Nathuram Godse :: The Man who killed Gandhi – AbhiSays.com Gangadhar Jadhao Suryadeo Sharma A group photo of people accused in Gandhi’s murder case. Standing: Shankar Kistaiya, Gopal Godse, Madanlal Pahwa, Digambar Badge (Approver). Sitting: Narayan Apte, Vinayak D. Savarkar, Nathuram Godse, Vishnu Karkare. The Conspirators were not headstrong fundamentalists but were patriots and highly educated intellectuals. In their opinion, Mahatma Gandhi was sacrificing Hindu interests in an effort to appease Muslim interests. They also blamed Gandhi for the Partition of India. This statement may clear the picture. Nathuram Godse’s statement before the Court on the May 5, 1949. Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious.

That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined RSS wing of anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus were of equal status as to rights, social and religious and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession. I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners in which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Chamars and Bhangis participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other. I have read the speeches and writings of Ravana, Chanakiya, Dadabhai Naoroji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and modern history of India and some prominent countries like England , France , America and Russia . Moreover I studied the tenets of Socialism and Marxism.

But above all I studied very closely whatever Veer Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the moulding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so, than any other single factor has done. All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was my first duty to serve Hindudom and Hindus both as a patriot and as a world citizen. To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores (300 million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and the well-being of all India , one fifth of human race. This conviction led me naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanghtanist ideology and programme, which alone, I came to believe, could win and preserve the national independence of Hindustan , my Motherland, and enable her to render true service to humanity as well. Since the year 1920, that is, after the demise of Lokamanya Tilak, Gandhiji’s influence in the Congress first increased and then became supreme.

His activities for public awakening were phenomenal in their intensity and were reinforced by the slogan of truth and non-violence which he paraded ostentatiously before the country. No sensible or enlightened person could object to those slogans. In fact there is nothing new or original in them.. They are implicit in every constitutional public movement. But it is nothing but a mere dream if you imagine that the bulk of mankind is, or can ever become, capable of scrupulous adherence to these lofty principles in its normal life from day to day. In fact, honour, duty and love of one’s own kith and kin and country might often compel us to disregard non-violence and to use force. I could never conceive that an armed resistance to an aggression is unjust. I would consider it a religious and moral duty to resist and, if possible, to overpower such an enemy by use of force. [In the Ramayana] Rama killed Ravana in a tumultuous fight and relieved Sita.. [In the Mahabharata], Krishna killed Kansa to end his wickedness; and Arjuna had to fight and slay quite a number of his friends and relations including the revered Bhishma because the latter was on the side of the aggressor.

It is my firm belief that in dubbing Rama, Krishna and Arjuna as guilty of violence, the Mahatma betrayed a total ignorance of the springs of human action. In more recent history, it was the heroic fight put up by Chhatrapati Shivaji that first checked and eventually destroyed the Muslim tyranny in India . It was absolutely essentially for Shivaji to overpower and kill an aggressive Afzal Khan, failing which he would have lost his own life. In condemning history’s towering warriors like Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Gobind Singh as misguided patriots, Gandhiji has merely exposed his self-conceit. He was, paradoxical as it may appear, a violent pacifist who brought untold calamities on the country in the name of truth and non-violence, while Rana Pratap, Shivaji and the Guru will remain enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen for ever for the freedom they brought to them. The accumulating provocation of thirty-two years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately.

Gandhi had done very good in South Africa to uphold the rights and well-being of the Indian community there. But when he finally returned to India he developed a subjective mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on his own way. Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. Either Congress had to surrender its will to his and had to be content with playing second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him. He alone was the Judge of everyone and every thing; he was the master brain guiding the civil disobedience movement; no other could know the technique of that movement. He alone knew when to begin and when to withdraw it. The movement might succeed or fail, it might bring untold disaster and political reverses but that could make no difference to the Mahatma’s infallibility. ‘A Satyagrahi can never fail’ was his formula for declaring his own infallibility and nobody except himself knew what a Satyagrahi is.

Thus, the Mahatma became the judge and jury in his own cause. These childish insanities and obstinacies, coupled with a most severe austerity of life, ceaseless work and lofty character made Gandhi formidable and irresistible. Many people thought that his politics were irrational but they had either to withdraw from the Congress or place their intelligence at his feet to do with as he liked. In a position of such absolute irresponsibility Gandhi was guilty of blunder after blunder, failure after failure, disaster after disaster. Gandhi’s pro-Muslim policy is blatantly in his perverse attitude on the question of the national language of India . It is quite obvious that Hindi has the most prior claim to be accepted as the premier language. In the beginning of his career in India , Gandhi gave a great impetus to Hindi but as he found that the Muslims did not like it, he became a champion of what is called Hindustani.. Everybody in India knows that there is no language called Hindustani; it has no grammar; it has no vocabulary. It is a mere dialect, it is spoken, but not written. It is a bastard tongue and cross-breed between Hindi and Urdu, and not even the Mahatma’s sophistry could make it popular.

But in his desire to please the Muslims he insisted that Hindustani alone should be the national language of India . His blind followers, of course, supported him and the so-called hybrid language began to be used. The charm and purity of the Hindi language was to be prostituted to please the Muslims. All his experiments were at the expense of the Hindus. From August 1946 onwards the private armies of the Muslim League began a massacre of the Hindus. The then Viceroy, Lord Wavell, though distressed at what was happening, would not use his powers under the Government of India Act of 1935 to prevent the rape, murder and arson. The Hindu blood began to flow from Bengal to Karachi with some retaliation by the Hindus. The Interim Government formed in September was sabotaged by its Muslim League members right from its inception, but the more they became disloyal and treasonable to the government of which they were a part, the greater was Gandhi’s infatuation for them. Lord Wavell had to resign as he could not bring about a settlement and he was succeeded by Lord Mountbatten. King Log was followed by King Stork.

