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 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 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 , a member of the be fathomed out , however , an assassination political party the 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 ’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 .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 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, and Ramchandra Badge, Vinayak Damodar but these pleas were turned Savarkar,Dattatraya Sadashiv Parchure.Three down by India's prime minister, Jawahar Lal of them were absconding , namely , Nehru , 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 , 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 to him that so soon after was running the show and the congress led her birth India should be guilty of so immoral ruling government was the one following an action”.GandhiJi constantly proved it.Godse acknowledged and appreciated the himself to be more of Father Of Pakistan by fact that Mahatma Gandhi was a great patriot granting favours to it at every possible step and his contributions towards the freedom irrespective to its illegitimate actions and movement of India was beyond comparison, demands against India.GandhiJi seems to be but that doesn‟t mean that he may be misguided and blind folded against authoritative enough to divide one great Pakistan‟s immoral actions ,which could be nation.GandhiJi must give it a thought that he easily detected by a sane personality , than to was from the country , The country was not the intolerable action of Indian Government from him. which decided not to pay Pakistan for the Godse was very well aware and prepared mentally for the

Available online: https://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/IJR/P a g e | 1418

International Journal of Research e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at https://edupediapublications.org/journals Volume 05 Issue 07 March 2018 outcome of his action.It can be implied trial gave various reasons about his decision through his statement in the court : ”I to kill Gandhi wherein he even criticized thought to myself and foresaw I shall be government for accepting whims of an totally ruined, and the only thing I could individual rather then deciding upon interest expect from the people would be nothing but of the nation. hatred ... if I were to kill Gandhiji. But at the same time I felt that the Indian politics in the Nathuram Godse and Narayan Dattatraya absence of Gandhiji would surely be proved Apte were hanged even before the Supreme practical, able to retaliate, and would be Court of India came into existence.After powerful with armed forces.” Nathuram Godse was sentenced to death for Nathuram godse the assassination of Mohandas Karamchand expressed his thoughts so eloquently and in Gandhi, Godse‟s family members had such a lucid manner that The Judge , Justice appealed before the privy council in London G.D Khosla , who tried Godse in East Punjab and had also sought mercy from the then High Court with two other judges and governor-general.Godse had himself never sentenced him to death, was so much sought clemency but members of his family astonished and influenced by his had probably kept him in the dark about their justifications that he had acknowledged in his subsequent appeals for mercy.The privy book , The Murder of the Mahatma , “I have, council did not grant the , permission to file however, no doubt that had the audience of the petition , to the families of the accused, that day been constituted into a jury and including Godse.“They had refused to grant entrusted with the task of deciding Godse‟s leave on the ground that even if they did appeal, they would have brought a verdict of admit the petition, it would not have been „not Guilty‟ by an overwhelming majority”. decided before January 26, 1950 when the Indian Supreme Court was to be born.” Once Politics circumscribing the Assassination: the Supreme Court of India came into One may disagree with Nathuram Godse but existence, the jurisdiction to hear the Special no one has the right to turn down the Leave circulation of his opinions.Everyone , in Petetion would lie with it.Godse and other independent India , has the right to freedom accused were denied the last appeal which as of opinion and expression , still it is after per Indian law were their legal right and they about three decades that Godse‟s statement were hanged even before the murder trial had reached the public.The Nehru led attained legal finality from the supreme Government had also muzzled the press from Indian Court. printing and letting the people know what “Ahimsa and Godse had to tell the Judges.A statement is truth are my two lungs and I cannot live generally forbidded to reach the masses and without them”.Such was the testimony of circumvented when Mahatma Gandhi which could not be 1. the allegations can‟t be denied persisted after him by his followers and 2. the actions can‟t be justified family whom he sermonized the lesson of I find no ahimsa , making a remark upon their own reason except that , Godse , in his speech sensibility.Mahatma Gandhi , where ever he during the has been in this universe after his demise ,

Available online: https://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/IJR/P a g e | 1419

International Journal of Research e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Available at https://edupediapublications.org/journals Volume 05 Issue 07 March 2018 must have lamented upon this trial because 3. Gandhi wadh kyu , Nathuram Nathuram Godse‟s and Apte‟s capital Godse , Hindi Pocket Books punishment was nothing more than a Publications dishonour to the legacy of a man who 4. J.C. Jain, The Murder of Mahatma preached ahimsa and opposed to all forms of Gandhi: Prelude and Aftermath violence in his lifespan. Article: Conclusion: 1. Why exactly did Godse kill Gandhi Although , Nathuram Godse was successful , Outlook enough to rationalise his deeds before the 2. The surreal life of Nathuram Godse country but killing a person in any manner , The Hindu can‟t be justified.But we must take into 3. Nathuram Godse, the man who account that Godse‟s side of the story has killed the Mahatma , The Quint always been muffled by successive governments of the country.The metaphor of duality upon two different aspects for a situation remains unveiled if one just look for the heavier claim. It is irrefutable that Mahatma contributed immensely for this country but we must not push aside the traits in personality of GandhiJi which mentally provoked such a learned man to kill the Mahatma whom he admired and supported earlier.Godse‟s sacred ashes are still preserved in a hope , that one day , his dream of akhand bharat will be fulfilled and it will be immersed in the Sindhu river.Nathuram expected that someday in future people would weigh his act and find its true value , so , here we are.

References

Book: 1. Justice G.D. Khosla, The murder of the Mahatma, Jaico Publishing House 2. A.G. Noorani, Savarkar and Hindutva: A Godse Connection , LeftWord Publications

Available online: https://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/IJR/P a g e | 1420