WHY I KILLED GANDHI – Nathuram Godse's Final Address to the Court.
Celebrities — By smiles on August 23, 2009 6:06 pm
Gandhiji’s assassin, Nathuram Godse’s Final Address to the Court.
WHY I KILLED GANDHI - Nathuram Godse's Final Address to the Court.
Nathuram Godse was arrested immediately after he assassinated Gandhiji, based on a F. I. R. filed by Nandlal Mehta at the Tughlak Road Police staton at Delhi . The trial, which was held in camera, began on May 27, 1948 and concluded on February 10, 1949. He was sentenced to death.
An appeal to the Punjab High Court, then in session at Simla, did not find favour and the sentence was upheld. The statement that you are about to read is the last made by Godse before the Court on the May 5, 1949.
Such was the power and eloquence of this statement that one of the judges, G. D. Khosla, later wrote, “I have, however, no doubt that had the audience of that day been constituted into a jury and entrusted with the task of deciding Godse’s appeal, they would have brought a verdict of ‘not Guilty’ by an overwhelming majority”
WHY I KILLED GANDHI
Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined RSS wing of anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus were of equal status as to rights, social and religious and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession.
I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners in which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Chamars and Bhangis participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other. I have read the speeches and writings of Ravana, Chanakiya, Dadabhai Naoroji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and modern history of India and some prominent countries like England , France , America and Russia . Moreover I studied the tenets of Socialism and Marxism. But above all I studied very closely whatever Veer Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the moulding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so, than any other single factor has done.
All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was my first duty to serve Hindudom and Hindus both as a patriot and as a world citizen. To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores (300 million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and the well-being of all India , one fifth of human race. This conviction led me naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanghtanist ideology and programme, which alone, I came to believe, could win and preserve the national independence of Hindustan , my Motherland, and enable her to render true service to humanity as well.
Since the year 1920, that is, after the demise of Lokamanya Tilak, Gandhiji’s influence in the Congress first increased and then became supreme. His activities for public awakening were phenomenal in their intensity and were reinforced by the slogan of truth and non-violence which he paraded ostentatiously before the country. No sensible or enlightened person could object to those slogans. In fact there is nothing new or original in them.. They are implicit in every constitutional public movement. But it is nothing but a mere dream if you imagine that the bulk of mankind is, or can ever become, capable of scrupulous adherence to these lofty principles in its normal life from day to day.
In fact, honour, duty and love of one’s own kith and kin and country might often compel us to disregard non-violence and to use force. I could never conceive that an armed resistance to an aggression is unjust. I would consider it a religious and moral duty to resist and, if possible, to overpower such an enemy by use of force. [In the Ramayana] Rama killed Ravana in a tumultuous fight and relieved Sita.. [In the Mahabharata], Krishna killed Kansa to end his wickedness; and Arjuna had to fight and slay quite a number of his friends and relations including the revered Bhishma because the latter was on the side of the aggressor. It is my firm belief that in dubbing Rama, Krishna and Arjuna as guilty of violence, the Mahatma betrayed a total ignorance of the springs of human action.
In more recent history, it was the heroic fight put up by Chhatrapati Shivaji that first checked and eventually destroyed the Muslim tyranny in India . It was absolutely essentially for Shivaji to overpower and kill an aggressive Afzal Khan, failing which he would have lost his own life. In condemning history’s towering warriors like Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Gobind Singh as misguided patriots, Gandhiji has merely exposed his self-conceit. He was, paradoxical as it may appear, a violent pacifist who brought untold calamities on the country in the name of truth and non-violence, while Rana Pratap, Shivaji and the Guru will remain enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen for ever for the freedom they brought to them.
The accumulating provocation of thirty-two years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately. Gandhi had done very good in South Africa to uphold the rights and well-being of the Indian community there. But when he finally returned to India he developed a subjective mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on his own way.
Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. Either Congress had to surrender its will to his and had to be content with playing second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him. He alone was the Judge of everyone and every thing; he was the master brain guiding the civil disobedience movement; no other could know the technique of that movement. He alone knew when to begin and when to withdraw it. The movement might succeed or fail, it might bring untold disaster and political reverses but that could make no difference to the Mahatma’s infallibility. ‘A Satyagrahi can never fail’ was his formula for declaring his own infallibility and nobody except himself knew what a Satyagrahi is. Thus, the Mahatma became the judge and jury in his own cause. These childish insanities and obstinacies, coupled with a most severe austerity of life, ceaseless work and lofty character made Gandhi formidable and irresistible.
Many people thought that his politics were irrational but they had either to withdraw from the Congress or place their intelligence at his feet to do with as he liked. In a position of such absolute irresponsibility Gandhi was guilty of blunder after blunder, failure after failure, disaster after disaster. Gandhi’s pro-Muslim policy is blatantly in his perverse attitude on the question of the national language of India . It is quite obvious that Hindi has the most prior claim to be accepted as the premier language. In the beginning of his career in India , Gandhi gave a great impetus to Hindi but as he found that the Muslims did not like it, he became a champion of what is called Hindustani.. Everybody in India knows that there is no language called Hindustani; it has no grammar; it has no vocabulary. It is a mere dialect, it is spoken, but not written. It is a bastard tongue and cross-breed between Hindi and Urdu, and not even the Mahatma’s sophistry could make it popular. But in his desire to please the Muslims he insisted that Hindustani alone should be the national language of India . His blind followers, of course, supported him and the so-called hybrid language began to be used. The charm and purity of the Hindi language was to be prostituted to please the Muslims. All his experiments were at the expense of the Hindus.
From August 1946 onwards the private armies of the Muslim League began a massacre of the Hindus. The then Viceroy, Lord Wavell, though distressed at what was happening, would not use his powers under the Government of India Act of 1935 to prevent the rape, murder and arson. The Hindu blood began to flow from Bengal to Karachi with some retaliation by the Hindus. The Interim Government formed in September was sabotaged by its Muslim League members right from its inception, but the more they became disloyal and treasonable to the government of which they were a part, the greater was Gandhi’s infatuation for them. Lord Wavell had to resign as he could not bring about a settlement and he was succeeded by Lord Mountbatten. King Log was followed by King Stork. The Congress which had boasted of its nationalism and socialism secretly accepted Pakistan literally at the point of the bayonet and abjectly surrendered to Jinnah. India was vivisected and one-third of the Indian territory became foreign land to us from August 15, 1947.
Lord Mountbatten came to be described in Congress circles as the greatest Viceroy and Governor-General this country ever had. The official date for handing over power was fixed for June 30, 1948, but Mountbatten with his ruthless surgery gave us a gift of vivisected India ten months in advance. This is what Gandhi had achieved after thirty years of undisputed dictatorship and this is what Congress party calls ‘freedom’ and ‘peaceful transfer of power’. The Hindu-Muslim unity bubble was finally burst and a theocratic state was established with the consent of Nehru and his crowd and they have called ‘freedom won by them with sacrifice’ – whose sacrifice? When top leaders of Congress, with the consent of Gandhi, divided and tore the country – which we consider a deity of worship – my mind was filled with direful anger.
One of the conditions imposed by Gandhi for his breaking of the fast unto death related to the mosques in Delhi occupied by the Hindu refugees. But when Hindus in Pakistan were subjected to violent attacks he did not so much as utter a single word to protest and censure the Pakistan Government or the Muslims concerned. Gandhi was shrewd enough to know that while undertaking a fast unto death, had he imposed for its break some condition on the Muslims in Pakistan , there would have been found hardly any Muslims who could have shown some grief if the fast had ended in his death. It was for this reason that he purposely avoided imposing any condition on the Muslims. He was fully aware of from the experience that Jinnah was not at all perturbed or influenced by his fast and the Muslim League hardly attached any value to the inner voice of Gandhi.
