Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi

Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
A memorial marks the spot in Birla House (now Gandhi Smriti), New Delhi, where Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated at 5:17 p.m. on 30 January 1948.
Location	New Delhi
Date	30 January 1948 17:17 (Indian Standard Time)
Target	Mahatma Gandhi
Weapons	Beretta M 1934 Semi-automatic pistol
Deaths	1 (Gandhi)
Perpetrator	Nathuram Godse

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948 in the compound of Birla House (now Gandhi Smriti), a large mansion in central New Delhi. His assassin was Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a Chitpavan brahmin from Pune, Maharashtra, a Hindu nationalist,^[1] a member of the political party, the Hindu Mahasabha,^[2] as well as a former member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu paramilitary volunteer organization.^[3] Godse had planned the assassination with other Hindus from various backgrounds including a refugee from the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947.^[4][5]

Gandhi had just walked up the low steps to the raised lawn behind Birla House where he conducted his multi-faith prayer meetings every evening. Godse stepped out from the crowd flanking the path leading to the dais and into Gandhi's way, firing three bullets at point-blank range.^[6][7] Gandhi instantly fell to the ground. Gandhi was carried back to his room in Birla house from where a representative emerged some time later to announce that he had died.^{[7][upper-alpha 1]}

The Gandhi murder trial opened in May 1948 in Delhi's historic Red Fort, with Godse the main defendant, and his collaborator Narayan Apte and six others the co-defendants. According to Markovits (2004) Godse tried to "use the courtroom as a political forum by reading a long declaration in which he attempted to justify his crime. He accused Gandhi of complacence towards Muslims, blamed him for the sufferings of Partition, and generally criticized his subjectivism and pretension to a monopoly of the truth."^{[8][upper-alpha 2]} According to Mallot (2012), Godse blamed Gandhi for continuing to appease Muslims in a manner "that my blood boiled and I could tolerate him no longer".^[9]

The trial was rushed through, the haste sometimes attributed to the home minister Vallabhbhai Patel's desire "to avoid scrutiny for the failure to prevent the assassination."^[10] The trial was public, but the statement that Nathuram Godse gave during the trial on why he killed Gandhi was immediately banned by the Indian government.^[11] Godse and Apte were sentenced to death on 8 November 1949. They were hanged in the Ambala jail on 15 November 1949.^[12]

Preparations

In early September 1947, Gandhi had moved to Delhi in order to help stem the violent rioting there, and in the neighboring province of East Punjab.^[13] The rioting had come in the wake of the partition of the British Indian empire, which had accompanied the creation of the new independent dominions of India and Pakistan, and involved large, chaotic, transfers of population between them.^{[14][lower-alpha 1]}

Godse and his assassination accomplices were residents of the Deccan region. Godse had previously led civil disobedience movement against the Muslim ruler Osman Ali Khan of the princely Deccan region dominion of Hyderabad State in British India. Godse joined a protest march in 1938 in Hyderabad, where Hindus were being discriminated against, according to Fetherling.^[15] He was arrested for political crimes and had served prison. Out of the prison, Godse continued his civil disobedience and worked as a journalist reporting the sufferings of Hindu refugees escaping from Pakistan and during the various religious riots that erupted in the 1940s.^[16][17][18]

According to Arvind Sharma, the concrete plans to assassinate Gandhi was initiated by Godse and his accomplices in 1948, after India and Pakistan had already started a war over Kashmir. The Government of India led by Congress leaders had withheld a payment to Pakistan in January 1948 because it did not want to finance Pakistan then at war with India.^[19] Gandhi opposed the decision to freeze the payment, went on a fast-unto-death on 13 January 1948 to pressure the Indian government to release the payment to Pakistan. The Indian government, yielding to Gandhi, reversed its decision. Godse and colleagues interpreted this sequence of events as Gandhi to be controlling power and hurting India.^[19][16]

On the day Gandhi went on hunger strike, Godse and his colleagues began planning how to assassinate Gandhi.^[19][20] Nathuram Vinayak Godse and Narayan Apte purchased a Beretta M1934. Gandhi was staying in Delhi in January 1948. Along with purchasing the pistol, Godse and his accomplices shadowed Gandhi's movements.

Assassination

Previous attempts

According to Teesta Setalvad, states a review of her book by Hari Narayan, there had previously been five unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Gandhi before the last, the first having been on 25 June 1934 at Pune.^[21]

20 January 1948

Gandhi had initially been staying at the scheduled caste Balmiki Temple, near Gole Market in the northern regions of New Delhi, and holding his prayer meetings there, but as the temple was requisitioned for sheltering refugees of the partition, he moved to Birla House, a large mansion on what was then Albuquerque Road in south central New Delhi, not far from Diplomatic Enclave.^[7] Gandhi was living in two unpretentious rooms in the left wing of Birla House, and conducting the prayer meetings on a raised lawn behind the mansion.^[7]

