The Gandhi’s, for generations, had been grocers. Uttamchand Gandhi. the family patriarch somehow managed to procure the job of Deewan, that is, a minister in the state of Porbandar. His son Karamchand Gandhi followed in his footsteps. Although he only had an elementary education and had previously been a clerk in the state administration, Karamchand proved a capable chief minister. During his tenure, Karamchand married four times. His first two wives died young, after each had given birth to a daughter, and his third marriage was childless. In 1857, Karamchand sought his third wife's permission to remarry; that year, he married Putli Bai (1844–1891), who also came from Junagadh, and was from a Pranami Vaishnava family. Karamchand and Putli Bai had three children over the ensuing decade: a son, Laxmidas (1860–1914); a daughter, Raliatbehn (1862–1960); and another son, Karsandas (1866–1913).

 

 

Kasturbai Makhanji Kapadia. Kasturba was born the daughter of Gokuladas Kapadia and Vrajkunwerba Kapadia. The family belonged to the Modh Bania caste of Gujurati tradesmen and were based in the coastal town of Porbandar. Little is known of Kasturba's early life. In May 1883, 14-year old Kasturba was married to 13-year old Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in a marriage arranged by their parents, in the traditional Indian manner. They were married for a total of sixty-two years. Recalling the day of their marriage, her husband once said, "As we didn't know much about marriage, for us it meant only wearing new clothes, eating sweets and playing with relatives." However, as was prevailing tradition, the adolescent bride was to spend the first few years of marriage (until old enough to cohabit with her husband) at her parents' house, and away from her husband. 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." At the beginning of their marriage, Gandhi was also possessive and manipulative; he wanted the ideal wife who would follow his command.

Kasturba and Gandhi had five sons, with their eldest dying shortly after birth. Although their other four sons (Harilal (1888 – 1948), Manilal (1892 – 1956), Ramdas (1897 – 1969) and Devdas (1900 – 1957) survived to adulthood, Kasturba never fully recovered from the death of her first child. The first two sons were born before Gandhi first went abroad. When he left to study in London in 1888, she remained in India. In 1896 she and their two sons went to live with him in South Africa.

   

 

 

 

 

 

During his twenty-one years in South Africa, Gandhi was sentenced to four terms of imprisonment, the first, on the 10th of January 1908 to two months, the second, on the 7th of October 1908 to three months, the third, on the 25th of February, also to three months, and the fourth, on the 11th of November 1913 to nine months hard labour. He actually served seven months and ten days of those sentences. On two occasions, the first and the last, he was released within weeks because the Government of the day, represented by General Smuts, rather than face satyagraha and the international opprobrium it was bringing the regime, offered to settle the problems through negotiation.

Gandhi described his apprehension on being first convicted: "Was I to be specially treated as a political prisoner? Was I to be separated from my fellow prisoners?" he soliloquised. He was facing imprisonment in a British Colony in 1908, and he still, at the time, harboured a residue of belief in British justice.

From young barrister to mature man of grit and determination.