He alone deserves to be called an inmate of the Ashram who has ceased to have any worldly relation - a relation involving monetary interests-- with his parents or other relatives, who has no other needs save those of food and clothing and who is ever watchful in the observance of the eleven cardinal vows. Therefore he who needs to make savings, should never be regarded as an Ashram inmate.
- M. K. Gandhi
When the Ashram began, there was only one cottage Adi Niwas. Ba (Kasturba) had to live in the midst of many men. Sympathising with her difficulties Shri Jamnalal Bajaj received Bapu's (Gandhiji's) consent to build this cottage for Ba (Kasturba).
All the ladies who came to see Gandhiji lived in this cottage with Ba. Ba left for Bombay with Bapu on August 2nd, 1942 to attend the meeting of the All India Congress Committee. She joined the 'Quit India' movement, and was arrested on August 9, 1942 and was imprisoned alongwith Bapu in Agakhan Palace, Poona. After a long illness, Ba breathed her last in Agakhan Palace on February 22, 1944.
The photograph hanging on the wall of this hut in which Gandhiji is seen sitting on a stool with Kasturba massaging his feet. It is said that when Gandhiji saw this picture, he asked the photographer why he had not even photographed him attending on 'Ba' but had only shown her looking after him. Because Gandhiji had also been nursing Kasturba.
The things displayed at Ba Kuti are Ba's Sari, Bapu's bed-sheet, jacket, Ba's seat, hold-all, Bapu's jute Dari which have been kept in a simple wooden rack. All things are so simple and Swadeshi that tells the story of simplicity.