Kasturba Gandhi: A Bio Fiction

Kasturba Gandhi is the fictionalized biography of Kasturba Gandhi, a lady as strong and great as Mahatma Gandhi. A lady who earned a place in history because of her personal sacrifices and strength of conviction in what was right as much as on account of being the wife of Mahatma Gandhi in his fight for basic human rights for Indians in South Africa and the Indian Freedom Movement. She was the first Indian woman who voluntarily faced a jail sentence in a foreign soil – in South Africa – in her fight for basic rights for Indian women. The book gives a glimpse of how a strong woman can empower herself staying within the folds of tradition and convention. It offers a rarely portrayed facet of Gandhi – a family man, a father, a husband. It shows how his transformation from Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to Mahatma Gandhi happened with the support of a woman who was a silent partner in the struggle. How she let him realize his larger goals at a cost to herself and family in the larger interests of mankind. How she willingly courted jail terms in Africa, an alien land with no grip on the language and keeping her vegetarian habits intact. How she took up the causes started by Bapu, when he was jailed in India and was imprisoned. How she breathed her last in jail – in Agha Khan Palace where she was jailed last.

Giriraj Kishore

जन्म: 1937, मुजफ्फरनगर (उ.प्र.)। शिक्षा: एम.एस.डब्ल्यू.। 1995 में दक्षिण अफ्रीका एवं मॉरीशस की यात्रा। प्रकाशित कृतियाँ: लोग, चिड़ियाघर, जुगलबन्दी, दो, तीसरी सत्ता, दावेदार, यथा-प्रस्तावित, इन्द्र सुनें, अन्तर्ध्वंस, परिशिष्ट, यात्राएँ, ढाईघर, गिरमिटिया (उपन्यास); नीम के फूल, चार मोती बेआब, पेपरवेट, रिश्ता और अन्य कहानियाँ, शहर-दर-शहर, हम प्यार कर लें, गाना बड़े गुलाम अली खाँ का, जगत्तारणी, वल्दरोजी, आन्द्रे की प्रेमिका और अन्य कहानियाँ (कहानी-संग्रह); नरमेध, घास और घोड़ा, प्रजा ही रहने दो, जुर्म आयद, चेहरे-चेहरे किसके चेहरे, केवल मेरा नाम लो, काठ की तोप (नाटक); गुलाम-बेगम-बादशाह (एकांकी-संग्रह); कथ-अकथ, लिखने का तर्क, संवाद सेतु, सरोकार (निबंध-संग्रह)। सम्मान: हिन्दी संस्थान उत्तर प्रदेश का नाटक पर ‘भारतेन्दु पुरस्कार’; मध्यप्रदेश साहित्य परिषद का परिशिष्ट उपन्यास पर ‘वीरसिंह देव पुरस्कार’; उत्तर प्रदेश हिन्दी सम्मेलन द्वारा ‘वासुदेव सिंह स्वर्ण पदक’; 1992 का ‘साहित्य अकादेमी पुरस्कार’; ‘ढाईघर’ के लिए उत्तर प्रदेश हिन्दी संस्थान द्वारा ‘साहित्य भूषण सम्मान’; महात्मा ‘गांधी सम्मान’, हिन्दी संस्थान, उत्तर प्रदेश; ‘व्यास सम्मान’, के.के. बिडला न्यास, नई दिल्ली; ‘जनवाणी सम्मान’, हिन्दी सेवा न्यास, इटावा। आजकल ‘कस्तूरबा’ पर उपन्यास लिखने में व्यस्त।.

Translated by Manisha Chaudhry

Manisha Chaudhry is a leading bi-lingual editor, writer and translator. She began her career in India’s first feminist publishing house Kali for Women and has been a consultant to a range of organisations in the development sector including OUP, Yatra Books, Pratham Books. Her translation of Chandrakanta’s Hindi novel was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2012. Active in multilingual children’s publishing over the past fourteen years, she has spearheaded many initiatives to bring equity in primary education. Currently she heads Manan Books, a publishing house with an activist profile.