Nathuram Godse

Nathuram Godse नथूराम गोडसे (Front row, Far Left)
File:Nathram Godse.jpg
Born	(1910-05-19)19 May 1910 Baramati, Pune District, British India
Died	15 November 1949(1949-11-15) (aged 39) Ambala Prison, Haryana, India

Nathuram Vinayak Godse (Template:Lang-mr) (19 May 1910 – 15 November 1949), a Chitpavan from the city of Pune, India was the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi. Along with his brother Gopal Godse and six other co-conspirators, he hatched, planned and executed a plot to murder the Mahatama.

Early life

Nathuram Godse was born in Baramati, Pune District. His father, Vinayak Vamanrao Godse, was a post office employee and his mother was Lakshmii (née Godavari). At birth, he was named Ramachandra.

The story ended usual way
 The way its always been
A bullet came out from Godse's gun
 And shot the beggar clean

- J S Khurmi
Collected Poems

A commonly held theory suggests that Nathuram was given his name because of an unfortunate incident. Before he was born, his parents had three sons and a daughter, with all three boys dying in their infancy. Fearing a curse that targeted male children, young Ramachandra was brought up as a girl for the first few years of his life, including having his nose pierced and being made to wear a nose-ring ("Nath" in Marathi). It was then that he earned the nickname "Nathuram" (literally "Ram with a nose-ring"). After his younger brother was born, they switched to treating him as a boy. However, other biographers dismiss this claim, together with claims that Godse was a homosexual, as a fabrication by the Congress Party of India, meant to exploit the prejudices against transvestites and homosexuals in conservative Indian society in order to demonize Godse.

Nathuram Godse attended the local school at Baramati through the fifth standard, after which he was sent to live with an aunt in Pune so that he could study at an English-language school. During his school days, Gandhi was an idol to him.

In 1930, Nathuram's father was transferred to the town of Ratnagiri. While staying with his parents at Ratnagiri, the young Nathuram first met Veer Savarkar, a proponent of Hindutva.

Political career

Group photo of people accused in the murder of Mahatma Gandhi. Standing: Shankar Kistaiya, Gopal Godse, Madanlal Pahwa, Digambar Badge (Approver). Seated: Narayan Apte, Vinayak D. Savarkar, Nathuram Godse, Vishnu Karkare

Godse dropped out of high school and became an activist with the Hindu Mahasabha. He was an Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist; whether he left the organization is controversial. They were particularly opposed to the separatist politics of the All India Muslim League. Godse started a Marathi newspaper for Hindu Mahasabha called Agrani, which some years later was renamed. Hindu Rashtra.

The Hindu Mahasabha had initially backed Gandhi's campaigns of civil disobedience against the British government.

Godse and his mentors later turned and rejected Gandhi, as they felt that Gandhi was sacrificing Hindu interests in an effort to appease Muslim interests. They blamed Gandhi for the Partition of India, which left hundreds of thousands of people dead in the wake of religious unrest.

Assassination of Mohandas K. Gandhi

Godse killed Gandhi on January 30, 1948, approaching him during the evening prayer, wished him respectfully by bowing, and when one girl accompanying Gandhi said "Brother, Bapu is already late..." and tried to lay him off he pushed her aside and shot him more than once at point-blank range with a .38 Beretta semi-automatic pistol. After shooting, he did not try to run away nor did he threaten anyone else, although the gun was still with him. He was pinned to the ground by the gardener Raghu Naik, and did not resist; even as others in the crowd started beating him, he did not raise his hands to defend himself.

Trial and execution

Following the assassination of Mohandas Gandhi, he put on trial beginning May 27, 1948. During the trial, he did not defend any charge and openly admitted that he killed Gandhi after a long disposition on his reasons for killing Gandhi. On November 8, 1949, Godse was sentenced to death. Godse's legal team was savaged by critics for not introducing considerable evidence that their client was mentally unbalanced and/or manipulated by others. Among those calling for commutation of the death sentence for the defendants were Jawaharlal Nehru, as well as Gandhi's two sons, who felt that the two men on trial were pawns of RSS higher-ups, and in any case, executing their father's killers would dishonour his memory and legacy which included a staunch opposition to the death penalty. Godse was hanged at Ambala Jail on November 15, 1949, along with Narayan Apte, the other conspirator. Savarkar was also charged with conspiracy in the assassination of Gandhi, but was acquitted and subsequently released.

Aftermath

Millions of Indians mourned Gandhi's assassination. Massive anti-Brahmin riots spread, especially across Maharashtra state, as Godse was a Brahmin. The Sangli and Miraj regions were hit harder. Houses of Brahmins were burned, looted and a number of people died. The Hindu Mahasabha was villified and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the RSS, was temporarily banned. However, investigators could find no evidence that the RSS bureaucracy had formally sponsored or even knew of Godse's plot. The RSS ban was lifted by Prime Minister Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in 1949.

The RSS to this day denies any connection with Godse, and disputes the claim that he was a member.

After the assassination, many criticized the Indian government for not doing more to protect Gandhi who, earlier in the week, had been the target of a bomb plot by the same conspirators who later shot him. Of particular concern, was the fact that a Bombay detective had wired the names and descriptions of the assassins along with the fact that they were known to be in Delhi stalking Gandhi. On the other hand, Gandhi had repeatedly refused to cooperate with his own security and had resigned himself to a violent death which he accepted as an inevitable part of his destiny.

A film, Nine Hours to Rama, was made in 1963 and was based on the events leading up to the assassination, seen mainly from Godse's point of view. The film Hey Ram, made in 2000, also briefly touches upon events related to the assassination. The popular Marathi language play Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoy (Template:Lang-mr)("I am Nathuram Godse, Speaking") was also made from Godse's point of view..

References

1. Elst, Koenraad Gandhi and Godse - a Review and a Critique, Voice of India, 2001. ISBN 8185990719
2. Godse, Nathuram, Why I Assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, Surya Bharti, Delhi, India, 2003. OCLC 33991989
3. Godse, Nathuram May it Please Your Honor!, Surya Bharti, India, 2003.
4. Khosla, G.D. Murder of the Mahatma and Other Cases from a Judge's Notebook, Jaico Publishing House, 1968. ISBN 0-88253-051-8.
5. Malgonkar, Manohar (2008). The Men Who Killed Gandhi, New Delhi: Roli Books, ISBN 978-81-7436-617-7.
6. Phadke, Y.D. Nathuramayan

External links

• Godse's Final Speech to the Court
• Nathuram Godse and Gandhism with interviews and links
• Time Magazine's February 2000 interview of Gopal Godse
• Rediff's January 1998 interview of Gopal Godse
• Article discussing pro-Godse play
• Eyewitness to Gandhi assassination
• Eyewitness: Mahatma Gandhi Assassination on YouTube
• First Information Report (FIR) by police
• Why Godse killed Gandhi- by Rajeev Srinivasan
• Mi Nathuram Godse Boltoy