How Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated: Failed attempts, Godse’s motive and final moments

The death of Mahatma Gandhi is a significant moment in Indian history, which symbolically initiated a fundamentalist and extremist movement that grew into political legitimacy in modern India. Following his death, violence erupted in India, particularly targeting the Brahmin community in Maharashtra. The body was carried outside and placed in a chair facing the crowd. Nehru famously responded to the assassination by saying, “The light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere.”

Events leading upto Gandhi's assassination

Beginning from 1934, there were six attempts to kill Mahatma Gandhi till 1948. The first one was in July 1944, and the next in September 1944, and then in September 1946 and on January 20, 1948. The sixth one on January 30, 1948 it was successful. Godse was himself involved in the three previous attempts. Gandhiji supported the idea of a separate state for Muslims; in essence, he fostered the creation of Pakistan. Despite aggression from the Pakistani in Kashmir, Gandhiji fasted to compel the Indian government to release Rs 55 crore to Pakistan. It caused discontent among fanatics and right-wing Hindus.

The attempt to assassinate Gandhi was once carried out on January 20 by the same perpetrator, Nathuram Godse. He and his associates followed Gandhi to the Birla House, where Gandhi usually conducted the morning prayer meet. They threw a bomb just behind Gandhi, and planned to kill him during the resulting chaos. One of the accomplice Madanlal Pahwa, was arrested at the crime scene immediately after he detonated the bomb. But it failed because another accomplice, Digambar Badge, lost courage and did not detonate the second bomb.

Following the incident, Gandhi said, ‘If I am to die by the bullet of a madman, I must do so smiling. There must be no anger within me. God must be in my heart and on my lips.’

When and where was Mahatma Gandhi assassinated?

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948, in Birla House. Herbert Renier, the Vice Consul at the US Embassy in New Delhi, was present when the incident happened. According to him, despite repeated attempts on Gandhi's life, the security was relatively inadequate. Mahatma Gandhi was walking towards his prayer meeting at around 5 pm with his granddaughters, when a stout young man pushed through the crowd, first bowed to Gandhi and then drew out his semi-automatic revolver and fired three bullets to the stomach and chest of Gandhi. After that, he tried to shoot himself, but he was grabbed by Renier and handed over to the Police. Gandhi's last words were, “Hey Ram...! Hey Ram...!”

Who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi?

Nathuram Godse was captured by the police from Birla House. He was tried at the historic Red Fort by a Special Court in May 1948. When his turn came to speak, he read a confession and referred to the murder as "wholly and exclusively political". In his 30,000 worded speech, he accused Gandhi of partition and communal violence, and deaths of Hindus and Sikhs in East and West Pakistan. “… I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred ... if I were to kill Gandhiji. But at the same time, I felt that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely prove practical, able to retaliate, and would be powerful with armed forces," read an excerpt from his speech. He accused India of not being run by policy but by the whims of Gandhi. He said that Gandhi and his policy of religious intolerance were the reason for India ceding Pakistan. If Gandhi were still alive, there would be much more destruction and massacre of Hindus.

Ideological contradictions behind Gandhi's assassination

Gandhi's assassin and their supporters argued that Gandhi was too concilatory about the subcontinent's Muslim population and had blamed him for the formation of Pakistan. They wanted a Hindu India, which was opposed by Gandhi sternly. Needless to say, there were similar extremist elements present within Muslims who were pushing the Pan-Islamic caliphate movement.

Historically, the Hindu religion was inclusive and pluralistic, associated with the Indus Valley civilisation. Bipin Chandra Pal, a writer, orator, social reformer, and stalwart of the triumvirate Lal-Bal-Pal, who is grossly misrepresented by contemporary Hindutva leaders, defined Hinduism not as a dogmatic religion but a "federation of many cults and cultures". When the British came to India, they defined Hindus as non-Muslim and non-Christian. The assassination of Gandhi was a culmination of multiple factors, but specifically, the aggressors were radicalised for over decades with a Hindutva ideology, which adopted the colonial exclusionary definition of the Hindu religion.