The Congress which had boasted of its nationalism and socialism secretly accepted Pakistan literally at the point of the bayonet and abjectly surrendered to Jinnah. India was vivisected and one-third of the Indian territory became foreign land to us from August 15, 1947. Lord Mountbatten came to be described in Congress circles as the greatest Viceroy and Governor-General this country ever had. The official date for handing over power was fixed for June 30, 1948, but Mountbatten with his ruthless surgery gave us a gift of vivisected India ten months in advance. This is what Gandhi had achieved after thirty years of undisputed dictatorship and this is what Congress party calls ‘freedom’ and ‘peaceful transfer of power’. The Hindu-Muslim unity bubble was finally burst and a theocratic state was established with the consent of Nehru and his crowd and they have called ‘freedom won by them with sacrifice’ – whose sacrifice? When top leaders of Congress, with the consent of Gandhi, divided and tore the country – which we consider a deity of worship – my mind was filled with direful anger.

One of the conditions imposed by Gandhi for his breaking of the fast unto death related to the mosques in Delhi occupied by the Hindu refugees. But when Hindus in Pakistan were subjected to violent attacks he did not so much as utter a single word to protest and censure the Pakistan Government or the Muslims concerned. Gandhi was shrewd enough to know that while undertaking a fast unto death, had he imposed for its break some condition on the Muslims in Pakistan , there would have been found hardly any Muslims who could have shown some grief if the fast had ended in his death. It was for this reason that he purposely avoided imposing any condition on the Muslims. He was fully aware of from the experience that Jinnah was not at all perturbed or influenced by his fast and the Muslim League hardly attached any value to the inner voice of Gandhi. Gandhi is being referred to as the Father of the Nation. But if that is so, he had failed his paternal duty inasmuch as he has acted very treacherously to the nation by his consenting to the partitioning of it. I stoutly maintain that Gandhi has failed in his duty. He has proved to be the Father of Pakistan.

His inner-voice, his spiritual power and his doctrine of non-violence of which so much is made of, all crumbled before Jinnah’s iron will and proved to be powerless. Briefly speaking, I thought to myself and foresaw I shall be totally ruined, and the only thing I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred and that I shall have lost all my honour, even more valuable than my life, if I were to kill Gandhiji. But at the same time I felt that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely be proved practical, able to retaliate, and would be powerful with armed forces. No doubt, my own future would be totally ruined, but the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan . People may even call me and dub me as devoid of any sense or foolish, but the nation would be free to follow the course founded on the reason which I consider to be necessary for sound nation-building. After having fully considered the question, I took the final decision in the matter, but I did not speak about it to anyone whatsoever.

I took courage in both my hands and I did fire the shots at Gandhiji on 30th January 1948, on the prayer-grounds of Birla House. I do say that my shots were fired at the person whose policy and action had brought rack and ruin and destruction to millions of Hindus. There was no legal machinery by which such an offender could be brought to book and for this reason I fired those fatal shots. I bear no ill will towards anyone individually but I do say that I had no respect for the present government owing to their policy which was unfairly favourable towards the Muslims. But at the same time I could clearly see that the policy was entirely due to the presence of Gandhi. I have to say with great regret that Prime Minister Nehru quite forgets that his preachings and deeds are at times at variances with each other when he talks about India as a secular state in season and out of season, because it is significant to note that Nehru has played a leading role in the establishment of the theocratic state of Pakistan, and his job was made easier by Gandhi’s persistent policy of appeasement towards the Muslims.

I now stand before the court to accept the full share of my responsibility for what I have done and the judge would, of course, pass against me such orders of sentence as may be considered proper. But I would like to add that I do not desire any mercy to be shown to me, nor do I wish that anyone else should beg for mercy on my behalf. My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism levelled against it on all sides. I have no doubt that honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof some day in future. F.I.R. of Mahatma Gandhi Assassination case – 1948 Police Station : Tughlak Road “The Men Who Killed Gandhi” its an awesome book by Manohar Malgonkar Sarthak jain on August 22nd, 2010 2 sant nathu ram godse was a great hindu . vivek on September 2nd, 2010 3 which part of the body was mahatma Gandhi was shot?

Aneena Thomas on March 10th, 2011 4 Now in India there are lots of “Gandhi” who are dividing Indian Nationals every Day on the basis of Cast,Relegion & Race; What Nathu Ram did was a achievement, as because gandhi divided India for Nehru & Nathu Ram did it for India ,We must say tahnks to GOD for stopping Gandhi.

OM PRAKASH SINGH”AZAMGARHI” on September 18th, 2011 5 satish on January 28th, 2012 6 it is right that gandhi ji divided the country but it is not fair to sot down some one to whome our thinking not match abhishek awasthi on February 18th, 2012 7 Godse is great presonality, Yes its true that Gandhi Divide the india on the base of jaaat paaat in the term of castisim and SC/BC/ST Kota, We suffer now from the posion which was given by gandhi to indian Vivek on February 20th, 2012 8 Gandhi assassination: Who was Nathuram Godse and why did he murder India's Father of the Nation? Gandhi assassination: Who was Nathuram Godse and why did he murder India's Father of the Nation?

January 30, 2015 00:00 GMT Nathuram Godse at his trial for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948Wiki Commons Sixty-seven years ago today (30 January), the pre-eminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, stood in the gardens of a New Delhi building where a prayer meeting was about to take place. Nathuram Godse approached Gandhi at 5.17pm and bowed, then pushed aside one of Gandhi's grandnieces and shot him in the chest three times. As Gandhi collapsed, he shouted "police" and surrendered himself. Gandhi's death was mourned nationwide. More than two million people joined the five-mile-long funeral procession from Birla House, where he was assassinated, to Raj Ghat. Erected as a memorial to Gandhi, Raj Ghat bears the epigraph "Hē Ram" – meaning "Oh God" – widely believed to be his last words.