Gandhi is being referred to as the Father of the Nation. But if that is so, he had failed his paternal duty inasmuch as he has acted very treacherously to the nation by his consenting to the partitioning of it. I stoutly maintain that Gandhi has failed in his duty. He has proved to be the Father of Pakistan. His inner-voice, his spiritual power and his doctrine of non-violence of which so much is made of, all crumbled before Jinnah’s iron will and proved to be powerless. Briefly speaking, I thought to myself and foresaw I shall be totally ruined, and the only thing I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred and that I shall have lost all my honour, even more valuable than my life, if I were to kill Gandhiji. But at the same time I felt that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely be proved practical, able to retaliate, and would be powerful with armed forces. No doubt, my own future would be totally ruined, but the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan . People may even call me and dub me as devoid of any sense or foolish, but the nation would be free to follow the course founded on the reason which I consider to be necessary for sound nation-building.
After having fully considered the question, I took the final decision in the matter, but I did not speak about it to anyone whatsoever. I took courage in both my hands and I did fire the shots at Gandhiji on 30th January 1948, on the prayer-grounds of Birla House. I do say that my shots were fired at the person whose policy and action had brought rack and ruin and destruction to millions of Hindus. There was no legal machinery by which such an offender could be brought to book and for this reason I fired those fatal shots. I bear no ill will towards anyone individually but I do say that I had no respect for the present government owing to their policy which was unfairly favourable towards the Muslims. But at the same time I could clearly see that the policy was entirely due to the presence of Gandhi.
I have to say with great regret that Prime Minister Nehru quite forgets that his preachings and deeds are at times at variances with each other when he talks about India as a secular state in season and out of season, because it is significant to note that Nehru has played a leading role in the establishment of the theocratic state of Pakistan, and his job was made easier by Gandhi’s persistent policy of appeasement towards the Muslims. I now stand before the court to accept the full share of my responsibility for what I have done and the judge would, of course, pass against me such orders of sentence as may be considered proper. But I would like to add that I do not desire any mercy to be shown to me, nor do I wish that anyone else should beg for mercy on my behalf. My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism levelled against it on all sides. I have no doubt that honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof some day in future.
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26 Comments
Today I watched infamous assasin : Mahatma on history channel ,had argument on this subject with a paki colleague. millions of people were killed during partition….who is responsible. Gandhiji succumbed to jinha’s pressure for partition…..which he shud not. this has changed the whole political scenario of the world. No pakistan…..no talibaan….no al qaieda….no american base in asia(pak).This all started from 1947…..till date. Of allthe comments…the one posted on 15 august by rocky is the best.
i am not support godse but if any people read our indian history on that age of year then you can understand why godse took this decision and and why he did it this.
we all knows that when we got freedom that time our total population is 40 cr including pakistan .pakistan (6 cr) peopls only but they get 1/3 of indian land for their own country and killed lakhs and lakhs of hindus and they still contud… pl. stop it
unfortunate to realise what a shame that indian history has had to go thro
but the more important question to address is we have not learnt from mistakes and history is waiting to rearrive
Well I don’t like dwelling in the past and write too much either but i do have few points on my plate
1. British were already sick of India.It was an investment that was proving unworthy of.So did Gandhi became a hero because British chose to talk to him.
2. Was it his non violence that really shaped the ind of the British to grant independence.After having had 2 world wars did Brits want more of trouble.I think u get your answers from that
3. Muslims are a missionary and contagious religion.Islam and its structure doesn’t allow peace with others.Here is where Gandhi failed.He wanted to be a saviour of both but didn’t understood that muslims and Hindus can’t co exist.Mark my word-either we all will be muslims (as has happened to people in Pakistan,Afganistan,Indonesia,Malaysia and Bangladesh where the inhabitants were some other religion and were swayed by sufis,terrorists and missionaries of islam by lure,coercion etc to become part of Islam) or alternatively all will grow so rich that religions will lose relevance(anyway religions are for poor)
The question of Islam becoming moderate and accommodating or respectfully accepting other religions seems remote.
