Nathuram Godse

Nathuram Godse, A misunderstood patriot of India. Calling him a hero of any sort would be
under-valuing or may be over-valuing for a few. But, conferring a stature of a great patriot to
him that, no-one will deny. Not at-least after reading the rest of the article. Yes he had his own
perspective of what was good for the nation and did not deny of others contributions to it.

Calling him and Hindu-Fanatic would be a mis-judgemental and you should hear the whole story
before doing so; some of it in Nathuram Godse's own words. Yes, Government of India had
suppressed information about him. His court statements, letters etc. were all banned from the
public until recently.

Judged by his writings one thing becomes very clear; He was no fanatic. His court statements
are very well read out and indicate a calm and collected mental disposition. He never even once
speaks ill about Gandhi as a person, but only attacks Gandhi's policies which caused ruin and
untold misery to Hindus. Another interesting point to note is that Godse had been working with
the Hindu refugees fleeing from Pakistan. He had seen the horrible atrocities committed on
them. Many women had their hands cut off, nose cut off, even little girls had been raped
mercilessly. Despite this Godse did not harm even single Muslim in India which he could easily
have. So it would be a grave mistake to call him a Hindu fanatic.
Let us start by studying the motive behind Godse's act. By seeing the nature of the
assassination in public space and Godse's act of turning himself over to the Police, we can see
that Godse did not do this for personal reasons. He very well knew that he would be hanged
and his name would be disgraced as Gandhi was considered a saint. And again Godse could
have ran away and escaped punishment. But he did the reverse. He called a police officer and
courted arrest. Before we proceed it would be wise to understand the backdrop of the
assassination.
The central government had taken a decision; Pakistan will not be given Rs 55 crores. On
January 13 Gandhi started a fast unto death that Pakistan must be given the money. On
January 13, the central government changed its earlier decision and announced that Pakistan
would be given the amount. On January 13, Nathuram decided to assassinate Gandhi.
Nathuram Godse was a learned man, very sharp and intelligent editor of "Agrani" (one of the
most famous newspaper of that time with Nana Aapte). In his last editorial of "Agrani" which
he changed overnight he said "Gandhi must be stopped at any cost" and he justified why
Gandhiji's assassination was not only inevitable but also a delayed action, sth tht shud've
happened LONG AGO.
In Nathuram's words - " I don't refute Gandhi's theory of non-violence. He may be a saint but he
is not a politician. His theory of non-violence denies self-defence and self-interest. The

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Nathuram Godse

non-violence that defines the fight for survival as violence is a theory not of non-violence but of
self-destruction.The division of the nation was an unnecessary decision. What was the
percentage of the Muslim population as compared to the population of the nation? There was
no need for a separate nation. Had it been a just demand, Maulana Azad would not have stayed
back in India. But because Jinnah insisted and because Gandhi took his side, India was divided,
in spite of opposition from the nation, the Cabinet. An individual is never greater than a nation.
In a democracy you cannot put forward your demands at knife-point. Jinnah did it and Gandhi
stabbed the nation with the same knife. He dissected the land and gave a piece to Pakistan. We
did picket that time but in vain. The Father of our Nation went to perform his paternal duties for
Pakistan! Gandhi blackmailed the cabinet with his fast unto death. His body, his threats to die
are causing the destruction geographical as well as economical of the nation. Today,
Muslims have taken a part of the nation, tomorrow Sikhs may ask for Punjab. The religions are
again dividend into castes, they will demand sub-divisions of the divisions. What remains of the
concept of one nation, national integration? Why did we fight the British in unison for
independence? Why not separately? Bhagat Singh did not ask only for an independent Punjab
or Subhash Chandra Bose for an independent Bengal?
I am going to assassinate him in the open, before the public, because I am going to do it as my
duty. If I do it surreptitiously, it becomes a crime in my own eyes. I will not try to escape, I will
surrender and naturally I will be hanged. One assassination, one hanging. I don't want two
executions for one assassination and I don't want your involvement, participation or company.
(This was for Nana-Apte and Veer Savarkar as they were against ghandhi's policies too, Godse
wanted to assassinate gandhi all by himself and took promise from Nana Apte that he will
continue helping Veer Savarkar in rebuilding India as a strong free nation.)
On January 30, I reached Birla Bhavan at 12 pm. Gandhi was sitting outside on a cot enjoying
the sunshine. Vallabhbhai Patel's granddaughter was sitting at his feet. I had the revolver with
me. I could have assassinated him easily then, but I was convinced that his assassination was
to be a punishment and a sentence against him, and I would execute him. I wanted witnesses
for the execution but there were none. I did not want to escape after the execution as there was
not an iota of guilt in my mind. I wanted to surrender, but surrender to whom? There was a good
crowd to collect for the evening prayers. I decided on the evening of January 30 as the date for
Gandhi's execution.
Gandhi climbed the steps and came forward. He had kept his hands on the shoulders of the two
girls. I wanted just three seconds more. I moved two steps forward and faced Gandhi. Now I
wanted to take out the revolver and salute him for whatever sacrifice and service he had made
for the nation. One of the two girls was dangerously close to Gandhi and I was afraid that she
might be injured in the course of firing. As a precautionary measure I went one more step
ahead, bowed before him and gently pushed the girl away from the firing line. The next moment
I fired at Gandhi. Gandhi was very weak, there was a feeble sound like 'aah' (There are proof
that Gandhi did NOT say "Hey Ram" at that time; it's just made up stuff ) from him and he fell
down.
After the firing I raised my hand holding the revolver and shouted, 'Police, police'. For 30

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seconds nobody came forward and I scanned the crowd. I saw a police officer. I signalled to him
to come forward and arrest me. He came and caught my wrist, then a second man came and
touched the revolver I let it go"

Violence, Non-Violence I don't really understand. Are we saying we got Independence without
violence? Then what was that what happened to the refugees (from both sides) during the
partition (partition for the sake of whom and for whom). And what is that, that we still face when
we get our young soldiers back in coffins. And we have political scams involved in these coffins
too. We have paid very dearly and still are and with blood (violence vice-verse).

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