As the primary leader of India's liberation, Gandhi was the architect of a form of civil disobedience that would influence the world and later inspire the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in the United States. So who was Godse and why did he murder Gandhi? School and politics Godse was born in the Pune district, now situated in the Maharashtra state of India. Before he was born, his parents lost three sons and, fearing a curse was targeting their male children, he was brought up as a girl for the first few years of his life – including having his nose pierced. When he brother was born, he was brought up as a boy. Godse attended the local school in Baramati, before moving to an English-language school. He highly respected Gandhi during his school days, but dropped out of high school and became an activist with Hindi nationalist organisations the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing charitable and education non-profit, and the Hindu Mahasabha, a Hindu nationalist political party. He also started a Marathi-language newspaper, Agrani, which was later renamed Hindu Rashtra.

Nathuram Vinayak Godse, bottom right, on trial for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in May 1948Getty Muslim interests Several reasons have been put forward as to why Godse assassinated Gandhi on 30 January 1948, after plotting the shooting with his friend Narayan Apte and six others. Godse left the RSS in the early 1940s and formed a militant organisation called Hindu Rashtra Dal. He believed Gandhi was giving in to Muslim interests, which he deemed anti-national. Speaking during his trial, Godse said: "It was not so much the Gandhian Ahimsa teachings that were opposed to by me and my group, but Gandhiji, while advocating his views, always showed or evinced a bias for Muslims, prejudicial and detrimental to the Hindu Community and its interests.

"I have fully described my point of view hereafter in detail and have quoted numerous instances, which unmistakably establish how Gandhiji became responsible for a number of calamities which the Hindu Community had to suffer and undergo." Non-violence It is generally understood that Godse felt the suffering caused by the partition could have been avoided had the Indian government lodged strong protests against the treatment meted out to the minorities – Hindus and Sikhs – in Pakistan. According to Godse, they too were influenced by Gandhi's non-violent approach and resorted to "weaker" methods. Godse felt Gandhi's fasts against the atrocities in Pakistan were insufficient. "I thought to myself and foresaw I shall be totally ruined, and the only thing I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred... if I were to kill Gandhi," Godse said in court.

"But at the same time, I felt that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhi would surely be proved practical, able to retaliate, and would be powerful with armed forced." Mahatma Gandhi leading the Salt March in protest against the government monopoly on salt production in 1930Getty Fasts As part of his philosophy of non-violence, Gandhi undertook 17 fasts during India's freedom movement – the longest of which was 21 days. Godse believed that it was Gandhi's last fast, announced weeks before he was killed, that forced the cabinet to reverse its earlier decision to give a cash balance to Pakistan on 13 January 1948. However, in March, the cabinet decided to withhold the money after self-styled liberators from Pakistan invaded Kashmir with support from the Pakistani army. Godse felt this was appeasing Pakistani Muslims at the expense of Hindus in India. Interestingly, Gandhi's fast was for the restoration of Hindu-Muslim peace and continued for three days after the cabinet announced its decision to give the money to Pakistan – which Godse may have not known.

Social mobility decline The Godses were Chitpavan Brahmins, a community concentrated in Maharashtra that were not esteemed in social ranking until the 1700s. In the 20th century, however, the group enjoyed social prestige – but has become anxious about its status in the midst of the transformation of India's socio-economic milieu. The threat to the established social hierarchy left the traditional elite anxious, according to Quartz. This is something Godse experienced personally. A clothes shop he had opened age 16 failed – and he took to tailoring, seen as a lower caste profession. Following the assassination of Gandhi, Godse was put on trial at the Punjab High Court and sentenced to death on 8 November 1949. Related The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi - YouTube The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Uploaded on Nov 17, 2008 On 30 January 1948, Gandhi was shot and killed while having his nightly public walk on the grounds of the Birla Bhavan (Birla House) in New Delhi. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu radical with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan. Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were later tried and convicted; they were executed on 15 November 1949. Gandhi's memorial (or Samādhi) at Rāj Ghāt, New Delhi, bears the epigraph "Hē Ram", which may be translated as "Oh God". These are widely believed to be Gandhi's last words after he was shot, though the veracity of this statement has been disputed.

Category Know why Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi Know why Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi Know why Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi Currently reading: Know why Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi #Nathuram Godse , #Mahatma Gandhi India TV News Desk [Updated:30 Jan 2016, 12:34:33] New Delhi: Today is the 68th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the chief advocate of non-violence. He was born on October 2, 1869 and was assassinated on January 30, in the year 1948, months after the independence. The anniversary of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, January 30, is also celebrated as Martyr's Day. Here is why Nathuram Godse assassinated Gandhi Nathuram Godse approached Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948 during the evening prayer at Birla House in Delhi and bowed.

One of the girls flanking and supporting Gandhi, Abha Chattopadhyay, said to him, “Brother, Bapu is already late” and tried to put him off but he pushed her aside and shot Gandhi in the chest three times at point-blank range with a semi-automatic pistol. Gandhi died almost immediately. After shooting, Godse did not try to run or threaten anyone else. He was attacked and pinned to the ground by the crowd around him and was subsequently arrested when a small group of police officers arrived on the scene a few minutes later. Beyond this there is a very little known facts that Godse met Gandhiji on 30th January morning, when he was alone accompanied only by Sardar Vallabhai Patel's grand daughter. He could have killed him easily then and flee but he didn't. This incident left many questions unfold, some of them are: 1. Why Nathuram Godse killed Gandhi ji in public? 2. Why he did not try to escape on killing Gandhi ji? And instead surrendered himself to the police? 3. Why were the trial statements of Godse not made public for a long period of time? 4. The biggest question, why he killed Gandhi ji?

