The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1950-04-06
GANDHI'S
ASSASSINAToRS
GANDHrs AssAssINAToRs
NO WAITER PANDIT NEHRU
Behind The
World News
By WALTER BREEDE. JR..
Associated Press Writer

1t appears that the Hindu Ex-
,remi2ts who arranged the muir
der of Mahatma Gandhi two
years ago are out to get his
spiritual heir, Prime Minister
Pandit Nehru.
Dispatches from India tell of
an assassination plot against the
Hindu chief of state-a conspira-
ey to liquidate him just as the
frail Gandhi was liquidated.
And it looks as if the would
be killers of India's prime minis
ter have the same motive.
Gandhi was put out of the way
because he led a great crusade
for peace.
Gandhi wanted to put a stop
to India's fierce and bloody
civil and religious warfare-the
fighting between Hindus and
MoslemS that has turned the
huge subcontinent into char
mel house. He wanted to end the
violence and rioting that had
taken hundreds of thousands 81
lives during midas first few
months of independence.
| So early in January, 1948, the
78-year-o,d Gandhi went on a
hunger strike. For five days he
went without food, living on an
occasional sip of lemon juice
nothing more. The political rul-
ers knew of his great hold on the
people, and they feared the con
sequences if Gandhi should die,
So they finally persuaded him to
end his fast. First they agreed
among themselves on a seven
point program intended to stop
the bloody civil and religious
wars. Gandhi, who had vowed to
keep on fasting until the COM
munal violence died down, took
the politicians at their word and
accepted their offer.
| But violence did not subside.
The agreement on which Gandhi
had pinned his hopes turned out
to be only political gesture.
| Two days after Gandhi ended his
fast, bomb went off near the
| place where he was conducting
I, an outdoor prayer meeting. On
January 30th-12 days after com
| pleting his fast-the little old
Imam was walking in the garden
of rich friend-on the grounds
| of New Delhi's Birla House
| Shots rang out, and three bullets
| struck Gandhi full in the
abdomen and chest. Weak and
emaciated after five days OF
fasting, the 78-year-old cham
pion of peace died in half an
! hour.
! Gandhi's funeral was one OF
| the greatest spectacles India had
| ever seen-and the occasion OF
a nationwide outopuring of re-
| ligious fervor. Hindus and Mos
lens joined in mourning the
little independence fighter. From
| all sides came promises to fight
| and riot no more. But after 3
brief hull, the religious rioting
continued.
In the meantime, the editor Of
a fanatically pro-Hindp news
paper was under arrest fol
| Gandhi's murder.
The killers motive was ohviou:
from the start. He was identified
as a member of an Extremist
| Hindu group, pledged to a war
to the death against the non
Hindu group, pledged to a wan
| to the death against the non-
Hindu sects, particularly the
Moslems. As he and his core
| ligionists saw it, Gandhi was an
| obtac1e that had to be removed
The Hindu editor and an accom-
plice were hanged last Novem-
| Der.
| Against this background, the
dispatch telling of a murder-plot
| against Gandhi's spiritual success
sor is not without its sombel
overtones. We are told that IA
men have been arrested in con