75 years ago, on January 30, 1948 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was shot and killed while on a nightly public
walk in Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist enraged that the Mahatma had promoted communal
peace between India and Muslim Pakistan by fasting until the Indian government made a 550 million Rupee payment to Pakistan and paid reparations to Indian Muslims whose homes had been destroyed
in the civil unrest following Independence and Partition. It was the last
great non-violent protest of
Gandhi’s long life.
One would think that the accomplishments of a man who since
returning to India in triumph following campaigns
on behalf of Indian laborers in South
Africa, had worked tirelessly for independence
since joining the Indian Congress
Party in 1915, and whose famous Salt
March in 1930 was the opening of a long
campaign of non-violent struggle and
passive resistance which led
ultimately to independence in 1947
would have been honored by
nationalists. You would, of course, be
wrong. Fanaticism, particularly that inflamed by religious righteousness, is incapable of gratitude and intolerant of the slightest perceived attempt to bridge divisions.
And Gandhi had been doing that his
whole life. In the 1920’s he reached out
to Indian Muslims becoming the first
Indian leader to be truly national
rather than sectarian. He had opposed outbreaks of inter-communal violence and had
repeatedly reached out to Muslim victims of Hindu rioters. When the British
Raj finally agreed to independence based on a partition into two states—India and Muslim Pakistan, Gandhi personally rejected
the terms and refused to either celebrate Independence or recognize
it on those terms. He refused to take
any official part in the new Indian
government which his leadership
of the Congress Party would have entitled him to.
Upon Partition horrific
inter-communal violence broke out across the Indian Sub-Continent, particularly in the Punjab and Bengal. As many as half a million people were killed
and 12 million Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs
were displaced from their homes creating waves of refugees and abject misery.
Gandhi launched a series of “fasts
unto death” to protest the Partition and violence and to try and bring about
peace and reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims who he considered to be one Indian people. The last of these fasts was launched on
January 12, 1948 and lasted until the 27th which was three days after the
Indian Parliament had reversed a
previous stand and released the money to Pakistan promised in a division
of the former colony’s assets and
the recompense to Muslim victims of the sectarian violence.
The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was no lone wolf. He was a member
of the extremist Hindu Mahasabha and
had several collaborators and accomplices. And Godse’s hatred of Gandhi went far back—he
was involved in the last four of five previous assassination attempts dating
back to the 1930’s. Just days before on
January 20 Godse and his group had bungled
an attempt at Birla House in Delhi that involved a bomb which exploded at a podium from which Gandhi was scheduled
to speak.
Godse and Narayan Apte another of the plotters escaped to Godse’s native Pune via Bombay by rail. Determined to make another attempt Godse
obtained a Beretta .38 caliber
semi-automatic pistol with the assistance of other members of the
group. Godse and Apte returned to Delhi
on January 29 and checked into a room at the Delhi Railway Station.
On the evening of the 30th Gandhi
was walking in the garden toward Birla House to take part in a prayer meeting. As usual he was unaccompanied by any security.
Escorting him were young women including his nieces. At 78 years of age
the Mahatma was still recovering
from his fast and somewhat feeble.
At 5:17 that evening Godse
approached Gandhi and bowed. The old
leader paused to acknowledge the greeting, as was his custom. One of the young women with him, Abha Chattopadhyay, tugged at his arm
and told Godse, “Brother, Bapu is already late,” but the assassin shoved her
aside, raised his pistol and pumped three shots into Gandhi’s chest at close range.
Gandhi reportedly cried out Hey
Rama!—O Lord!—as he collapsed.
The phrase became a rallying cry
for remembering the martyred leader in the days and weeks following his
death.
Godse himself called out—“Police!
Police!” and waited to be arrested. He
was ready—eager to be a martyr for
his cause. He later told investigators
that he knew he would be hated for
his act in the short run but that eventually his “removal of Gandhi from Indian
politics” would prove such a blessing that he would be honored for his “sacrifice.”
Gandhi was taken to a hospital where he was officially pronounced dead two hours later. In fact, he had probably died at the scene
but the delay allowed government and Congress Party leaders time to be informed and prepare for the public reaction that was sure to
follow.
Later that evening Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, one of
Gandhi’s oldest and closest associates
from whom he had become estranged for
agreeing to form a Congress Party government on the basis of Partition,
addressed the nation by radio:
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.
The shocked nation went into deep mourning. Communal violence once again broke out until
the Government assured the nation that it had arrested the murderer and his
associates and that they were not Muslim.
The Mahasabha and other Indian religious parties, Hindu, Muslim, and
Sikh were outlawed and upward of 20,000 secularist militants were taken into custody. The Congress Party draped itself in the
memory of Gandhi and built loyalty across India from the poor who had little previous allegiance
to the new government. Nehru was, for
the time being, able to still calls
for an invasion of Pakistan.
Over two million people joined the
five-mile long funeral procession
that took over five hours to reach Raj
Ghat on the banks of the Yamuna
River in Delhi from Birla House.
Gandhi’s body was elevated on platform
atop an artillery caisson pulled
through the streets by fifty men. At the
site overlooking the river, his body was cremated
on an open pyre. Some of the ashes were scattered immediately
in the river. The rest were divided and
placed in small urns distributed
across India to be scattered in local rivers and bodies of water to unite the
country in participation of the final Hindu ritual. Some of those urns were misplaced or for
other reasons not immediately scattered.
Over the last 25 years or so a few have been discovered and ashes
scattered at other Indian holy sites, the Headwaters
of the Nile, and even near the Los
Angeles Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine. The cremation site at Raj Ghat is now a national memorial and still attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims every year.
Godse,
Apte, and six others were tried for participation in the assassination
plot. After an eight month trial all but
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a leading political figure in the
Hindu nationalist movement, were convicted on at least some charges. Dattatraya
Parchure, a medical doctor and intellectual
later had his conviction overturned by the High Court of Punjab. Godse and Apte were sentenced to death by hanging. The remaining defendants received life in
prison for conspiracy to commit murder or violating the Explosive Substances Act in
connection with the January 20 failed bomb attempt.
Despite
appeals by the Gandhi family and Prime Minister Nehru to spare the lives of the
assassins in the spirit of Gandhi’s non-violence, Godse and Apte were hung on
November 15, 1949 at Ambala Jail.
It must be
said that 75 years later India has a Hindu nationalist government, however not
as virulent as the Mahasabha. But
religious minorities are subject to punitive legislation, sectarian violence is
on the rise, and tensions over Kashmir regularly threaten to plunge
nuclear-armed India and Pakistan into war.
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