Nathuram Godse was a well educated man, and had his own newspaper with the name “Agrani”. He was born on 19th May 1910 in Baramati in a Chitpavan Brahmin family. His father, Vinayak Vamanrao Godse, was a post office employee and his mother was Lakshmii. His full name was Nathuram Vinayak Godse. He was a Hindutva activist and journalist. There have been reports that Nathuram Godse was a fanatic or a mentally unstable person but if he was mentallu unstable then why he pushed aside the girl accompanying Gandhi ji out of the line of shoot, minimizing the danger to the girl's life? Godse was a man who was against casteism and attended several rallies and meetings to oppose the same. He also worked with Hindu refugees during partition.Gandhi ji played an important role in getting independence to the nation and Godse was also a wanted the same then what made him to hate Gandhi and take a decision to kill him.

Godse's editorial Agrani described that the roots of the Godse's decision to kill Gandhi ji can be traced back to 1947, the time during which country had to face the bitter wound of partition. And the people held responsible for this were Muslim league, headed by Jinnah and the Congress. And it's a well known fact that Gandhiji and Jawahar Lal Nehru were the people having the most prominent influence over the Congress. Any decision of Congress was influenced by Gandhi ji and it is hard to believe that he was not involved in any decision related to Partition. The final nail, however, was struck on 13th January,1948. Pakistan had demanded a sum of Rs 55 crores, a huge sum at that time from the newly formed state of India. Majority of Congress leaders were opposed to giving the money to Pakistan and the Central government turned down the demand. But Gandhi ji started a fast unto death, due to which, government had to sanction the sum to Pakistan. And it was then, that Godse took the decision to kill Gandhi ji.

Following the assassination of Gandhi, he was put on trial beginning May 27, 1950 at Peterhoff, Shimla which housed the Punjab High Court. On November 8 1950, Godse delivered his statements in court enunciating the reasons and motives for the assassination. Below are Godse's replies to the charge sheet filed against him. 1. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on in his own way. Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. Either Congress had to surrender its will to his and had to be content with playing second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him. He alone was the judge of everyone and everything; he was the master brain guiding the Civil Disobedience movement; no other could know the technique of that movement. He alone knew when to begin it and when to withdraw it. The movement might succeed or fail, but that could make no difference to the Mahatma's infallibility.

‘A Satyagrahi can never fail' was his formula for his own infallibility and nobody except himself knew what a Satyagrahi is. 2. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus are of equal status as to rights, social and religious, and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession. I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Vaishyas, Kshatriyas, Chamars and Bhangis participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other. He listed Dadabhai Naoroji, Swami Vivekananda, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Bal Gangadhar Tilak as his influences, along with the ancient and modern histories of India, England, France, America and Russia, and the tenets of Socialism and Marxism. 3.

It was my first duty to serve the Hindudom and the Hindu people, as a patriot and even as a humanitarian. For, is it not true that to secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores of Hindus constituted the freedom and the well-being of one fifth of human race ? This conviction led me naturally to devote myself to the new Hindu Sanghatanist ideology and programme which alone I came to believe, could win and preserve the national independence of Hindusthan, my Motherland and enable her to render true service to humanity as well. 4. Gandhiji began to hold his prayer meetings in a Hindu temple in Bhangi Colony and persisted in reading passages from Quoran as a part of the prayer in that Hindu temple in spite of the protest of the Hindu worshippers there. Of course he dared not read the Geeta in a mosque in the teeth of Muslim opposition. He knew what a terrible Muslim reaction would have been if he had done so. But he could safely trample over the feelings of the tolerant Hindu. To this belief I was determined to prove to Gandhiji that the Hindu too could be intolerant when his honour was insulted.

Godse explained that Gandhi's unfair treatment and hypocrisy was the cause of his anger. 5. The fact that Gandhiji honoured the religious books of Hindus, Muslims and others or that he used to recite during his prayers verses from the Geeta, the Quoran and Bible never provoked any ill will in me towards him. To my mind it is not at all objectionable to study comparative religion. Indeed it is a merit. X Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is Assassinated by Nathuram Godse | World History Project Jan 30 1948 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is Assassinated by Nathuram Godse On January 30, 1948, Madanlal Pahwa, Shankar Kistaiya, Digambar Badge, Vishnu Karkare, Gopal Godse, Nathuram Godse, and Narayan Apte came to Birla Bhavan (aka Birla House) in Delhi to carry out another attack on Mahatma Gandhi. Except for Madanlal Pahwa and Vishnu Karkare, everyone else reached the venue through the rear entrance in a cab. (Surjeet Singh was the cab driver).

Madanlal Pahwa tried to bribe Choturam, the driver at Birla Bhavan, to let him go behind the podium to take pictures of Gandhi. However, Choturam became suspicious and asked Madanlal Pahwa why he needed photographs from behind, and inquired about the absence of a camera. Madanlal Pahwa instead left, making Choturam think he was going back to the taxi; however, he placed a cotton ball enclosing a bomb on the wall behind the podium and ignited it. The bomb went off without creating any panic. The team had left after abandoning Madanlal Pahwa. On interrogation, Madanlal Pahwa admitted that he was part of a seven member gang who wanted to kill Gandhi. The plan was that Madanlal Pahwa would explode a bomb as close to the podium as possible while Digambar Bagde or Shankar Kishtaiyya would shoot Gandhi in the head during the ensuing panic and stampede, using the chaotic situation to cover their escape.

