Nathuram Godse: Know about the man who killed Mahatma Gandhi.
Highlights
- Nathuram Godse assassinated Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on the evening of January 30, 1948
- Godse had fired around three bullets at Mahatma Gandhi’s chest from a very close distance
- Later, Nathuram Godse was arrested, tried and sentenced to death by authorities
Martyrs' Day: Nathuram Vinayak Godse was a nationalist man who assassinated India's most venerated leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on the evening of January 30, 1948, when Gandhi visited the then Birla House for a prayer meeting in the national capital.
He had fired around three bullets at Gandhi’s chest from a very close distance at point-blank range, ensuring his demise. Nathuram Godse chose not to escape from the spot. Later, he was arrested, tried and finally sentenced to death.
On 74th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Know more about the man who assassinated 'Bapu':
On January 30, 1948, Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi and surrendered himself to the concerned authorities. He put forward a detailed statement at his trial at the Red Fort in 1948. In the year 1968, the Bombay High Court lifted a ban on the publication of Godse's statement.
The 38-year-old was also a member of Hindu Mahasabha, a right-wing party. It had accused Gandhi of having betrayed Hindus by being too pro-Muslim and soft on Pakistan. They even blamed him for the bloodshed that marked partition, which saw India and Pakistan created after independence from Britain in 1947.
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Nathuram Godse's Family background:
Godse was born into a Konkani Brahmin family in Baramati, Pune (Maharashtra). He was truly inspired by the nationalist ideals and chose to join the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Godse joined as a ground-level worker of RSS who later had become the editor of a Marathi daily called Agrani- Hindu Rashtra, in which Hindu Mahasabha leader, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar had invested. Godse also formed a separate Hindu nationalist organisation called “Hindu Rashtra Dal” after a feud with RSS chief MS Gowalkar.
Godse, a shy high-school dropout, worked as tailor and sold fruit before joining the Mahasabha, where he edited its newspaper. During the trial, he took more than five hours to read out a 150-paragraph statement in court.
What triggered Godse to kill Mahatma Gandhi
Following his death sentence on November 8, 1949, in his statement, Godse clearly stated that he was unhappy about Gandhi’s support for the Muslim community and blamed him for the partition of India and also the formation of Pakistan. As for killing Gandhi, Godse said he felt, “Indian politics in the absence of Gandhi 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.”
Godse's hanging took place on November 15, 1949.
Controversial life of Godse:
In the year 2010, the Indian National Congress (INC) published a commemorative volume to mark 125 years of the party’s formation titled Congress and the Making of the Indian Nation, in which Godse’s association with RSS and Hindu Mahasabha was highlighted in connection with Gandhi’s murder. RSS strongly protested against this through a spokesperson named Ram Madhav, who claimed that Godse left RSS in the mid-1930s. Though, family members of Nathuram Godse have maintained the point that he never left the RSS.
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