Any way, we dont have any ri8 even to comment aout thjs topic.
great writing
Guys,
Let me give a brief opnion about this and also I request you to think positively and also look all the aspects of the matter. First of all Gandhi's idealogoies, I agree most of them were wrong & mileading. Even if what he did was wrong, who gave Godse the right to kill him. If everyone think like this and start killing the people to whom they think are doing wrong, then what is the need of Constitution, court, police, Law and order. In that case it is going to be a Jungle Raaj, where everybody has the right to decide and punish the guily. Moreover, blaming a community, caste, religion, country or a group of people for the deeds of individuals or a group of few people is basically wrong specially in country like INDIA which we called as Democracy and have Nnumber of religions and the special communal harmony. The people who play games using religious sentiments, infact they don't respect any religion, only they use it for the personal or political benefit, whatever religion they belong to.
Are yaar, jara socho agar hoi marata hai to wo agar galat hai; to kisi ko ye sochne pe majboor karana kitana galat? Ek Marathi me kahawat hai “mhatari melyacha dukkha nahi pan kaal sokavto” isaka matlab kisi dost se pata karna. Anyways na chahate hue bhi ye hota hai.
To bade bade neta ye samaz le ki janata unaki jagir nahi. Agar baat had se age gayee to is duniya me unke liye bhi koi nathuram paida ho sakta hao.
@Jasmin,
You do need to read Godse’s testimony again. In your language , let me ask, who gave Gandhi to play havoc with the lives of crores of Hindus.Ask the immense number of people who migrated because of partition totally homeless and with so much suffering and personal losses. But you do not call it Jungle Raj . Why ?
Any patriot of the kind of Godse will have gone with a very clean conscience.
great
he is responsible for partition and all major problems of today including kashmir, terrorism
Religion: the curse of mankind.
What youth and what religion? Treat person as a human, instead of labeling him with a religion or caste,
Godse said:We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other.
I hope he said religious rules, Please try not keep your believes on future generation, let them choose whatever they want, I am proud to say I have friends who are muslim, they are my friends because I like their personality. Please dont put your thoughts on future generations, If you respect hindu culture, try to respect other people’s culture as well. Gandhi may be failed in some cases but it doesn’t give any right for godse to kill a human. Everybody makes mistakes and from those mistakes people will climb further. Please stop the obsessions over religion and treat people normally.
In India-Pakistan cricket match try to cheer for players, respect them instead of their religion and country, admire a person if a person hits a six(whether he is Shahid Afridi or Sachin Tendulkar), they were able to achieve that because they worked hard not because they were born in some country.
Atleast in future generations will change, I am not saying what wrote here is right or wrong, it’s my opinion and try to have your own opinions and don’t try to force them on your children.
So according to your logic Indian Soldiers who defend this nation on the borders should not defend because they have families too. If we run away from what is to be done quoting such frivolous reasons we would be a nation of hemaphrodites (‘napunsaks’), so don’t try to justify an act like freedon struggle with the convenience of the people. You don’t fight such wars based on when and how many are convenient with it. Gandhi fasted because he wanted to be called ‘Great’ or ‘Mahatma’ as simple as that. Forget about Partition, i won’t even go there. Post partition, Sindhis and Sikhs were being butchered in Pakistan, women were raped and murdered or forcefully converted, children too were not spared. Gandhi asked these people not to come to India and die there so as to ensure the safety of Muslims in India. How is this even justified? Imagine your own relative being asked such a thing?
Hi friends,
In person, there is two sides one is trying to get the reputaion from the work, another one is trying to do the work sincerly. Ghandi belongs to first choise. He has political power among other leaders. But Chandra bose oneman show. He could not get the right reputation like ghandi. But both persons struggle for one targer with different approaches. Finally the youth of india will always behind NETHAJI. Your the real truth of leader.
I have to seriously doubt competency of Judge Khosla, especially in
light of Godse’s opening statement…
…..
Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious.
……
This man was brainwashed and totally confused.
In his opening statement right off the bat, he says he is…A free thinker, unfettered by isms political or religious WHILE HE reveres Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culutre…intensely proud of Hinduism…?
Either everyone here is totally blind, dumb and stupid including this Judge Khosla who reportedly made such a high opinion of a cold blooded murderer..or I am misquoting Godse’s own words.
