facts is a matter of his art.

Kasturba Gandhi’s life experiences have never been properly documented or even talked about much. Where did you source your data from?

Yes. It is a fact that the Gandhi industry has definitely expanded worldwide but any bibliography dealing with Kasturba would not list more than a dozen entries even today. However, in the last few decades, Gandhi has been rescued — to some extent, out of myths, legends, apotheoses — and dealt with more critically.

Kasturba’s life and work call for the same critical approach. Her story has to be read in terms of the struggle of Indian women for identity, equality and self-empowerment. The data for the book has been sourced from Gandhi literature, his complete works in 100 volumes and historical narrations. But in Kasturba’s case, interpretations are more important as the data has its limits.

How do you think womanhood was neglected during India’s freedom struggle? How does the book present it? Also, given today’s nationwide protests, most of which are being led by women (for instance, at Shaheen Bagh), how do you think the understanding of women’s role in challenging times has evolved?

The struggle of women for emancipation started with the spread of democracy and technological development all over the world and it is still continuing in India and in other countries. Women were not neglected during India’s freedom struggle. Rather they were brought out of the confines of the four walls of their homes to the public arena and they participated both in the revolutionary struggles and the social reform movements.

After Independence, the unfolding of the democratic process, spread of education and different movements across India have resulted in women’s participation in all walks of life. Different groups are now vying with each other for a share in economic and political power and women are trying to become a vote bank to achieve their rights.

How long did it take to compile the work into a book?

The book was conceptualised over many years and it was out of my interest in the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi.