[1] National Safe Motherhood Day is observed in India annually on April 11, coinciding with Kasturba's birthday.

The family belonged to the Modh Bania caste of Gujarati Hindu tradesmen and were based in the coastal town of Porbandar.

"[citation needed] However, as was prevailing tradition, the adolescent bride was to spend the first few years of marriage at her parents' house, and away from her husband.

[5][failed verification] Writing many years later, Mohandas described with regret the lustful feelings he felt for his young bride, "even at school I used to think of her, and the thought of nightfall and our subsequent meeting was ever haunting me.

Unable to find a successful career in India, Mohandas left for South Africa in 1893, once again leaving behind Kasturba and his children.

[7] Ramachandra Guha's biography Gandhi Before India described the marriage, saying, "They had, in the emotional as well as sexual sense, always been true to one another.

"[10] Kasturba first involved herself with politics in South Africa in 1904 when, with her husband and others, she established the Phoenix Settlement near Durban.

In 1913 she took part in protests against the ill-treatment of Indian immigrants in South Africa, for which she was arrested and sentenced to hard labour.

In spite of Kasturba’s chronic bronchitis she continued to take part in civil actions and protests across India and often took her husband's spot when he was in prison.

[citation needed] In 1922, she participated in a Satyagraha (nonviolent resistance) movement in Borsad, Gujarat even though she was in poor health.

[13] In 1939, Gandhi took part in nonviolent protests against the British rule in Rajkot, after the women in the city specifically asked her to advocate for them.

[17] In January 1908 she fasted while her husband was in prison, and she became gravely ill. She came so close to death that Mohandas apologised to her, and promised he would not remarry if she died.

She asked to see an Ayurvedic doctor, and after several delays, the government allowed a specialist in traditional Indian medicine to attend to her.