‘Gandhi’s Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India’
by Dhirendra K. Jha
Pages: 288
Penguin
Price Rs. 540/-
Md. Zeeshan Ahmad
From the previous issue…..
The radicalisation of Godse didn’t happen overnight. Rather, it was gradual but pervasive. Such was the effect of Savarkar, and his politics marked by anti-Muslim hatred, that Godse got influenced by both, and subsequently, internalised it. The communally charged environment, in small pockets of Bombay province, in which Godse was undergoing political development, was also responsible for his radicalisation.
Thus, the assassination of Gandhi by Godse was but the manifestation of this year-long radicalisation.
Challenging the myth
In an attempt to exonerate itself from the charges of Gandhi’s murder, the RSS, besides the propaganda, as Jha points, has clung on to two sources that it has passed off as authentic piece of evidence.
First is an article published in the February 4, 1950 issue of the Economic Weekly, written by D.V. Kelkar, a close associate of K.B. Hedgewar, the founding sarsanghchalak (chief) of RSS. In this article, highlighting the discord and rift between the two organisations – the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS, Kelkar quotes Savarkar saying that, “The epitaph for the RSS volunteer will be that he was born, he joined the RSS and died without accomplishing anything”. However, as Jha questions, Kelkar neither “cites any reference to back his claims” nor sheds any light on its “provenance”. Moreover, given the closeness of Kelkar with the RSS, Jha wonders, “this fact leaves enough room for suspicion that the author, out of sympathy for the RSS, might deliberately have twisted historical facts to help the Sangh”. (p. 277). It needs to be remembered that this window dressing is taking place subsequent to Gandhi’s assassination, when the Indian state is cracking down on the RSS because of its involvement in it, based on intelligence reports.
Another source that Jha challenges is the American author J.A. Curran, Jr.’s ‘Militant Hinduism in Indian Politics: A Study of the RSS’ (1951). In this study, Curran states that “Godse has joined the R.S.S. in 1930, winning prominence as a speaker and organizer, he left the Sangh in 1934 because Hedgewar refused to make the R.S.S., a political organisation”. Jha questions the authenticity of this text by observing that Curran “cites no source – neither a document nor an interview – for this information”. Moreover, Jha notes that Curran’s above observation “completely contradicts the chronology in Godse’s own statement and all historical records.” (p. 70)
Jha, in the light of the above, concludes that “[b]efore the assassination of Gandhi, the RSS and the Mahasabha showed a notable tendency towards close cooperation and often developed fluid and overlapping membership. There was nothing unique in what Godse was attempting – the two organizations were intertwined and reciprocally stimulated each other.” (p.63)
Assassination
Gandhi’s assassination, at the hands of Godse, was an outcome of an amalgamation of deep seated hatred and conspiracy.
The plan to kill Gandhi, on both the occasions, by Godse and gang, was made in Bombay. The first plan to kill Gandhi was attempted on January 20, 1948, which got foiled because of the lack of coordination among the members of the group, which was led by Godse and Apte. In this, Madanlal Pahwa, a Punjabi refugee, was arrested from the spot. During interrogation, Pahwa had given enough evidence, and even said that the gang would again plan an attack on Gandhi. On the basis of this statement, Godse and gang could have been arrested, but the police and the intelligence agencies failed miserably. Till today, it remains a mystery why, despite having advance inputs, the authorities were unsuccessful in foiling the subsequent assassination attempt.
In this next attempt, on January 30, 1948, Godse killed Gandhi, shooting him at point blank range. Gandhi – the apostle of non-violence, succumbed to his injuries.
It needs to be remembered that on both the occasions, before heading to Delhi, Godse and Apte had met Savarkar at his house – Savarkar Sadan, in Bombay.
Murder trial
In Gandhi’s murder case, the charge sheet was filed against nine people. Savarkar, along with Gopal Godse, Nathuram’s brother, was included in it. The charges against them, inter alia, was of conspiracy to kill Gandhi. Therefore, conspiracy formed an integral part of Gandhi’s murder trial.
Given that all the evidence was against Godse, and therefore it was next to impossible for him to defend himself, he made peace with it, and didn’t want to pursue a lost cause. So was the case with Apte, against whom the police had much direct evidence.
However, by taking the entire responsibility of the killing on himself, Godse thought, or he was made to think, that he could save others, especially his mentor Savarkar, for whom he had high regard.
