Kasturba Gandhi developed a public role through the Indian struggle in South Africa and the movement against British rule in India. After joining Mohandas Gandhi in South Africa, she helped sustain the communities in which family life, collective labor, and experiments in nonviolent resistance were closely connected. She managed daily responsibilities and participated in organized protest.

In 1913 she joined resistance to discriminatory laws affecting Indians, including restrictions on movement and the refusal to recognize many non-Christian marriages. With other volunteers she crossed the Transvaal border without a permit and was sentenced to three months in prison. Imprisonment and hard labor damaged her health, but her participation helped show that women could act as leaders and accept arrest in their own right. Negotiations in 1914 produced partial concessions, including recognition of Indian marriages and repeal of the tax on former indentured workers.

Back in India, Kasturba took part in social and political campaigns while helping run the Gandhian ashrams. During the Champaran campaign of 1917 she worked among women in villages, promoting cleanliness and practical improvements in daily life. She encouraged spinning and the use of Indian cloth as forms of self-reliance and resistance to imported manufactures. This connected household economies with the independence movement.

She continued public activity during periods when her husband was imprisoned and took part in civil disobedience despite recurring illness. In 1939 she joined protest in Rajkot against the princely state's failure to carry out promised reforms and was detained. Her service included her own campaigning, imprisonment, and relationships within the movement.

Arrested after the launch of Quit India in 1942, she was confined with Gandhi at the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. Her health deteriorated in detention, and she died there on February 22, 1944, before India achieved independence.