Today, it’s 9th September, 2012. And my article goes some 64
years back. So we need to go back a little in time to see the day this article is based upon..
30th September, 1948
Place: Birla Ground, Delhi
Mahatma Gandhi, Father of the Nation is coming to address the prayer meeting at the Birla ground. Approximately, a gallery of three feet is left vacant for Gandhi ji to pass. He is supported by two girls and greeting people with folded hands,.
Suddenly, a man comes close to gandhi ji. He takes a step closer and bows before him. The girl supporting Gandhi ji says “Brother, Bapu is already late.” But, the man pushes the girl aside, takes out a .38 beretta semi-automatic pistol and fires 3 shots at stomach and chest of Gandhi ji.
Gandhi ji immediately falls back, whispering “hey Ram”(though it itself is a topic of debate). The crowd is stunned by this act. Nobody is moving from his or her place. The person who has just shot Mahatma Gandhi is standing still, waving to a policeman to arrest him. As the crowd recovers from what has occurred, pins the person to the ground and hands him over to police.
The man responsioble for assassination of Gandhi ji was Narayan Vinayak Godse. An F.I.R was filed against him by Shri Nand Lal Mehta. He was arrested, underwent a trial and was hanged at Ambala Jail on November 15, 1949.
Now, coming back, we have studied Nathuram Godse as a fanatic or a mentally unstable person. But a few questions are to be raised, a few of them still unanswered..
1. Why Nathuram Godse killed Gandhi ji in public? Little known fact is he met Gandhi ji on 30th January morning, when he was alone accompanied only by Sardar Vallabhai Patel’s grand daughter. He could have killed him easily then and flee.
2. Why he did not try to escape on killing Gandhi ji? And instead surrendered himself to the police?
3. Why were the trial statements of Godse not made public for a long period of time?
4. Had he been mentally unstable and fanatic, why he pushed aside the girl accompanying Gandhi ji out of the line of shoot, minimizing the danger to the girl’s life?
5. The biggest question, why he killed Gandhi ji?
Nathuram Godse was a well educated man, and had his own newspaper with the name “Agrani”. He was calm during his court trials and his statements were well composed, in which he never spoke ill of Ghandhi ji as a person. He was against casteism and attended several rallies and meetings to oppose the same. He also worked with Hindu refugees during partition. He saw the miserable plite of women, bleeding small children but never hurt even a single Muslim in India. Which clears the doubt of him being mentally unstable ora Hindu fanatic. Then why he had to take a drastic step of killing Gandhi ji..
Its roots can be traced back to 1947, the time during which country had to face the bitter wound of partition. And the people held responsible for this were Muslim league, headed by Jinnah and The Congress. And it’s a well known fact that Gandhi ji and Shri Jawahar Lal Nehru were the people having the most prominent influence over the Congress. Any decision of congress was influenced by Gandhi ji and it is hard to believe that hi did not have any involvement in the partition decision.
The final nail, however, was struck on 13th January,1948.
Pakistan had demanded a sum of 55 crores, a huge sum at that time for the newly formed state of India.Majority of congress leaders were opposed to give the money to Pakistan and central government turned down the demand. But Gandhi ji started a fast unto death, due to which, government had to sanction the sum to Pakistan. And on this date, Godse took the decision to kill Gandhi ji (it iwas described in the editorial of Agrani).
It is right that Gandhi ji had a leading role in the independence of India. But could the country have become free, solely on principles of non-violence, I don’t think so. In the words of Bhagat Singh”If the deaf are to hear, the sound has to be very large”. Due to being overshadowed by Gandhi ji’s policy, Subhash Chandra Bose had to work his plans outside from India. Had it not been the acts by Bhagat Singh, Chandra Shekhar Azad, S.C.Bose and many more, we might had to be in the claws of British for much more time.
People involved in Ghandi ji's assasination
I am not opposed to Gandhi ji as a person. He had served the country selflessely and is truly a great figure. But what I am opposing is his policies. Can causing self destruction through non-violence shake a non sensitive government of britishers? Is it right for a person to go against a decision, which is supported by a vast majority of people.
It is a little known fact that Pakistan had demanded a corridor from Pakistan to now Bangladesh via Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, over which, Indian government would exercise no control whatsoever. Which was rejected after Gandhi ji’s death. Had Gandhi ji supported this cause also, would the country be same as it is now?
Questions are many, but answers are lost. I am not saying what Nathuram Godse did was acceptable but may be it was the call of the hour. He was not a fanatic, mentally unstable person and definitely not a traitor by any means. He killed Gandhi ji in spite of knowing that he would become a nationwide disgrace and would be hanged. But he did it, because he loved India as much as you and I do and did not mind putting nation over a person, if the time asks to do so..
hey thanx 4 giving a sneak peek into the history... some unspoken facts... some unanswered questions.. your blog was worth reading...
