“I sensed evil over there” – Tushar Gandhi on Kasturba Gandhi’s remarkable intuition after her meeting with Veer Savarkar

At the headquarters of India’s International Movement To Unite Nations (I.I.M.U.N.), an enriching Book Club session welcomed author Tushar Gandhi as part of its weekly initiative to foster a culture of reading among young minds. During the session, he engaged with students around his book ‘The Lost Diary of Kasturba, My Ba’ offering deep insights into the life and legacy of Kasturba Gandhi.

Reflecting on her personality and influence, he shared, “I think what I admired of her was her resoluteness and her astute political understanding of that time. She used to sit in on almost all the meetings that her husband (Mahatama Gandhi) had with individuals, leaders. An interesting fact is that when Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was released or allowed to go away from the cellular jail and he was kept in Ratnagiri under house arrest, Bapu was traveling through Maharashtra and he asked for permission to go and meet Savarkar.

But he was told that he could not enter Ratnagiri, that area. And so he sent Ba (Kasturba Gandhi) to meet Savarkar because he had met Savarkar on one of his trips from South Africa to England. And after that meeting, he wrote his biblical ideological book Hind Swaraj, which encapsulates his entire belief of Satyagraha, Swatantrata and Swadeshi. And so he wanted to meet Savarkar again. But when he didn’t get permission, he asked Ba to go and meet him. And Ba went and met Savarkar.

There is no record of that meeting, but the one thing that Mahadevbhai’s diary mentions is when she came back, she was very disturbed. And she told Bapu, she said, I sensed evil over there. And I said, you have to be careful about this person.”