Kasturba Gandhi: Accidental Activist

Throughout her life she remained in the shadows of her famous husband—a place she was happy to be. Now she emerges. Kasturba Gandhi was wife to an icon of the 20th century. But Mahatma Gandhi, Master of Nonviolence, credited her with teaching him about Nonviolence. A traditional wife and mother, how did she “accidentally” become one of the first women activists in history, leading women into streets and prisons for their rights in South Africa and India, and later become the "Mother of India"? What is her connection to women activists today? History missed this story.

Cynthia Lukas is a writer-director-producer of documentaries that educate and inspire. With Heaven on Earth Creations, she co-produced eight acclaimed documentaries on nonviolence and global oneness, including "Rumi Returning" (2007), a biography of the great Sufi poet, and "Globalized Soul" (2011) about the Parliament of the World’s Religions and interfaith diversity. Her latest documentaries are "Gandhi’s Gift" (2017) and "Gandhi’s Awakening" (2018) about the Master of Nonviolence, distributed by American Public Television on PBS (2018-24). They are the first major films about Gandhi made in the U.S. With Sweet Springs Productions, she is Writer-Director-Producer of the first major documentary about the wife of the iconic Gandhi, "KASTURBA GANDHI: Accidental Activist." It tells the untold story of how she was Gandhi’s teacher in nonviolence and an early female activist, leading one of the first women’s protests for women’s rights in modern history (1913), impacting women's activists today.