(Vishnu Karkare was to compound the chaos by hurling hand grenades.) Faced with Choturam's suspicious attitude, Digambar Bagde decided at the last minute not to act, and instructed Shankar Kishtaiyya (his servant) to do the same. Later, Madanlal Phawa led the police to the Marina Hotel where Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte had been staying and also to Sharief Hotel where all other gang members had been staying. Everyone had left by that time and the police were only able to recover some letters and clothes which had the initials "NVG" on it. By this time they were able to ascertain that the members of that team were from Maharashtra; however they were not able to establish the identity and the involvement of Nathuram Godse. During the Mahatma Gandhi murder trial, Madanlal Pahwa was identified by Mrs. Sulochana Devi, who had come to Birla Bhavan in search of her three year old son (who used to play in the servant quarters). She was the fifteenth witness in the trial, and Surjeet Singh, the driver, was the fourteenth witness.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Ambivalent views over Gandhi killer Ambivalent views over Gandhi killer By Rajesh Joshi BBC Hindi service Gandhi was killed by a Hindu nationalist As India observes the 60th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's death, Hindu nationalist groups still grapple with the question whether to reject or appreciate his killer. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse on 30 January, 1948 in Delhi's Birla House. In the communally charged atmosphere during India's Partition in August 1947, Godse and his accomplices held Mahatma Gandhi responsible for the miseries of the Hindus and accused him of appeasing Muslims. Right-wing Hindu nationalist organisations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, (Nationalist Volunteers' Organisation) were banned and many of its leaders were sent to jail following the assassination of Gandhi. The RSS is the ideological fountainhead of India's main opposition party BJP. 'Selfless act' Nathuram Godse was later tried and hanged but the RSS was exonerated and the government decided to lift the ban on its activities.

Even though the RSS publicly rejects Nathuram Godse, its leaders don't hide their appreciation for what they call his "selfless act". "We will have to accept that Nathuram Godse acted with selfless spirit; he did not have any self-interest in it. He must also have been aware that he would be hanged for what he was going to do. This spirit cannot be denied," RSS ideologue Devendra Swaroop told the BBC. "But he was wrong if he thought that Gandhiji was taking history in a wrong direction and by killing him he could correct the course of history," adds Mr Swaroop. "RSS firmly believes that Godse acted at the spur of the moment and it was quite detrimental for the Hindu society. Gandhi dead proved to be stronger than Gandhi alive." Some Hindu leaders have condemned Gandhi's policy of non-violence Leaders of the Bajrang Dal, another affiliate of the RSS, believe that Godse's role in history needs to be reassessed. "People may object to his method but I don't believe that he committed such an act (of killing Gandhi) with some personal animosity," says Prakash Sharma, head of the Bajrang Dal.

"He was concerned for the country and at that time he did what he thought was right." Gandhi and his thoughts have more than once posed a challenge to the ideology of Hindu nationalists. Some Hindu leaders openly condemned Gandhi's policy of non-violence and friendship between Hindus and Muslims during the anti-Muslim riots that broke out in India's western state Gujarat in February 2002. 'Abandon Gandhi' Pravin Togadia of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) said in a public gathering: "Until the day we give up Gandhi's ideology of non violence and the ideology of surrendering before the Muslims, terrorism cannot be defeated." "My brothers, we will have to abandon Gandhi." However, RSS spokesman Ram Madhav denies that his organisation faces a dilemma about Godse. The 2002 Gujarat riots left many Muslims isolated "This issue had been resolved decades ago that he (Godse) had nothing to do with RSS and Gandhiji's assassination had nothing to do with RSS," he said. But Mahatma Gandhi's great grandson Tushar Gandhi is not impressed - he accuses the RSS of doublespeak. "Whenever an organisation uses a weapon to achieve its agenda, it abandons the weapon after using it.

They use and throw it like a condom," he said. "I have seen a deep feeling of devotion in the Sangh Parivar (or the RSS family) for Nathuram Godse and I know how they cherish him. But they do it secretly because they lack the courage." ABP News Special: Facts behind assassination of Mahatma Gandhi - YouTube ABP News Special: Facts behind assassination of Mahatma Gandhi Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jan 29, 2014 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi ( Mahatma Gandhi) was assassinated on 30 January 1948, shot at point-blank range by Nathuram Godse. What led to it and the facts behind it, watch in this ABP News' Special Report.

For more info log on to: Category Manas: History and Politics, Indus Valley Nathuram Godse, the RSS, and the Murder of Gandhi Vinay Lal On 30 January 1948, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known around the world as Mahatma Gandhi, and to his countrymen and women as Bapu, the “Father of the Nation”, was shot dead by Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a Chitpavan Brahmin from Pune. Much ink has been spilled on determining whether Godse was, at that time, a member of the RSS, or indeed of the Hindu Mahasabha, or perhaps of neither organization. Though Godse single-handedly carried out the execution of Gandhi, others were implicated in the assassination plot, and among those against whom the Indian government filed charges was Veer Savarkar. Godse, as investigations after Gandhi’s murder were to reveal, appears to have been close to Savarkar, a prominent leader of the Hindu Mahasabha.

Godse was certainly a frequent visitor to Savarkar’s residence, and he did not, in the time that intervened between his arrest on January 30 and his execution upon conviction of the charge of murder nearly two years later, ever disown his association with the Mahasabha. The general consensus appears to be that Nathuram, who saw himself as a passionate and ardent defender of the Hindu motherland against the depredations of Muslims, was at one point active in the RSS but resigned his membership in the early 1930s. This mere fact, if fact it be, has been pounced upon by the RSS in the five decades following Gandhi’s assassination to argue that Godse had no association with the RSS, and curiously Nathuram’s younger brother, Gopal Godse, who was convicted of partaking in the conspiracy to murder Gandhi and served a fifteen-year jail term and still speaks in the most bitter terms of Gandhi as the betrayer of India, has himself on more than one occasion had to issue a strong rejoinder to the RSS, with whose ideological outlook he is otherwise in complete sympathy, for attempting to disguise his brother’s long-term association with the RSS.