Jai Ram -
Kumar
I am surprised at most of these comments. It seems extremist hinduism is alive and well in india today.
I work and live now in US, and have had to study indian histroy without the prejudice with which it is taught in the subcontinent.
Cold blooded murder is being commended, as well as lauded here by hindus. Using mythical legends in a peaceful and gentle religion I
follow, violence and murder is being supported.
You all are the same as all those muslim sympathizers of al-qaeeda
and taliban. Just different names, but same nature.
Very sorry you call yourself a Hindu.
Jai Ram -
Kumar
jairam kumar
pls stop writing like this and increase ur studies in legal history, administration an jurisprudence then come forward
idiot dont comment without knowing the history of india dont say ur indian
gandhi make us a beggar.i would love to die then beg.i salute Nathuram Godase, subhash Bhose, bhagat singh and all those freedom fighter who gave their life for nation.
Mr. Babulal
Well said that gandhi was leading common man , but people killed in pakistan were common hindu or sikh or sindhi , coz thats what gandhi did sacrificed those common people for his popularity among muslims . What nathuram did was for those people and what was once called hindustan
Babu Lal,
So according to your logic Indian Soldiers who defend this nation on the borders should not defend because they have families too. If we run away from what is to be done quoting such frivolous reasons we would be a nation of hemaphrodites (‘napunsaks’), so don’t try to justify an act like freedon struggle with the convenience of the people. You don’t fight such wars based on when and how many are convenient with it. Gandhi fasted because he wanted to be called ‘Great’ or ‘Mahatma’ as simple as that. Forget about Partition, i won’t even go there. Post partition, Sindhis and Sikhs were being butchered in Pakistan, women were raped and murdered or forcefully converted, children too were not spared. Gandhi asked these people not to come to India and die there so as to ensure the safety of Muslims in India. How is this even justified? Imagine your own relative being asked such a thing? In any case the only reason why i regret Godse killing Gandhi is because it only added Gandhi’s aura.
im just an interested 3rd party that has only read very little about gandhi, but was his mistake becomeing a political figure… becomeing a leader to the hindi people? Or were even his teachings flawed, not in respect of india to pakistan but to humanity as a whole? I’m an american atheist but have always respected gandhi and his fundemental teachings of peace but I never knew this side of the story. What I’m really trying to ask i guess is… Was gandhi put in his position of political power by the hindu people and then ttied to follow his own teachings leading to the attacks of muslims on hindu’s. Or did gandhi persue his position amoung hindu’s to bring about thier destruction? please reply via email, I am interested but respect that fact that I am not hindu so if you do not wish to I understand
silence is more than 1000 words …had Godase resisted him self from giving this speech his action might have carried some weight …..
He has given the example of shivaji , gobind singh , ram , arjun etc etc ..but he has forgot that those were armed battles …Mahatma was not leading an army …he was leading common man …..common man has family ….he has some obligations ..his capacity to sacrifice is limited …so an armed struggle against British would have resulted in similar harsh measures as after 1857 …..
mahatma integrity towards United India is unquestionable I ..he was the staunch opposer of Partition ….It was because of the few Hindu fundamentalists that few Muslims felt insecure and they succeeded in exploiting the insecurity and anxiety in minorities Muslims to carve a separate state of Pakistan… Mahatma Gandhi fasted because he wanted to prove to Muslims they will be safe in India but the people like Nathuram Godase made it easier for Jinnah to prove his Two Nation Theory …
Its a shame that we killed our own Father and no amount of dipping in holy Ganga will absolve us from this sin ….
Inded he has done the right thing gandhi was not so tolerent he wants things to be by his own way and thats the reason why jinnah has left congress and eventually partitoned india. Because of his follessness we have lost the golden oppurtunity in second world war to liberate ourself and lost a leader like subhas bose
Nathuram Godase was did the right thing. He killed gandhi but he killed him to late .because of gandhi we did not got the freedom because of gandhi we fot freedom to late.Today the condition of India is only because of Gandi he is responsible for imbalance of Hindu-Muslim fight in india . Gandhi is a criminal of our new youth.
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