A first attempt to assassinate Gandhi in 1948 at the Birla House occurred on 20 January. According to Stanley Wolpert, Nathuram Godse and his colleagues followed Gandhi to a park where he was speaking.^[5] One of them threw a grenade away from the crowd. The loud explosion scared the crowd, creating a chaotic stampede of people. Gandhi was left alone on the speaker platform. The original assassination plan was to throw a second grenade, after the crowds had run away, at the isolated Gandhi.^[5] But the accused accomplice Digambar Badge lost his courage, did not throw the second grenade and ran away with the crowd. All of assassination plotters ran away, except Madanlal Pahwa who was a Punjabi refugee of the Partition of India. He was arrested.^[5]

30 January 1948

Manuben Gandhi

Manu Gandhi, called "Manuben" in Gujarati fashion, was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's great niece (more precisely, a first cousin twice removed). Abha Chatterjee (Abhaben Chatteree), was a girl adopted by the Gandhis who would later marry Gandhi's great nephew, Kanu Gandhi. They were walking with Gandhi when he was assassinated.^[22] According to Last Glimpses Of Bapu, a memoir by Manuben Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi (Bapu) started the day in Birla Bhawan by listening to the recitation of Bhagavad Gita.^[23] He then worked on Congress constitution he wanted to publish in the Harijan, had his bath and massage at 8 AM, reprimanded Manuben to take care of herself since her health was not what it should be for an 18 year old.^[24] Gandhi, aged 78, was weighed after his bath and it was 109.5 lbs, he ate lunch with Pyarelalji discussing Noakhali violence.^[25] After lunch, states Manuben, Gandhi napped. After waking up, he had a meeting with Sardar Dada. Two Kathiawar leaders wanted to meet him, and when Manuben informed Gandhi that they wanted to meet him, Gandhi replied, "Tell them that, if I remain alive, they can talk to me after the prayer on my walk".^[26]

According to Manuben's memoir, the meeting between Sardar Dada and Gandhi went past the schedule, and Gandhi was about ten minutes late to the prayer meeting.^[27] He began his walk to the prayer location by walking with Manuben to his right and Abha to his left, holding onto them as walking sticks.^[28] A stout young man in Khaki dress [Godse], wrote Manuben, pushed his way through the crowd with his hands folded, bent. Manuben thought that the man wanted to touch Gandhi's feet. She pushed the man aside saying, "Bapu is already ten minutes late, why do you embarrass him". Godse pushed her aside so forcibly that she lost her balance and the rosary, notebook and Gandhi's spitoon she used to carry, fell off her hands.^[29] As she bent to the ground to pick the items, she heard three shots, resounding with booms and smoke everywhere. Gandhi's hands were folded, with his lips saying, "Hei Ra...ma! Hei Ra...!". Abhaben, wrote Manuben, had also fallen down. She saw the assassinated Gandhi in her lap.^[30]

The assassination had deafened her, wrote Manuben, the smoke was very thick, and the incident complete within 3 to 4 minutes. A crowd of people rushed towards them, according to Manuben.^[31] The watch she was carrying showed 5:17 pm, and blood was everywhere on their white clothes. Manuben estimated that it took about ten minutes to carry Gandhi back into the house, and no doctor was available meanwhile. They only had a first aid box, and there was no medicine in it for treating Gandhi's condition.^[29] According to Manuben, "the first bullet from the assassin's seven-bore automatic hit the belly 3.5 inches to the right of the middle and 2.5 inches above the navel; the second hit the belly 1 inch away from middle, and the third 4 inches away to the right".^[32] Gandhi had suffered profuse blood loss. Everyone was crying loudly. Bhai Saheb in the house had phoned the hospital many times, but was unable to reach any help. He then went to Willingdon Hospital in person, but came back disappointed. Manuben and others read Gita as Gandhi's body lay in the room. Col. Bhargava arrived, and he pronounced Gandhi dead.^[32]

Herbert Reiner

According to some reports, while the attending crowd was still in shock, Gandhi's assassin Godse was seized by Herbert Reiner Jr, a 32-year old, newly arrived, vice-consul at the American embassy in Delhi. According to an obituary for Reiner published in May 2000 by The Los Angeles Times, Reiner's role was reported on the front pages of newspapers around the world,^{[33][34][35][upper-alpha 3]}

According to Stratton (1950), on January 30, 1948, Reiner had reached Birla House after work, arriving fifteen minutes before the scheduled start of the prayer meeting at 5 p.m., and finding himself in a relatively small crowd.^[7] Although there were some armed guards present, Reiner felt that the security measures were inadequate, especially in view of an attempted bomb explosion at the same location ten days before.^[7] By the time Gandhi and his small party reached the garden area a few minutes after five, the crowd had swelled to several hundred, which Reiner described as comprising "schoolboys, girls, sweepers, members of the armed services, businessmen, sadhus, holymen, and even vendors displaying pictures of 'Bapu'". At first, Reiner had been at some distance from the path leading to the dais, but he moved forward, explaining later, "An impulse to see more, and at a closer range, of this Indian leader impelled me to move away from the group in which I had been standing to the edge of the terrace steps".^[7]