Thus, shortly after releasing Nathuram’s book, Why I Assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, in December 1993, Gopal Godse in an interview with Frontline magazine stated: “All the [Godse] brothers were in the RSS. Nathuram, Dattatreya, myself and Govind. You can say we grew up in the RSS rather than in our home. It was like a family to us. Nathuram had become a baudhik karyavah [intellectual worker] in the RSS. He has said in his statement that he left the RSS. He said it because [Madhav Sadashiv] Golwalkar and the RSS were in a lot of trouble after the murder of Gandhi. But he did not leave the RSS.” [See issue of 28 January 1994] Whether Godse formally remained a member of the RSS is much less important than the fact that though the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS had some ideological differences, both organizations were united in their extreme hostility to Gandhi as well as to Muslims.

Golwalkar and Savarkar shared a platform in Pune in 1952, as Sitaram Yechury’s What Is This Hindu Rashtra (Madras: Frontline Publications, 1993) has recently documented, and it is a little-known fact that at one point the RSS, eager to foment the impression that it did not stand by the virulently anti-Muslim sentiments expressed in Golwalkar’s influential book, We or Our Nationhood Defined (1938), claimed that the author of the book was Babarao Savarkar, the brother of Veer Savarkar. Sardar Patel, the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister in Nehru’s Cabinet, was himself inclined to view the Mahasabha and the RSS as organizations that had together created an atmosphere in which, as he wrote on 18 July 1948 to the Hindu Mahasabha leader, Shyam Prasad Mookerjee, “such a ghastly tragedy [Gandhi’s assassination] became possible.

There is no doubt in my mind that the extreme section of the Hindu Mahasabha was involved in this conspiracy.” Yet, as Patel added, in terms that leave no room to doubt that from his standpoint the RSS also stood implicated in Gandhi’s assassination, “The activities of the RSS constituted a clear threat to the existence of Government and the State. Our reports show that those activities, despite the ban, have not died down. Indeed, as time has marched on, the RSS circles are becoming more defiant and are indulging in their subversive activities in an increasing measure.” Two months later, on September 11th, Patel was again unequivocal in his denunciation of the role played by the RSS in Gandhi’s assassination: addressing Golwalkar, Patel spoke about the “poison” spread by the RSS. Following Gandhi’s murder, “Even an iota of the sympathy of the Government or of the people no more remained for the RSS. In fact opposition grew. Opposition turned more severe, when the RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhiji’s death.” It scarcely matters, then, whether Nathuram Godse retained membership in the RSS when he shot Gandhi dead.

Godse was involved in Hindu extremist organizations, including the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha, his entire adult life, and the continuing attempts by RSS to evade responsibility for Gandhi’s assassination are characteristic of that extreme pusillanimity and tendency to falsehood which have always been the signal trademarks of an organization that is determined to bring the idea of Hindu Rashtra to fruition. See also on MANAS website: “Hey Ram! The Politics of Gandhi’s Last Words” Why Godse Killed Gandhi??? | Rajeev Ranjan Why Godse Killed Gandhi??? 28 January 2009 137,243 Views 7 Comments Sixty one years after the assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a ‘mahatma’ to many but really a cunning politician who had mastered the art of manipulating the Indian National Congress and offering simplistic solutions to the most complex problems, apart from coercing others to toe his line by abandoning food, the story of his murder continues to elicit both curiosity and passion. He was not the first leader to be felled by an assassin’s bullet, nor is he the only eminent Indian, or South Asian for that matter, to fall victim to an elaborate murder conspiracy. But Gandhi’s assassination was different.

Not only his killers were Hindu, they killed a man who had by then come to be regarded at home and abroad as an “apostle of peace” and symbolized the unique doctrine of ‘non-violence’. In those early days of freedom, it was unthinkable that anybody would dare raise a finger, leave alone a gun, at Gandhi. Yet Nathuram Vinayak Godse did the unthinkable, with more than a little help from Narayan Apte, Vishnu Karkare, Gopal Godse, Madanlal Pahwa and Digambar Badge. Godse assassinated Gandhi on January 30, 1948, approaching him during the evening prayer, bowing, and shooting him three times at close range with a Beretta semi-automatic pistol. Immediately after this, he surrendered himself to police. Nathuram Godse, Apte and their accomplices look remarkably relaxed during the trial, unconcerned about the possibility of being sentenced to death – eventually Godse and Apte were hanged; Karkare, Gopal Godse, Pahwa were sentenced to life imprisonment. They never regretted their deed. Those were terrible days.

Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan were struggling to keep body and soul together. Many of them had lost their loved ones in the partition riots — women were raped in front of their husbands and children; young girls were abducted; men were disemboweled; trains arrived laden with dead bodies; people fleeing marauders were set upon with ferocious brutality. Madanlal Pahwa, a young refugee, Malgonkar writes, “reached a place called Fazilka, in Indian Territory, and discovered that another refugee column in which his father and other relatives had set out, had fared much worse. They had been attacked by Jihadi mobs: ‘Only 40 or 50 had survived out of 400 or 500…’.” Delhi was flooded by nearly one million refugees, all of them desperately looking for food and shelter. They were distraught and traumatized, unable to figure out why their lives had been turned upside down in so gruesome a manner. Nor could they understand the rationale behind protecting Delhi’s Muslims. What left them aghast was Gandhi’s insistence that Hindu and Sikh refugees should be sent back to Pakistan and Muslims who had left India be brought back. It didn’t make sense.

