Who kill gandhiji

January 30, 1948, remained crystal clear in the mind of Manu Gandhi, the great-niece of Mahatma Gandhi. Fondly known as Manuben, she was among the first eyewitnesses who saw the assassination of Bapu. According to ‘Last Glimpses Of Bapu’, a memoir by Manuben Gandhi, it was almost as if the Mahatma had foreseen his death. Mahatma Gandhi and Manuben before his departure to Europe, 1931. Source: When told two Kathiawar leaders were looking forward to meeting him on the day, Gandhi, aged 78, told Manuben, “Tell them that, if I remain alive, they can talk to me after the prayer on my walk.” He was already ten minutes late to reach the lawn behind Birla House where he conducted his multi-faith prayer meetings every evening. Walking with Manuben to his right and Abha Chatterjee (his adopted daughter) to his left, for support, he was approached by a ‘stout young man in Khaki dress’ who pushed his way through the crowd, pretended to touch Gandhi’s feet, and then shot him thrice at point blank range. The man was Nathuram Godse. It was 5:17 on 30 January 1948. Source: While most might be familiar with the story of his death, did you know that Bapu successfully escaped five attempts of assassination in the past? The book ‘Beyond Doubt — A Dossier on Gandhi’s Assassination’ compiled and edited by Teesta Setalvad published in 2015, is a collection of archival documents related to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. It talks about the five futile assassination attempts that Gandhi survi...

Historians and scholars have written extensively on “who killed Gandhi and why?” and the answer, obviously, doesn’t end with Godse. What Godse told the court in an attempt to explain why he chose to pump three bullets into Gandhi’s chest at point-blank range provides a glimpse into the politics of the assassination, writes Abhishek Saha On January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi fell to his assassin Nathuram Vinayak Godse’s bullets during an evening prayer ceremony at Birla House in Delhi. Perched atop a gate of Birla House, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru announced to the world the “light has gone out of our lives”. Eight men were convicted in the murder trial inside Red Fort by a special court, constituted by an order of the central government. Godse and co-conspirator Narayan Apte were hanged for the murder of the Father of the Nation on November 15, 1949. Historians and scholars have written extensively on “who killed Gandhi and why?” and the answer, obviously, doesn’t end with Godse. What Godse told the court in an attempt to explain why he chose to pump three bullets into Gandhi’s chest at point-blank range provides a glimpse into the politics of the assassination. Why Godse killed Gandhi “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,” Godse told the court. He added: “I bear no ill will towards anyone individually, but I do say that I had no respect for the present government owing to...

The killer of Gandhiji and his apologists sought to justify the assassination on the following arguments: • Gandhiji supported the idea of a separate State for Muslims. In a sense he was responsible for the creation of Pakistan. • In spite of the Pakistani aggression in Kashmir, Gandhiji fasted to compel the government of India to release an amount of Rs. 55 crores due to Pakistan. • The belligerence of Muslims was a result of Gandhiji's policy of appeasement. Scrutinized in the light of recorded history, these prove to be clever distortions to misguide the gullible. Gandhiji in those days was very active in the rough and tumble of politics. The proposal for partition of the country and violent reaction against it generated tensions which ultimately resulted in sectarian killings on a scale unprecedented in human history. For the ethnic Muslims, Gandhiji was a Hindu leader who opposed the creation of Pakistan on sectarian grounds. Ethnic Hindus looked upon him as an impediment to their plan to revenge the atrocities on Hindus. Godse was a child of this extremist thinking. The assassination of Gandhiji was a culmination of decades of systematic brain-washing. Gandhiji had become a thorn in the flesh of the hard core Hindus and in course of time this resentment turned into a phobia. Beginning with the year 1934 over a period of 14 years on as many as six occasions attempts were made to kill Gandhiji. The last one by Godse on 30-1-48 was successful. The remaining five were ma...

If we ask this question to an average school boy, he would immediately rise up and answer ‘Godse’ (ie, Nathuram Vinayak Godse) and it is a fact, but not the truth. For the past 70 years many have been after this enigma and formed many theories, often contradictory. The fact is that Godse an ex RSSS and a member of Hindu Maha Sabha along with Apte, shot Mahathma Gandhi on the ground of Birla Mandir, Delhi on 30th January 1948 evening. The police investigation unearthed a deep conspiracy and also 5 previous assassination attempts, mainly by Godse and his gang. In the conspiracy charge Godse’s brother, Vir Savarkar and some others were also implicated. After the trial and rejection of appeal Godse and Apte were hung and Gopal Godse was sentenced for life (released in 1964) and Vir Savarkar acquitted. These are the facts. But again the question is, ”What is the Truth?” The assassination of Gandhiji was confined to the perpetrators and their immediate conspirators, but that was the end. Nothing further was done, nor no one thought even to further try to unravel the full truth behind Gandhiji’s murder. Mahathma Gandhi had become an icon and a living myth and an inconvenience and trouble to many even in the government. When the assassin and his conspirators committed the heinous crime there were many even in the higher up, who were guilty of omissions. The complacency, smugness and light-heartedness they had shown to the threat to the life Mahathma -The jewel in the crown of Indi...

To fathom Nathuram Godse’s patriotism and love for India, we must delve into aspects of his personal history. It is important to comprehend the psychology of a boy who was named Ramachandra Godse but who came to be known as Nathuram. Before he was born, in a small village of the Bombay-Pune belt, his parents had three sons, all of whom died in infancy. To ensure death did not claim Ramachandra as well, they brought him up as a girl, had his nose pierced, and made him wear the nose ring or nath until they had yet another son. It was because of the nose ring he wore that Ramachandra became Nathuram. Godse may have defied the jinx of death haunting his family, but the role of girl he was made to play must have bred in him immense confusion and complex about his sexuality. In a fascinating psychoanalysis of Godse, political psychologist Ashis Nandy in his book, At The Edge of Psychology, wrote, “Perhaps it was given in the situation that Nathuram would try to regain the lost clarity of his sexual role by becoming a model of masculinity.” This was, as Nandy showed in his book, most likely the source from which sprang his opposition to the Gandhian ideas of pacifism and nonviolence. Unable to vanquish the ideas which Godse thought was emasculating the Hindus and turning them effeminate, he killed the man who propagated them. Decline in social mobility In a way, Godse’s confusion about his sexuality was mingled with his extreme religiosity as well as anxiety about his own social ...