As Gandhi was walking briskly up the steps leading to the lawn, an unidentified man in the crowd spoke up, somewhat insolently in Reiner's recollection, "Gandhiji, you are late".^[7] Gandhi slowed down his pace, turned toward the man, and gave him an annoyed look, passing directly in front of Reiner at that moment.^[7] But no sooner had Gandhi reached the top of the steps, than another man, a stocky Indian man, in his 30s, and dressed in khaki clothes, stepped out from the crowd and into Gandhi's path. He soon fired several shots up close, at once felling Gandhi.^[36] A BBC correspondent Robert Stimson described what happened next in a radio report filed that night:^[36] "For a few seconds no one could believe what had happened; every one seemed dazed and numb. And then a young American who had come for prayers rushed forward and seized the shoulders of the man in the khaki coat. That broke the spell. ... Half a dozen people stooped to lift Gandhi. Others hurled themselves upon the attacker. ... He was overpowered and taken away".^[44] Others, as well, described how the crowd seemed paralyzed until Reiner's action.^{[45][lower-alpha 2][46]}

Robert Trumbull of The New York Times, who was an eyewitness, described Reiner's action in a front-page story on January 31, 1948, "The assassin was seized by Tom Reiner of Lancaster, Mass., a vice consul attached to the American Embassy and a recent arrival in India. ... Mr. Reiner grasped the assailant by the shoulders and shoved him toward several police guards. Only then did the crowd begin to grasp what had happened and a forest of fists belabored the assassin ..."^[39] Reiner too had noticed a man in khaki step into the path leading to the dais, but his further view was occluded by a party of associates following Gandhi. He soon heard sounds, though, which in his words were "not loud, not ringing, and not unlike the reports of damp firecrackers ..." and which for a moment made him wonder if some sort of celebration was underway.^{[7][upper-alpha 4]}

The details and the role of Reiner in seizing Godse vary by the source. According to Frank Allston, Reiner stated that "Goodse stood nearly motionless with a small Beretta dangling in his right hand and to my knowledge made no attempt to escape or to take his own fire. ... Moving toward Godse I extended my right arm in an attempt to seize his gun but in doing so grasped his right shoulder in a manner that spun him into the hands of Royal Indian Air Force men, also spectators, who disarmed him. I then fastened a firm grasp on his neck and shoulders until other military and police took him into custody".^{[47][7][upper-alpha 5]} According to Tunzelmann, Godse was seized and pummeled by Reiner.^[48] According to Khalid Gauba, Reiner was the "unsung hero" and had he not acted "Godse would probably have shot his way out".^[49] Reiner was standing in the front row, states Pramod Kapoor, and he seized and held Godse till the police arrived, but his name only appeared in some American newspapers.^[50] According to Bamzai and Damle, during the assassination trial, the government did not call American Marine Herbert "Tom" Reiner who caught Godse or the nephew of then Congress Minister Takthmal Jain of Madhya Bharat ministry (1948), as well as many others.^[40]

Other reports

According to other reports, Godse surrendered voluntarily and asked for the police.^[51] Yet other reports state he was rushed by the crowd, beaten, arrested, and taken to jail.^[2][52]

According to some eyewitnesses and court proceedings, Nathuram Godse was seized immediately by witnesses and an Indian Air Force officer dispossessed him of the pistol. The crowd beat him up to a bloodied face. The police wrested him loose from the angry crowd, took him to jail.^[52][2][53] A FIR was filed by Nandlal Mehta at the Tughlak Road Police station at Delhi.

The 31 January 1948 issue of The Guardian, a British newspaper, described Gandhi as walking from the "Birla House to the lawn where his evening prayer meetings were held".^[6] Gandhi was a bit late for the prayer, leaning on the shoulders of two grand-nieces. On his way, he was approached by a man [Godse] dressed in a khaki bush jacket and blue trousers. Godse greeted him with a Namaste, the customary Hindu salute. According to one version, stated The Guardian, Gandhi smiled back and spoke to Godse.^[6] Then, the assailant pulled out a pistol and fired three times, at point blank range, into Gandhi's chest, stomach and groin. Gandhi died at 5:40pm, about half an hour after he was shot.^[6]

According to The Guardian report, which did not mention Herbert Reiner Jr, Godse "fired a fourth shot, apparently in an effort to kill himself, but a Royal Indian Air Force sergeant standing alongside jolted his arm and wrenched the pistol away. The sergeant wanted to shoot the man but was stopped by the police. An infuriated crowd fell upon the man and beat him with sticks, but he was apprehended by the police and taken to a police station."^[6] Godse was questioned by reporters, who in English replied that he was not sorry to have killed Gandhi and awaited his day in court to explain his reasons.^[6]