Nor did the vicious blood-letting that followed. Meanwhile, Pakistan had launched its mission to smash and grab Jammu & Kashmir and was demanding that India hand over Rs 55 crore, its share of the cash reserve inherited from the departing British colonial Government. After independence Gandhi used to start Satyagraha on every issue which went directly against the interest of India. Gandhi started hunger strike against sending of troops to Kashmir after Pakistani invasion. He was in favour of ahinsha Satyagraha against Pakistani invaders. In west Punjab, lakhs of Sikhs were killed and their body dispatched by train. In reaction to this, Sikhs started to retaliate here. Gandhi started hunger strike again to prevent it. The proverbial last straw was Gandhi’s threat to go on a fast to force the Government of India to accept Pakistan’s demand of Rs 55 Crore. In all fairness, it needs to be recalled that Jawaharlal Nehru was opposed to the idea: He famously declared that giving the money to Pakistan would mean providing it with “sinews of war”. The old man was not listening: In the end, Gandhi had his way although people were aghast.

But did this gross act of injustice to the people of India and the callous disregard for the sentiments of millions of refugees — half-a-million people perished in the violence, 12 million were rendered homeless — justify Nathuram Godse’s action? What inspired Narayan Apte, son of a well-known historian and Sanskrit scholar, to decide on January 13 (the day Gandhi declared he would go on a fast to press Pakistan’s demand for Rs 55 crore) that he must turn into a killer? What was Madanlal Pahwa’s role in the conspiracy? And why did Badge turn approver? Godse is often a misunderstood character. He is referred to as a Hindu fanatic. It is often hard to understand Godse because the Government of India had suppressed information about him. His court statements, letters etc. were all banned from the public until recently. Judging from his writings one thing becomes very clear – He was no fanatic. His court statements are very well read out and indicate a calm and collected mental disposition. He never even once speaks ill about Gandhi as a person, but only attacks Gandhi’s policies which caused ruin and untold misery to Hindus.

Another interesting point to note is that Godse had been working with the Hindu refugees fleeing from Pakistan. He had seen the horrible atrocities committed on them. Many women had their hands cut off; nose cut off, even little girls had been raped mercilessly. Despite this Godse did not harm even single Muslim in India which he could easily have. So it would be a grave mistake to call him a Hindu fanatic. Then what was the motive behind Godse’s act??? Nathuram Godse was a learned man, very sharp and intelligent – editor of “Agrani” (one of the most famous newspaper of that time – with Nana Aapte). In his last editorial of “Agrani” which he changed overnight – he said “Gandhi must be stopped – at any cost” and he justified why Gandhiji’s assassination was not only inevitable but also a delayed action and that should’ve happened LONG AGO. He knew exactly what he is going to do. In Nathuram’s Words – “Assassination is never as easy as picking up a rifle and pulling the trigger, assassination is never an accident. Yes, murder could be an accident but not assassination.

In this case of Gandhi, it could never be…” Did he tamper with an important era of history?? He said – “I differ with the word era. It could be a page, a leaf of history. Certainly not an era. If we don’t turn this page today, the rest of the pages of the history of our nation will remain unwritten, blank…” By seeing the nature of the assassination in public space and Godse’s act of turning himself over to the Police, we can see that Godse did not do this for personal reasons. He very well knew that he would be hanged and his name would be disgraced as Gandhi was considered a saint. And again Godse could have ran away and escaped punishment. But he did the reverse. He called a police officer and courted arrest. Before we proceed it would be wise to understand the backdrop of the assassination. The central government had taken a decision — Pakistan will not be given Rs 55 Crores. On January 13 Gandhi started a fast unto death that Pakistan must be given the money. On January 13, the central government changed its earlier decision and announced that Pakistan would be given the amount.

On January 13, Nathuram decided to assassinate Gandhi. Also according to one source, after the state of Pakistan was formed administrative problems started to crop up. Therefore Pakistan came up with a proposal to link East Pakistan (the present day Bangladesh) and West Pakistan. According to the plan a road (you could say an area) 10 km wide would be linking the east division with the west. Now the RSS activists feared that if Pakistan requested Gandhi to sanction such a proposal then Gandhi would readily agree and the Mahatma’s would be the final word as he was the father of the nation. They knew that Gandhi was Pakistan’s best lobby so they had him eliminated through Godse. I wonder what would have happened if we had allowed a road to be built across our country. I just can’t imagine. In the Hindu Rashtra daily dated 9/7/1947, Godse had given the following message to the fellow Indians. “Brothers! Our mother land has been cut into pieces. The eagles have torn her skin into bits. Hindu women are being raped in the middle of the road. How long can we tolerate this?

It’s a shame that lakhs of Hindus live like refugees in their own country. Women being raped burn my heart.” He warned Gandhiji “Gandhiji! By approving the Pakistan partition, you have stabbed the nation. Unless you change your activities, you must face harsh consequences. We consider the dividers of our nation as traitors our nation.” In Nathuram’s words – “I don’t refute Gandhi’s theory of non-violence. He may be a saint but he is not a politician. His theory of non-violence denies self-defence and self-interest. The non-violence that defines the fight for survival as violence is a theory not of non-violence but of self-destruction. The division of the nation was an unnecessary decision. What was the percentage of the Muslim population as compared to the population of the nation? There was no need for a separate nation. Had it been a just demand, Maulana Azad would not have stayed back in India. But because Jinnah insisted and because Gandhi took his side, India was divided, in spite of opposition from the nation, the Cabinet. An individual is never greater than a nation. But Gandhi has stared considering himself greater than the nation. We never opposed a Muslim prime minister.