ReplyDeleteIf gandhi was non violent then why violence occurred lacs of people died if any body thinks today that only gandhi gives us freedom its totally wrong violence is every where.open any history account and tell me who got freedom by using non violence. Its sad that you giving your own land and rs.55 crore for what ? what they are doing today with us we are spending billions of rs.to protect ourselves.Try to apply non violence formula on taliban,pakistan they will reach kolkotta within 24 hrs.Non violence is good idea but only on books.gandhi was not sure about himself.Bhagat Singh was true commander.
ReplyDeletegandhi did nothing for india or independance. its only after Bhagat Singh et al. shock the british with their acts that both gandhi and nehru came forward to steal the lime light. When the public applauded Bhagat Singh et al, gandhi and nehru jumped on the band wagon. before Bhagat Singh gained public attention, gandhi and nehru condemned Bhagat Singhs actions.
ReplyDeletenehru, gandhi and the congress split an already torn up nation further on lines of religion. created conflict between hindus and sikhs, hindus and christians, hindus and muslims. all for votes. they used the british 'divide and rule' policy on their very own people.
Great article by the way. THANKS
ReplyDeleteCommunal politics and the greed for power, particularly of Jinnah was responsible for the tragedy of partition. These forces did not listen to Mahatma Gandhi. To stop partition, Gandhi offered the post PM to Jinnah, but he declined saying " Baapu, I can trust you but I can not trust others". The claim of Rs 55/- crore as revenue share to Pakistan was correct in accordance with Partition Agreement for Revenue Share between India and Pakistan. The murder of Gandhi removed a great statesman when India needed him most for unification of India and character building. If alive, he would not have allowed "Divide & Rule" and Vote Bank Casteism/Communal politics which has become a danger for unity and integrity of India after 65 years of his murder. God bless every body for a better India to beware of selfish designs of POWER HUNGRY POLITICIANS.
ReplyDeleteIndia needs a truthful and self sacrificing statesman like MK Gandhi again who is respected and accepted by all the regions, castes and religions in India.
ReplyDeleteWhatever Gandhi did to the cause of securing freedom to the nation, one disservice he surely did was to promote Nehru, who in turn promoted Indira, who in turn promoted her sons and that legacy of dynastic promotion, our country is suffering even to day. The whole clan of a National party called Congress are mere glorified slaves of one family surrendering their independent thinking, opinion, or point of view. That is the biggest tragedy Nation is facing due to Gandhi pampering Nehru.
ReplyDeletegandhi did a lot for india. respect such an important man. he is my hero.
ReplyDeleteYou are in dark bro. I feel pity for you. Had you known the truth you might not have said this.
Deletegandhi did nothing for india..lame weak policies of him just led to more sufferings for us..bhagat singh and his co and many other martyrs took india towards independence..if congress at that time supported bhagat singh then scenario would have been diff..had i been there in at that time i would have killed gandhi long before than when godse did
ReplyDeleteLets be fair. MK Gandhi was a good leader but he was far too dominant. Though the Govt was by Nehru, it had to bow to the whims and fancies of MKG and that has been seen in many facts. PERHAPS Nehru was worried "what if MKG split from Congress and started his own party !!
ReplyDeleteBut fact remains that the decisions by govt are administrative ones and based on many think tanks that advice and after all the public servants are educated and trained for these very decisions, but when a leader outside the govt does influence the govt decisions so blatantly because of whims and fancies then how exactly should the govt work? Take a Decision A and then its overturned because it displeases someone. Is that really how Govt should run?
Further we did not get freedom purely do to MKG as that might be severely disregarding the sacrifice and fights that were done since 1857. Further, after WW2 the entire british navy was at Bombay harbour and mostly manned by Indian sailors who had revolted and now they wanted to take the ships and conquer england. This was very much possible because English strength was depleted and Indian Army was well trained and had modern weapons and importantly, we outnumbered the British army. But it was then again MKG who persuaded against it. Maybe it was good maybe it was bad but fact is that Freedom of India was not solely due to MKG but the strength of united India.
Coming back to topic, it was one mans whims and fancies that was influencing the govt. But then another man thinks to acts against the whims and fancies of one man and ends it.
It is not a good way, but did in a way perhaps help Congress leadership/Government rule in the way they should have and not change their well thought decision based on whims and fancies of one. We recently have seen the Whims of One leader of Congress make the entire govt scam ridden, Look at the scam worms coming out of the 10 year old closet..
Was Gandhi actually instrumental in partitioning Bharat
ReplyDelete