Vincent Sheean was another eyewitness and an American reporter who had covered World War II events.^[54][55] He went to India in 1947 and became a disciple of Gandhi. He was with the BBC reporter Bob Stimson in Birla House premises when Gandhi was assassinated. They stood next to each other by the corner of a wall. According to Sheean, Gandhi walked across the grass in their direction, leaning lightly "on two of the girls", and two or three others following them. Gandhi wrapped in homespun shawl passed them by, states Sheean eyewitness account, and climbed up four or five steps to the prayer ground.^[56] As usual, according to Sheean, "there was a clump of people, some of whom were standing and some of whom had gone on their knees or bent low before him. Bob and I turned to watch-we were perhaps ten feet away from the steps-but the clump of people cut off our view of the Mahatma now: he was so small".^[56]

Then states Sheean, he heard "four, dull, dark explosions". Sheean asked Stimson, "what's that?" Stimson replied, "I don't know".^[57] It was a confusing place, people were weeping and many things happening, wrote Sheean, "a doctor was found, the police took charge; the body of the Mahatma was carried away; the crowd melted, perhaps urged to do so by the police; I saw none of this".^[58][55] Stimson filed a BBC report, then he and Sheean walked up and down the flower bed for a while. Sheean reported that he later met a "young American from the Embassy" who had never been to a prayer meeting before. Sheean did not take anything the young American said about the scene, but a week later learned that "it was this young man who had captured the assassin, held him for the Indian police" and after turning the assassin over, it was this young American who searched the crowd for a doctor. He experienced a tribal pride, states Sheean, that even though he was paralyzed and helpless on the day of Gandhi's assassination, "one of his breed had been useful".^[54]

According to Ashis Nandy, before firing the shots Godse "bowed down to Gandhi to show his respect for the services the Mahatma had rendered the country; he made no attempt to run away and himself shouted for the police".^[59] According to Pramod Das, Godse after firing the shots raised his hand with the gun, surrendered and called for the police.^[60] According to George Fetherling, Godse did not try to flee, "stood silently waiting to be arrested but was not approached at first because he was still armed; at last a member of the Indian air force grabbed him by the wrist, and Godse released his weapon". Police, states Fetherling, then "quickly surrounded Godse to prevent the crowd from lynching him".^[61] According to Matt Doeden and others, "Godse did not flee the scene, and he voluntarily surrendered himself to the police".^[62][63]

Death

According to some accounts, Gandhi died on the spot.^[64][65] In other accounts, such as one prepared by an eyewitness journalist, Gandhi was carried back into the Birla House, into a bedroom. There he died about 30 minutes later as one of Gandhi's family members read verses from Hindu scriptures.^[66]

Motives

During the subsequent trial, and in various witness accounts and books written thence, the motivation of Godse has been summarized, speculated and debated.^[67][68] Godse did not deny killing Gandhi, and made a long statement explaining his motivations for the assassination.^[69] Some of these motivations were:^[69][70]

• Godse felt that the massacre and suffering caused during and due to the partition could have been avoided if Gandhi and Indian government had acted to stop the killing of the minorities (Hindus and Sikhs) in West and East Pakistan. He stated Gandhi had not protested against these atrocities being suffered in Pakistan and instead resorted to fasts.^[71] In his court deposition, Godse said, "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 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."^[72]
• Godse called Gandhi subjective, someone who pretended to have a monopoly on Truth.^[67] He stated that Gandhi thought of himself as the final judge of what is true or false, right or wrong, and the suffering of Hindus did not matter to him. Godse claimed that his group of volunteers and he were social workers who had worked across religious and caste boundaries for years to help their fellow Indians, and he was upset with Gandhi's actions and willingness to ignore non-Muslim interests and make concessions to Muslims.^[69][73][74]
• Godse said that Gandhi exploited the feelings of tolerant Hindu, with one-sided practices. Gandhi's recent prayer meetings in Hindu temples, said Godse, had started the practice of reading passages from the Quran, despite Hindus protesting this practice. However, according to Godse, Gandhi "dared not read the Gita in a mosque in the teeth of Muslim opposition" and "Gandhi knew what a terrible Muslim reaction would have been if he had done so". Godse alleged that Gandhi knew it is safe to trample on the tolerant Hindu. Godse wanted to show that a Hindu too can be intolerant.^{[69][75][note 1]}
• Godse stated that Gandhi's fast to pressure the Indian government to release the final payment to Pakistan that it had previously frozen because of the war in Kashmir, and the subsequent Indian government's flipflop is proof that the Indian government reversed its decision to suit the feelings of Gandhi. India, said Godse, was not being run by the force of public opinion, but by Gandhi's whims. Godse added that he admired Gandhi for his lofty character, ceaseless work and asceticism, and Gandhi's formidable character meant that his influence outside of the due process would continue while he was alive. Gandhi had to be removed from the political stage, so that India can begin looking after its own interests as a nation, according to Godse.^[69][77][78]
• Godse stated he did not oppose Gandhian ahimsa teachings, but Gandhi's talk of religious tolerance and nonviolence had already caused India to cede Pakistan to Muslims, uprooted millions of people from their home, caused immense violent loss of life and broken families. He believed that if Gandhi was not checked it would bring destruction and more massacres to Hindus. In Godse's opinion, "the only answer to violent aggression was violent self-defense". Godse stated that "Gandhi had betrayed his Hindu religion and culture by supporting Muslims at the expense of Hindus" because his lectures of ahimsa (non-violence) were directed at and accepted by the Hindu community only. Godse said, "I sat brooding intensely on the atrocities perpetrated on Hinduism and its dark and deadly future if left to face Islam outside and Gandhi inside, and . . . I decided all of a sudden to take the extreme step against Gandhi". I did not hate Gandhi, I revered him because we both venerated much in Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture, we both were against superstitious aspects and the wrongs in Hinduism. Therefore I bowed before Gandhi when I met him, said Godse, then performed my moral duty and killed Gandhi.^[69][73]

