Nathuram Godse‟S Ideology Supporting the Assassination of the Mahatma
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
International Journal of Research e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at https://edupediapublications.org/journals Volume 05 Issue 07 March 2018 Nathuram Godse‟s ideology supporting the assassination of The Mahatma Ujjawal Gaur Electronics and Communication Engineering Krishna Institute of Engineering and Technology Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India [email protected] My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even after the criticism levelled against it on all sides — Nathuram Vinayak Godse Abstract: Nathuram Vinayak Godse, the person who The father of independent India ,Mahatma shot Gandhi when he was going for his Gandhi ,was assassinated soon after the evening prayer at his residence in Birla independence by a character whose House.Nathuram was a right-wing advocate patriotism and love for motherland can never of Hindu nationalism, a member of the be fathomed out , however , an assassination political party the Hindu Mahasabha and of can never appreciated but the motive behind the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh.Even a crime must be thoroughly studied to have a after decades of Indian independence if better view for evaluation.This research someone look upon and tries to bring upon paper will specifically looks upon Nathuram Nathuram‟s justifications upon his brutal act , Vinayak Godse’s side of story which he is considered to be against the patriotic provoked him for Mahatma Gandhi’s feeling.Godse is portrayed in a specific assassination .It also tries to understand the fashion and any prohibition to it, is not circumstances which led to the deprivation of tolerated by Gandhians who doesn‟t want to literature available on Godse and his right to broaden their thinking and understand the appeal in the Supreme Indian Court. fact that we are on the same side.“Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoy” a famous marathi Keywords:Nathuram Godse , Mahatma play , who give it an attempt to change the Gandhi , assassination , Independence , India stereotype ,was led into controversies with a view that it glorifies Gandhi‟s Introduction: assassination.People today have lot of Mahatma Gandhi , the Father of the Nation , misconceptions about Nathuram Godse and who is credited for getting India , his act of assassinating Gandhi , which could independence from the British , was only be figured by presenting them with assassinated on the evening of 30th January enough of content and thus help them to build 1948 in the compound of Birla House in their own perspectives. central New Delhi.The news of Mahatma‟s assassination was not just a source of The Trial and The Judgement: consternation for the nation but for the A Special Court was constituted to conduct British officials in England as well.No one the trial of the accused and a Special Act, that had given it a thought that a mahatma who was the Bombay Public Security Measures preached and supported ahimsa throughout Act, was extended to Delhi before his life will suffer death in a violent constituting the Special Court for the trial of manner.The portrayal of the character of Nathuram Godse and other accused.It was Gandhi is incomplete without referring to one of the fastest trials in the legal history Available online: https://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/IJR/P a g e | 1416 International Journal of Research e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at https://edupediapublications.org/journals Volume 05 Issue 07 March 2018 and also one of the three trials which took Shimla in Himachal Pradesh which then place in the Red Fort in Delhi.Shri Atma housed the Punjab High Court.The High Charan Agrawal, I. C. S. was appointed as Court confirmed the findings and sentences the Judge for the trial.Twelve persons were of the lower court except in the cases of accused for different charges and they were Dattatraya Parchure and Shankar Kistayya Nathuram Vinayak Godse, Narayan who were acquitted of all charges.Godse and Dattatraya Apte, Vishnu Ramkrishna Apte were sentenced to death on 8 November Karkare, Madanlal K. Pahwa, Shankar 1949.Pleas for commutation were made by Kistaiya, Gopal Vinayak Godse, Digambar Gandhi's two sons, Manilal Gandhi and Ramchandra Badge, Vinayak Damodar Ramdas Gandhi but these pleas were turned Savarkar,Dattatraya Sadashiv Parchure.Three down by India's prime minister, Jawahar Lal of them were absconding , namely , Nehru ,Vallabhbhai Patel and the Governor- Gangadhar Dandavate, Gangadhar Jadhav, General Chakravarti RajaGopalaChari.Godse Suryadev Sharma.Counsels were engaged by and Apte were hanged in Ambala Jail on 15 the accused , however, the accused November 1949.According to the book themselves were supposed to give replies to Almanac of World Crime by Jay