In a democracy you cannot put forward your demands at knife-point. Jinnah did it and Gandhi stabbed the nation with the same knife. He dissected the land and gave a piece to Pakistan. We did picket that time but in vain. The Father of our Nation went to perform his paternal duties for Pakistan! Gandhi blackmailed the cabinet with his fast unto death. His body, his threats to die are causing the destruction — geographical as well as economical — of the nation. Today, Muslims have taken a part of the nation, tomorrow Sikhs may ask for Punjab. The religions are again dividend into castes; they will demand sub-divisions of the divisions. What remains of the concept of one nation, national integration? Why did we fight the British in unison for independence? Why not separately? Bhagat Singh did not ask only for an independent Punjab or Subhash Chandra Bose for an independent Bengal? At the time of Partition, when Suharawady surrendered only due to political pressure, but only Suharawady, not his followers…they went on with the massacre. Gandhi started his fast; the Hindus put their weapons down. I still remember that day.

A poor Hindu told Gandhi, ‘I am putting down my weapons because I don’t want your death on my conscience but I am staying alone with my family in the Muslim area. That night, before leaving Hyderabad I visited his home. The whole household was screaming, weeping, his only eight-year-old son had been killed by the Muslims. He had no weapon to defend himself. He threw his son’s body on my lap and said, “Take his blood to your Mahatma. Tell him, if he goes on fast again, he can finish it by drinking not orange-juice but my son’s blood.” I could not say anything. Gandhi was the Father of my Nation. For a moment, I was tempted to pull out the Muslims from their homes and chop them down. But I controlled myself. Violence for self-defence is justified; otherwise it is an ill-cultured act. I returned to where Gandhi was staying but he had already left by car. Of course, there would have been no point in meeting him… he would only have prayed for both the killer and the victim. I am going to assassinate him in the open, before the public, because I am going to do it as my duty.

If I do it surreptitiously, it becomes a crime in my own eyes. I will not try to escape, I will surrender and naturally I will be hanged. One assassination, one hanging. I don’t want two executions for one assassination and I don’t want your involvement, participation or company. (This was for Nana-Apte and Veer Savarkar as they were against Gandhi’s policies too; Godse wanted to assassinate Gandhi all by himself and took promise from Nana Apte that he will continue helping Veer Savarkar in rebuilding India as a strong free nation.) On January 30, I reached Birla Bhavan at 12 pm. Gandhi was sitting outside on a cot enjoying the sunshine. Vallabhbhai Patel’s granddaughter was sitting at his feet. I had the revolver with me. I could have assassinated him easily then, but I was convinced that his assassination was to be a punishment and a sentence against him, and I would execute him. I wanted witnesses for the execution but there were none. I did not want to escape after the execution as there was not an iota of guilt in my mind. I wanted to surrender, but surrender to whom?

There was a good crowd to collect for the evening prayers. I decided on the evening of January 30 as the date for Gandhi’s execution. It was 4.45 pm when I reached the gate of Birla Bhavan. The security staff at the gate was scrutinising the crowd entering and I was a little worried about them. I mingled with a small group of people and sneaked inside. It was 5.10 pm when I saw Gandhi and his close associates coming to the prayer place from his room inside. I approached the passage from where he was likely to climb the steps of the lawn, in such a way that I was covered by a few people. Gandhi climbed the steps and came forward. He had kept his hands on the shoulders of the two girls. I wanted just three seconds more. I moved two steps forward and faced Gandhi. Now I wanted to take out the revolver and salute him for whatever sacrifice and service he had made for the nation. One of the two girls was dangerously close to Gandhi and I was afraid that she might be injured in the course of firing. As a precautionary measure I went one more step ahead, bowed before him and gently pushed the girl away from the firing line.

The next moment I fired at Gandhi. Gandhi was very weak, there was a feeble sound like ‘aah’ (There are proof that Gandhi did NOT say “Hey Ram” at that time – it’s just made up stuff) from him and he fell down. Those who were close to me saw the weapon in my hand. They rushed away from the spot. Gandhi had fallen to the ground, I was standing and the crowd had formed a ring around us. After the firing I raised my hand holding the revolver and shouted, ‘Police, police’. For 30 seconds nobody came forward and I scanned the crowd. I saw a police officer. I signalled to him to come forward and arrest me. He came and caught my wrist, and then a second man came and touched the revolver… I let it go…” Trial and execution Following his assassination of Gandhi, he was put on trial beginning May 27, 1948. During the trial, he did not defend any charge and openly admitted that he killed Gandhi. On November 8, 1949 Godse was sentenced to death for the murder.

Godse’s legal team was savaged by critics for not introducing considerable evidence that their client was mentally unbalanced and/or manipulated by others. Among those calling for commutation of the death sentence for both defendants were Nehru and Gandhi’s two sons who felt that the two men on trial were pawns of RSS higher-ups and, in any case, executing their fathers’ killers would dishonour his memory and legacy which included a staunch opposition to the death penalty. Godse was hanged at Ambala Jail on November 15, 1949, along with Narayan Apte, the other conspirator. Savarkar was also charged with conspiracy in the assassination of Gandhi, but was acquitted and subsequently released. Godse stipulated that his ashes were not to be deposited in a body of water according to Hindu dictates, but rather were to be held in storage until they could be deposited in The Sindhu after Pakistan had been reunited with India. For years, his brother kept Godse’s ashes over his fireplace and held an annual salute to “the hero martyrs” on the anniversary of the assassination. Yes! I Killed Mohandas Gandhi and I am Glad I Did It! That is what Gopal Godse says.

Gopal Godse spent 18 years in prison for his role in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. His brother and one other conspirator were hanged by the neck until dead. But it was all worth it, says Gopal Godse. Gopal Godse proudly recounts his role in plotting the assassination of Mohandas K. Gandhi in 1948. Share this:

Question: Who was assassinated on 30 January 1948 by Nathuram Godse?
Answer: Mohandas Gandhi