Trial and justice

The trial of persons accused of participation and complicity in the assassination at the Special Court in Red Fort Delhi on 27 May 1948. Left to right front row: Nathuram Godse, Narayan Apte and Vishnu Ramkrishna Karkar. Seated behind are (from left to right) Diganber Ram Chandra Badge, Shankar, Vinayak Savarkar, Gopal Godse and Dattatraya Sadashiv Parachure.

Godse was seized by witnesses and taken away by police. The case was investigated, and many additional people were arrested, charged and tried in a lower court. The case and its appeal attracted considerable media attention, but Godse's statement in his defense to the court was banned immediately by the Indian government. Those convicted were either executed or served their complete sentences.

Investigation and arrests

Along with Nathuram Godse many others accomplices were arrested by March 1948. They were all identified as prominent members of the Hindu Mahasabha – an organization active in opposing the Muslim ruler of the princely state of Hyderabad State in the Deccan region,^[79] before the Indian Army forcibly removed the Nizam in Operation Polo in September 1948.^[80]

Along with Godse and accomplices, police arrested the 65-year-old Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who they accused of being the mastermind behind the plot.^[79]

Arrested

The accused, their place of residence, caste and occupational background were as follows:^[81]

1. Nathuram Vinayak Godse (Pune, Maharashtra; Brahmin; editor, journalist)^[82]
2. Narayan Apte (Pune, Maharashtra; Brahmin; former British military service, teacher, newspaper manager)^[83]
3. Digambar Badge (Ahmednagar, Maharashtra; Shudra; weapons merchant)^[84]
4. Shankar Kistayya (Pune, Maharashtra; Shudra; a rickshaw puller, domestic servant of Digambar Badge)^[85]
5. Dattatraya Parchure (Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh; Brahmin; medical service, care giver)^[86]
6. Vishnu Karkare (Ahmednagar, Maharashtra; Shudra, orphan; odd jobs in hotels, musician in a traveling troupe, volunteer in relief efforts to religious riots (Noakhali), later restaurant owner)^[87]
7. Madanlal Pahwa (Ahmednagar refugee camp, Maharashtra; caste unknown; former British India army soldier, unemployed, Punjabi refugee who migrated to India from Pakpattan (Pakistan) on the eve of Partition, after his father and aunt were massacred by a Muslim mob)^[86]
8. Gopal Godse (Pune, Maharashtra; Brahmin and brother of Nathuram Godse; storekeeper, merchant)^[88]
9. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (Mumbai, Maharashtra; Brahmin; author, lawyer, former president of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha)

Trial and sentencing: Lower Court

The trial began on 27 May 1948 and ran for eight months before Justice Atma Charan passed his final order on 10 February 1949. The prosecution called 149 witnesses, the defense none.^[79] The court found all except one guilty as charged. Eight men were convicted for the murder conspiracy, and others convicted for violation of the Explosive Substances Act. Savarkar was acquitted and set free due to lack of evidence. Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte were sentenced to death by hanging^[89] and the remaining six (including Godse's brother, Gopal) were sentenced to life imprisonment.^[90]

Appeal: High Court

Of those found guilty, all except Godse appealed their conviction and sentence. Godse accepted his death sentence, but appealed the lower court ruling that found him guilty of conspiracy. Godse argued, in his limited appeal to the High Court, that there was no conspiracy, he alone was solely responsible for the assassination, witnesses only saw him kill Gandhi, that all co-accused were innocent and should be released.^[91] According to Markovitz, Godse's declarations and expressed motivations during the appeal have been analyzed in contrasting ways. For example, "while Robert Payne, in his detailed account of the trial, dwells on the irrational nature of his statement, Ashis Nandy underlines the deeply rational character of Godse's action, which, in his view, reflected the well-founded fears among upper-caste Hindus of Gandhi's message and its impact on Hindu society."^[8]

The appeal by the accused was heard from 2 May 1949, at Peterhoff, Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) which then housed the Punjab High Court.^[92][93] The High Court affirmed the findings and sentences of the lower court except in the case of Dattatraya Parchure and Shankar Kistayya who were acquitted of all charges.

