[This article is a good analysis of how Gandhi's politics of Muslim
appeasement at the expense of millions of Hindus led Nathuram Godse, a
young Hindu, to decide to kill him.
The book cited in this article is worth reading to be sure, but if you
like "primary sources", surely *the* authoritative do***ent is the
assassin's own eloquent court-room statements, which moved millions of
even those Hindus who disapproved of his action. True to Government of
India style, his words were suppressed and their publication banned
even though court proceedings should be public. Eventually published as
a book: "Why I Assassinated Mahatma Gandhi?" by Nathuram Godse. Used
copies available in the West, see Bookfinder:
<http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&qi=176VxRPMVFbZ1m7B8c9AtZ
Eet0I_3906717871_1:3:34>.
Nathuram Godse's basic court-room statement is available online at
<http://ngodse.tripod.com/defense.htm>.]
<http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file
_name=kanchan%2Fkanchan154%2Etxt&writer=kanchan>
Why Godse killed Gandhi
By Kanchan Gupta
Sixty years after the assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a
'mahatma' [='great soul'='saint'] 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.
Thirty-six years after Gandhi was shot dead, Mrs Indira Gandhi was
assassinated by her security guards. In between, officers of the
Banglade**** Army killed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the man whom Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto had made Pakistan's Army chief sent him to the gallows after
a bogus trial. At a lesser level, Pratap Singh Kairon, described as the
"architect of post-independence Punjab", was murdered in 1965; three
decades later, another Chief Minister of Punjab, Beant Singh, died when
his car was blown up by Khalistani separatists. Rajiv Gandhi died a
brutal death when an LTTE suicide bomber pulled the trigger of her
explosives-packed belt. Last year Benazir Bhutto was shot dead on the
same spot where Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated on October 16, 1951.
Politics is a violent affair in this part of the world.
But Gandhi's assassination was different. Not only were his killers
Hindu, they killed a man who had by then come to be regarded at home
and abroad as an "apostle of peace" and symbolised 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. The historic trial that followed - it was held in
Delhi's Red Fort -- captured the imagination of the nation, unlea****ng
sympathy and hate for the conspirators in equal measure. Barring Badge,
who was either openly spat upon or secretly reviled for turning
approver -- turncoats may win reprieve from the state, but they are
looked down upon by all.
The first book of any substance on Gandhi's assassination was Stanley
Wolpert's Nine Hours to Rama, published in 1962 and promptly banned by
the Government of India; the ban still remains in place, although you
can order a copy from amazon.com. It's largely an anodyne version of
the killing that shocked the entire world, but Wolpert's suggestion
that perhaps those responsible for Gandhi's protection failed in their
task riled -- and continues to rile -- Government. Nine Hours to Rama
was made into an eponymous film by Mark Robson in 1963; DVD versions of
the film are also available at amazon.com.
Manohar Malgonkar's book, The Men Who Killed Gandhi, a gripping
recreation of India's partition, independence and Gandhi's
assassination on January 31, 1948, was first published during Mrs
Gandhi's Emergency when manuscripts were cleared by censors who merrily
ran their blue pencil through text which probably they could not even
comprehend. "This made it in***bent upon me to omit certain vital
facts," Malgonkar writes in the introduction to a new and lavishly
illustrated edition of the book published by Roli, "such as, for
instance, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar's secret assurance to Mr LB Bhopatkar,
that his client, Mr VD Savarkar, had been implicated as a murder
suspect on the flimsiest ground." The excised ****tions find their
rightful place in the new edition, as do rare photographs and do***ents
from the National Archives. 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
disembowelled; 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 Muslim 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 traumatised, 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.
The proverbial last straw was Gandhi's threat to go on a fast to force
the Government of India to accept Pakistan's demand. 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?
Entire generations have come of age since The Men Who Killed Gandhi was
first published. Children are taught in school that Gandhi was killed,
not why Godse and Apte and the others did what they did. The new
edition of Malgonkar's classic answers this and other questions; it's
history brought alive. Read it.
[Again, I have nothing against reading this book, but I urge you to get
a copy of Godse's own.]
===
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