Kasturba Gandhi Wife of Indian political leader Mohandas Gandhi, Kasturba was barely fourteen years old and he thirteen when the marriage took place. Kasturba (1869–1944) supported Gandhi through decades of struggle for Indian independence. Here she spins cotton on a charkha, or spinning wheel, part of Gandhi’s campaign for Indians to become self-sufficient by making their own cloth and freeing themselves from imported British goods. (© Dinodia Photo Library/The Image Works)