Executions

Godse and Apte were sentenced to death on 8 November 1949.^[12] Pleas for commutation were made by Gandhi's two sons, Manilal Gandhi and Ramdas Gandhi, but these pleas were turned down by India's prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and the Governor-General Chakravarti Rajagopalachari,^[94] Godse was hanged in the Ambala jail on 15 November 1949.^[12] According to the Almanac of World Crime, at the hanging Apte's neck broke and he died instantly.^[95] but, "Godse died slowly by the rope," instead of having his neck snap, he choked "to death for fifteen minutes."^[2] Apte, on the other hand, died instantly after his neck broke.^[96][97]

Censorship and judge's comments

The Government of India made the assassination trial public. It was widely followed till the day of Godse's statement. However, according to Awol Allo, the testimony of Nathuram Godse was "so persuasive" that the Indian government immediately banned it.^[11] Gopal Godse, a co-accused and sentenced to life in prison, wrote a memoir which was published in 1967. It was immediately banned and circulating copies of it were seized by the Congress-led government because of its fears that it promoted religious hatred between the Hindus and the Muslims in India. The complete Godse testimony and trial proceedings remained censored for about 30 years, published for the first time in 1977.^[11][98][99]

G.D. Khosla, one of the judges who heard the assassination proceedings, later wrote of the Godse statement and the reception of his reasons for assassinating Gandhi by the audience in the court:^[100]

The audience was visibly and audibly moved. There was a deep silence when he ceased speaking. (...) I have, however, no doubt that had the audience of that day been constituted into a jury and entrusted with the task of deciding Godse's appeal, they would have brought a verdict of "non guilty" by an overwhelming majority.

— G.D. Khosla, Chief Justice of Punjab^[100][101]

Aftermath

Funeral procession of Gandhi, passing the India Gate, Delhi

Tributes

After the assassination, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the nation by radio:^[102]

Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you or how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that; nevertheless, we will not see him again, as we have seen him for these many years, we will not run to him for advice or seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only for me, but for millions and millions in this country.^[103]

Gandhi's death was mourned around the world. Field Marshall Jan Smuts, former prime minister of South Africa, and once Gandhi's adversary, said,

"Gandhi was one of the great men of my time and my acquaintance with him over a period of more than 30 years has only deepened my high respect for him. A prince among men has passed away and we grieve with India in her irreparable loss."

The British prime minister C. R. Attlee, said in a radio address to the nation on the night of January 30, 1948:

Everyone will have learnt with profound horror of the brutal murder of Mr Gandhi and I know that I am expressing the views of the British people in offering to his fellow-countrymen our deep sympathy in the loss of their greatest citizen. Mahatma Gandhi, as he was known in India, was one of the outstanding figures in the world today, ... For a quarter of a century this one man has been the major factor in every consideration of the Indian problem.

Leo Amery, the British secretary of state during the war said,

"It can be said that no one contributed more to the particular way in which the charter of British rule in India has ended than Mahatma Gandhi himself. His death comes at the close of a great chapter in world history. In the mind of India, at least, he will always be identified with the opening of the new chapter which, however troubled at the outset, we should all hope, will develop in peace, concord and prosperity for India."

Lord Pethick-Lawrence, the British secretary of state in 1948 said:

What was the secret of his power over the hearts and minds of men and women? In my opinion it was the fact that he voluntarily stripped himself of every vestige of the privilege that he could have enjoyed on account of his birth, means, personality and intellectual pre-eminence and took on himself the status and infirmities of the ordinary man. When he was in South Africa as a young man and opposed the treatment of his fellow-countrymen in that land, he courted for himself the humiliation of the humblest Indian that he might in his own person face the punishment meted out for disobedience. When he called for non-cooperation with the British in India he himself disobeyed the law and insisted that he must be among the first to go to prison. ... He never claimed to be any other than an ordinary man. He acknowledged his liability to error and admitted that he had frequently-learnt by his mistakes. He was the universal brother, lover and friend of poor, weak, erring, suffering humanity."

Albert Einstein wrote:

He died as the victim of his own principles, the principle of non-violence. He died because in time of disorder and general irritation in his country, he refused armed protection for himself. It was his unshakable belief that the use of force is an evil in itself, that therefore it must be avoided by those who are striving for supreme justice to his belief. With his belief in his heart and mind, he has led a great nation on to its liberation. He has demonstrated that a powerful human following can be assembled not only through the cunning game of the usual political manoeuvres and trickery but through the cogent example of a morally superior conduct of life. The admiration for Mahatma Gandhi in all countries of the world rests on that recognition.