Robert Nash, the charges.Before doing so, they submitted at the hanging Apte's neck broke and he died their written statements.149 witnesses were instantly , but "Godse died slowly by the called by the prosecution , none by rope" and choked "to death for fifteen defence.The court found all of the defendants minutes”. except one guilty as charged. Eight men were convicted for the murder conspiracy, and Nathuram Godse‟s Ideology: others were convicted for violation of the Nathuram Godse is branded nothing more Explosive Substances Act.Among those than a Hindu zealot by successive accused ,Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was governments of the country though he was a acquitted and set free due to lack of evidence person with a kind heart who throbbed in and Digamber Badge was granted pardon pain with gandhi‟s action against the country because he testified against his co- in favour of a specific community.This pain accused.Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte was so unendurable at an instance that he were sentenced to death by hanging and the couldn‟t find a way to cure it other than remaining six (including uprooting the cause.It was only after Godse's brother,Gopal) were sentenced to life witnessing the extreme barbarity indian imprisonment.Of those found guilty, all communities faced at the hands of a newly except Godse appealed their conviction and made pakistan , Godse became determined to sentence in the upper court.Godse accepted execute Mahatma Gandhi who, according to his death sentence, but appealed against the him, was the prime reason for inviting such lower court ruling that found him guilty of fate to the people of his country. conspiracy. Godse argued, in his appeal to the The Indian High Court, that there was no conspiracy, he Independence Act 1947 partitioned British alone was solely responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and that all India into the two new independent co-accused were innocent and should be dominions of India and Pakistan.The arbitral released.The appeal by the convicted men tribunal alloted a sum of Rs75 crore to was heard from 2 May 1949, at Peterhoff Pakistan.Indian government initially paid Available online: https://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/IJR/P a g e | 1417 International Journal of Research e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at https://edupediapublications.org/journals Volume 05 Issue 07 March 2018 Rs20 crore and was supposed to pay the well being and peace of our very own remaining amount.But meanwhile, in October country. , 1947 , the soi-disant liberators invaded Nathuram Godse kashmir which they , hankered for , soon was against Gandhi Ji‟s attitude of appeasing after the independence with the covet support the Muslim population of the country and of the Pakistani Army , before the second being overly generous to Pakistan.He found installment was paid.This enraged the Indians Jinnah Sahab as a baiter , with his politics , as as well as The Union Cabinet in a way that mere blackmail and could not bear the pain Indian government forfeited to pay the and sufferings aroused within the country due remaining amount of Rs55 crore to Pakistan to Gandhi Ji‟s consent on partition.Nathuram as a gesture to destabilise the opponent's Godse was not against GandhiJi rather he force as this money would be utilised against was against his ideology which was partial to India.Mahatma Gandhi being occupied with a one community.This was the reason he utopian and shrewed ideology ,opposed the bowed before GandhiJi in reverence before Indian decision to withold Pakistan‟s money assassinating him.Godse's own words during which according to him it was rightfully the trial, proved the fact ”…it was not so entitled to.When GandhiJi found Indian much the Gandhian Ahimsa teachings that government not responding to his urge to pay were opposed to by me and my group, but pakistan , he compelled the government to Gandhiji, while advocating his views, always release an amount of Rs. 55 crores due to showed or evinced a bias for Muslims, Pakistan by initiating his fast unto death.By prejudicial and detrimental to the Hindu Gandhi Ji‟s attitude the congress led Community and its interests”. government was in a dilemma to either Godse , like surrender its will to his or it had to carry many other in the country , felt that the without him.No one in the congress led suffering caused due to the partition could government has a dare enough to oppose him have been avoided if the Indian government and they followed Gandhi Ji‟s primitive and Gandhi took a stand and had proffered vision.The famous authors Larry Collins and strong protests against the pitiless treatment Dominique LaPierre of the book Freedom at meted out to the Minorities , Hindus and Midnight wrote about Gandhi Ji‟s stand that Sikhs , in Pakistan.GandhiJi was the one who “It was intolerable