Thus, Godse did accordingly, as is evidenced from the statement he read in the court, both justifying Gandhi’s killing and saving his mentor, which ran into 150 paragraphs. There was manifest strangeness in Godse’s statement. First, as Jha notes, “Godse’s statement in the court showed his impeccable command over English, a language he supposedly didn’t know well. Those who have known him since pre-assassination days were genuinely surprised by his competence.” Second, Godse repeated from Savarkar’s ‘Essentials of Hindutva’ while criticizing belief in ahimsa.
In a way, Godse’s trial statement, which he read quite boldly in court, appears to be an act of parroting the brief that has been given to him on behalf of someone. Indeed, what was unfolding at the Red Fort was Gandhi’s murder trial, but Godse’s act suggests that he just had one mission – to save his master.
Though Godse cited post-partition violence, in which hundreds of thousands of Hindus were killed by Muslim fanatics, as one of the reasons for killing Gandhi, this reasoning is far from the truth. This is because the partition was not a one man show. Rather, it was a complex process, and there were many actors in it. So was the case with violence that ensued post-partition. Therefore, holding Gandhi responsible for any of the above is nonsense, and branding him as a Muslims’ sympathiser is just childish.
Yes, Gandhi was the biggest hurdle in the path of those who were not able to deepen the root of sectarian politics, and his presence pricked the proponents of Hindutva.
However, Digambar Badge, who had supplied arms and ammunition, and had even accompanied Godse and gang to Delhi on January 20, 1948 to kill Gandhi, turned approver in this case. Despite this, Godse said that Savarkar has nothing to do with the murder of Gandhi.
Badge’s testimony was important because the entire case of conspiracy was standing on it. Badge, among other things, was witness to the meeting between Godse and Apte with Savarkar on two occasions before the 20 January attack on Gandhi.
Savarkar pleaded not guility. In his defence, Savarkar argued in an impassioned way, and tried to refute all the allegations levelled by the prosecution and demolish the testimony of Badge. Strangely, despite acknowledging that Badge’s testimony was true, the court found that, in want of independent corroborative evidence, it didn’t hold much weight.
Eventually, for want of evidence Savarkar was exonerated. Godse and Apte were awarded death sentences. While two others who were chargesheeted remained absconding, and were never tried. The rest were awarded life imprisonment. Later, on appeal, two among these were exonerated.
The murder trial didn’t give closure to this case. People always had misgivings about it given the histrionics of both Godse and Savarkar during the course of trial, and the statements which both read in the court
In 1965, a commission headed by Supreme Court judge Justice Jeevan Lal Kapoor was formed to look into the aspect of conspiracy in Gandhiji’s killing.
In 1969, the Commission, while indicting Savarkar observed that, “All these facts taken together were destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group.” Interestingly, the missing gap (or the crucial evidence), because of which Badge’s testimony was not accepted in 1948-49 and Savarkar was exonerated, was completed by two aides of Savarkar. In their testimony, the two aides of Savarkar, told the Commission that on both January 14 and 17, Godse and Apte had met Savarkar. Had these two aides deposed during the trial in 1948, Savarkar would not have been saved from gallows.
All this, however, happened after Savarkar died in 1966. Justice was therefore served in Gandhi’s assassination case, but it was inordinately delayed.
Concluding thoughts
Jha’s book is eminently readable, and even has contemporary relevance. For, Jha in his well-researched book, besides exposing the sanitization programme of Hindutva forces by distancing itself from the killer of Gandhi, provides us a conduit to look into the contested politics of pre-independence era, and how religion played a divisive role in it. Presently, however, the unfolding of politics in India is no different from what one witnessed then – marked by hatred and bigotry. If history provides any lesson, then the political culture, as being witnessed in India lately, marked by jingoism and cultural nationalism, must give way to a constitutional culture based on fraternity and brotherhood. Those who are glorifying and eulogizing Godse by branding him as patriot should read Jha’s book, and ponder, whether the one who shot Gandhi – the father of the nation, was actually a nationalist or a murderer.
However, had Jha included a chapter dealing with how the Godse cult has influenced politics since 1950 in his book, and more importantly, how the ideology by which Godse stood by is shaping contemporary politics, the book would have provided a more holistic picture of the phenomenon called Godse. One hopes that Jha, in the next edition of this book, incorporates this aspect.