The New York Times in its editorial wrote:

"It is Gandhi the saint who will be remembered, not only on the plains and in the hills of India, but all over the world. He strove for perfection as other men strive for power and possessions. He pitied those to whom wrong was done: the East Indian laborers in South Africa, the untouchable 'Children of God' of the lowest caste of India, but he schooled himself not to hate the wrongdoer. The power of his benignity grew stronger as his potential influence ebbed. He tried in the mood of the New Testament to love his enemies. Now he belongs to the ages."^[104]

Over two million people joined the five-mile long funeral procession that took over five hours to reach Raj Ghat from Birla house, where he was assassinated. Gandhi was cremated in a funeral pyre.^[105]

Criticism

In some cases the response to this death were less adulatory. The Dalit (untouchables) leader Ambedkar, who had long criticized Gandhi and Gandhi's ideas as primitive and wrong, had a response of relief after he heard the news of Gandhi's assassination. He remarked after a momentary silence and regret, "My real enemy is gone; thank goodness the eclipse is over now".^[106][107]

Archibald Wavell, the Viceroy and Governor-General of British India for three years through February 1947, who had worked with Gandhi and Jinnah to find a common ground, before and after accepting Indian independence in principle, remarked:

I was greeted with the news of Gandhi's assassination, an unexpected end for a very remarkable man. I never accepted him as having much of the saint in his composition but he was extremely astute politician. Whether he did more harm or good for India it would be hard to say, but Indians will have no doubt, and he certainly hastened the departure of the British, which was his life's aim. But he wrecked the pan of the Cabinet Mission which might possibly have secured a united India and saved the massacres. I do not believe that he really worked for an understanding with the Muslims, when his influence might have secured it. He was always the lawyer and the bania who would drive a hard bargain and then find some legal quibble to deprive his opponent of what he had seemed to gain. I always thought he [Gandhi] had more of malevolence than benevolence in him, but who am I to judge, and how can an Englishman estimate a Hindu? Our standards are poles apart, and by Hindu standards Gandhi may have been saint, by any standards he was a very remarkable man.^[108][109]

Riots

Riots erupted in Bombay (now Mumbai) on Gandhi's assassination, resulting in the deaths of 15 people.^[110].The brahmin community in Maharashtra region bore the brunt of the riots with looting, and burning of Brahmin houses and businesses^[111].The riots led to internal migration of brahmins from the villages to the cities and cut off that community from its rural roots^[112]

Politics

Gandhi's assassination dramatically changed the political landscape. Nehru became his political heir. According to Markovits, while Gandhi was alive, Pakistan's declaration that it was a "Muslim state" had led Indian groups to demand that it be declared a "Hindu state".^[67] Nehru used Gandhi's martyrdom as a political weapon to silence all advocates of Hindu nationalism as well as his political challengers. He linked Gandhi's assassination to politics of hatred and ill-will.^[67]

According to Guha, Nehru and his Congress colleagues called on Indians to honour Gandhi's memory and even more his ideals.^[113][114] Nehru used the assassination to consolidate the authority of the new Indian state. Gandhi's death helped martial support for the new government and legitimise the Congress Party's control, leveraged by the massive outpouring of Hindu expressions of grief for a man who had inspired them for decades. The government suppressed the RSS, the Muslim National Guards, and the Khaksars, with some 200,000 arrests.^[115]

For years after the assassination, states Markovits, "Gandhi's shadow loomed large over the political life of the new Indian Republic". The government quelled any opposition to its economic and social policies, despite they being contrary to Gandhi's ideas, by reconstructing Gandhi's image and ideals.^[116]

Previous attempts

1934

In 1934 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was in Pune along with his wife, Kasturba Gandhi, to deliver a speech at Corporation Auditorium. They were travelling in a motorcade of two cars. The car in which the couple was travelling was delayed and the first car reached the auditorium. Just when the first car arrived at the auditorium, a bomb was thrown, which exploded near the car. This caused grievous injury to the Chief Officer of the Pune Municipal Corporation, two policemen and seven others. Nevertheless, no account or records of the investigation nor arrests made can be found. Gandhi's secretary, Pyarelal Nayyar, believed that the attempt failed due to lack of planning and co-ordination.^[117]

Legacy

Kapur Commission

On 12 November 1964, a religious programme was organised in Pune, to celebrate the release of the Gopal Godse, Madanlal Pahwa, Vishnu Karkare from jail after the expiry of their sentences. Dr. G. V. Ketkar, grandson of Bal Gangadhar Tilak,^[118] former editor of Kesari and then editor of Tarun Bharat, who presided over the function, revealed six months before the actual event, that Nathuram Godse disclosed his ideas to kill Gandhi and was opposed by Ketkar. Ketkar said that he passed the information to Balukaka Kanitkar who conveyed it to the then Chief Minister of Bombay State, B. G. Kher. The Indian Express in its issue of 14 November 1964, commented adversely on Ketkar's conduct that Ketkar's fore-knowledge of the assassination of Gandhi added to the mystery of the circumstances preceding to the assassination. Ketkar was arrested. A public furore ensued both outside and inside the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and both houses of the Indian parliament. There was a suggestion that there had been a deliberate dereliction of duty on the part of people in high authority, who failed to act responsibly even though they had information that could have prevented Gandhi's shooting. Under pressure of 29 members of parliament and public opinion the then Union home minister Gulzarilal Nanda, appointed Gopal Swarup Pathaka, M. P. and a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India, in charge of inquiry of conspiracy to murder Gandhi. Since both Kanitkar and Kher were deceased, the central government intended on conducting a thorough inquiry with the help of old records in consultation with the government of Maharashtra, Pathak was given three months to conduct his inquiry. But as Pathak was appointed a central minister and then governor of Mysore state, the commission of inquiry was reconstituted and Jevanlal Kapur a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India was appointed to conduct the inquiry.^[119]

Reappraisal of Savarkar's role

Kapur commission also examined Savarkar's role in the assassination. Godse had claimed full responsibility for planning and carrying out the attack, in absence of an independent corroboration of the prosecution witness Digambar Badge's evidence implicating Savarkar directly, the court exonerated him citing insufficient evidence. According to Badge, on 17 January 1948, Nathuram Godse went to have a last darshan of Savarkar in Bombay before the assassination. While Badge and Shankar waited outside, Nathuram and Apte went in. On coming out Apte told Badge that Savarkar blessed them "Yashasvi houn ya" ("यशस्वी होऊन या" return victorious). Apte also said that Savarkar predicted that Gandhiji's 100 years were over and there was no doubt that the task would be successfully finished.^[120][121] However Badge’s testimony was not accepted as it lacked independent corroboration. This was later corroborated by the testimony of two of Savarkar's close aides – Appa Ramachandra Kasar, his bodyguard, and Gajanan Vishnu Damle, his secretary, who had not testified in the original trial but later testified before the Justice Kapur commission set up in 1965. Kasar told the Kapur Commission that they visited him on or about 23 or 24 January, which was when they returned from Delhi after the bomb incident. Damle deposed that Godse and Apte saw Savarkar in the middle of January and sat with him (Savarkar) in his garden. Justice Kapur concluded: "All these facts taken together were destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group."^[122][123]

In media

Several books, plays and movies have been produced about the event.

• May It Please Your Honor was published in 1977, containing Nathuram Godse's statement to the court, after the Indian Congress party lost power for the first time in India after its independence, and the new government lifted the censorship since 1949 after gaining power in the elections. The text was republished in 1993 as Why I Assassinated Mahatma Gandhi?.^[99]
• I, Nathuman Godse speaking play composed by Pradeep Dalvi based on assassination trial. Locally produced as Me Nathuram Godse Boltoy, after seven sold-out shows, it was banned in the State of Maharashtra in 1999 upon directions from the then BJP led coalition government in Delhi.^[124]
• Gandhi vs. Gandhi is Marathi play that has been translated in several languages. Its primary plot is the relationship between Gandhi and his estranged son but it also deals briefly with the assassination.
• Why I Killed Gandhi is a publication that contains the original transcript of Nathuram Godse's defence in the trial.
• Nine Hours to Rama is a 1963 British movie based on Stanley Wolpert's novel of the same name, which is a fictional account of the final nine hours leading up to Gandhi's assassination.
• Gandhi and the Unspeakable: His Final Experiment with Truth by James Douglass is a non-fiction book that seeks to understand not only the facts of the murder but its importance in the larger struggle between non-violence and violence.
• Hey Ram (2000) - a Tamil-Hindi Bilingual Film by Kamal Haasan about a fictitious plot to kill Gandhi by a man devastated by partition riots and his change of heart even as the real-life plot succeeds.
• In the 1982 film Gandhi, the actor Harsh Nayyar portrayed Godse who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi (played by Ben Kingsley) in the beginning and the end.

References

Footnotes

Citations

Works cited

Further reading

Assassination-related literature and the variance in its coverage:

• Claude Markovits (2004). The UnGandhian Gandhi: The Life and Afterlife of the Mahatma. Anthem Press. ISBN 978-1-84331-127-0. 
• Debs, Mira (2013). "Using cultural trauma: Gandhi's assassination, partition and secular nationalism in post-independence India". Nations and Nationalism. Wiley-Blackwell. 19 (4): 635–653. doi:10.1111/nana.12038. 
• McLain, Karline (2007). "Who Shot the Mahatma? Representing Gandhian Politics in Indian Comic Books". South Asia Research. SAGE Publications. 27 (1): 57–77. doi:10.1177/026272800602700104. 
• Khalid Latif Gauba (1969). The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Jaico Publishing. 

Funeral, post funeral-rites and memorialization after Gandhi's assassination:

• Khan, Yasmin (2011). "Performing Peace: Gandhi's assassination as a critical moment in the consolidation of the Nehruvian state". Modern Asian Studies. Cambridge University Press. 45 (01): 57–80. doi:10.1017/s0026749x10000223. 

External links

Coordinates: 28°36′04.6″N 77°12′49.4″E / 28.601278°N 77.213722°E / 28.601278; 77.213722