Who was this person ? Godse was born on 19th May 1910. He was the fourth child born to his parents. His brothers born before him passed away during their childhood. While his elder sister survived. So Nathuram’s parents thought that the boys born into their family were cursed. And so to protect this boy, they decided to raise him like a girl. That’s right. Nathuram had his nose pierced at a young age. So that he could wear a nose ring. In Hindi, the nose ring is called a Nath. Before he was old enough for school, he was always dressed like a girl and treated like a girl. The official name of this boy was Ramchandra Vinayak Godse. But because he wore a Nath, he would be called Nathuram. He passed primary and elementary school, but failed in 10th grade. Around 1929, after failing the 10th grade examinations, he went to Ratnagiri. That was when he came into contact with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Both of them belonged to Maharashtra’s Chitpawan Brahman community. The British government had imposed travel restrictions on Savarkar so he could not leave Ratnagiri. And here he started grooming Godse. Godse was heavily inspired by Savarkar. But after this, around 1932, Godse joined RSS and Savarkar’s party Hindu Mahasabha. In Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, Apart from Nathuram Godse, the name that comes second is Narayan Apte. Narayan Apte was also from the Chitpawan Brahman community. And in 1938, he became one of Savarkar’s followers. Apte was married but in his book Dhirendra Jha claims that he had affairs with many girls. One of the affairs needs to be mentioned. His affair with an 18-19 year old Christian girl, Manorama. In 1946, Apte introduced Manorama as his wife to Savarkar. But Apte met Godse around 4 years ago in 1942, after which they founded an organisation called Hindu Rashtra Dal. They even started a newspaper called Agrani, with Godse as the editor. This was the same newspaper which was later penalised for its anti-Muslim stance. This newspaper printed articles spewing hate against Gandhi. One such article was published with the headline “Gandhi Commit Suicide” advising Gandhi to leave Indian politics. The extent to which Godse was full of hatred and the kind of person he was could be seen from the incident in December 1946, where he whipped out a knife and tried to kill the then President of the Hindu Mahasabha, LB Bhopatkar. The reason for this attack was that the party wasn’t listening to Godse. The party considered Godse’s ideology to be very extremist. In August 1947, another penalty was imposed on his newspaper Agrani. Instead of paying this penalty, Godse and Apte started another newspaper called Hindu Rashtra.

After the partition, there were riots in Delhi and in September Gandhi met with Golwalkar about this. Gandhi had told Golwalkar that RSS is to be blamed for all the bloodshed. After this Gandhi did his best to promote religious harmony in India. On 8th December 1947, Delhi Police’s Intelligence Department noted that there was a closed door meeting where RSS head MS Golwalkar said that Mahatma Gandhi wanted to keep Muslims in India. And that Gandhi cannot be allowed to mislead Hindus any longer. He said that they had ways of silencing such people immediately, but it was beyond their ‘tradition.’ He also said that if forced, they would choose that path. Only 3 weeks after Golwalkar’s statement, Nathuram Godse, Narayan Apte, and Karkare began conspiring to kill Gandhi. They wanted to kill Gandhi. 

Who will kill Gandhi? 

Neither Narayan Apte nor Nathuram Godse were willing to do this. On 2nd January 1948, both of them met Vishnu Karkare in Ahmednagar. Vishnu Karkare recommended a man named Madanlal Pahwa. As the person who can be trusted to execute their plan. Madanlal was a refugee from Pakistan and was living with Karkare for several weeks. Initially, when Karkare met Madanlal Pahwa, Pahwa was looking for a job. He was looking for a source of income. Karkare promised him to set up a coconut shop for him from where he could earn his livelihood. But in reality, Karkare had different plans for him. Karkare started treating Pahwa like a goon, to harass Muslim traders and shopkeepers, to throw bombs at their homes. When Karkare introduced Pahwa to Godse and Apte for the first time, he had no idea about their plan. It was only on 6th January, 1948, that Pahwa found out about the plan to assassinate Gandhi. But Pahwa wasn’t told that they wanted him to shoot Gandhi. But to shoot someone you’d need a revolver. The revolver had been arranged months ago. On 8th August 1947, exactly a week before the independence. Air India’s plane DN438

flew from Bombay to Delhi. Three of the passengers on this aircraft were the founder of Hindu Mahasabha Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, and his two trusted lieutenants, Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte. They were going to Delhi to attend Hindu Mahasabha’s working committee meeting. Before this trip, Narayan Apte had visited Ahmednagar, Maharashtra to meet Digambar Badge. He ran a weapons depot, and was a well-known dealer of weapons. In July 1947, Apte bought a Sten gun from Badge for ₹1,200. Vishnu Karkare was also there when Apte bought the gun. When this flight landed in Delhi, Godse and Apte met Dattaraya Parchure from Gwalior. He was the commander of the Hindu Rashtra Army. This was the first time when all the accused of Gandhi’s assassination were present together. This was the true beginning of the conspiracy. Narayan Apte was in charge of logistics. Vishnu Karkare was given the responsibility to find a man who would kill Gandhi. And Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, look at what this book says, was their ‘guiding spirit.’ Now, coming back to the January 1948 timeline, on 9th January, these people met Badge and inspected the weapons at his house. Badge and his helper Shankar showed a hand grenade, two revolvers, and a gun cotton slab and explained how to use them. The interesting thing is that to avoid getting incriminated in this murder plan, Godse had an additional plan. He had created an alibi. He wanted to ensure that on 20th January, when Gandhi was supposed to be assassinated by Madanlal Pahwa, he would be in Nagpur, attending a wedding. This wedding was supposed to be his excuse, to prove that he was not in Delhi, and couldn’t be blamed after Gandhi’s death. But on 14th January, when Godse and Apte left for Bombay from Pune, they blew their cover. A Marathi film actress named Shanta Modak was sitting across from them. Narayan Apte started talking to her and called himself the owner of the newspaper Hindu Rashtra and Godse its editor. He had coffee with Shanta and while chatting with her, he told her that they were going to Savarkar Sadan in Bombay’s Shivaji Park. Shanta offered them a lift and dropped them off at Savarkar Sadan. On 14th January 1948, at 7:30 PM, Godse and Apte reached Savarkar Sadan and met Savarkar. After this, at 8:15 PM, they left Savarkar Sadan and met Digambar Badge. Badge informed them that he had the weapon. Apte went to Savarkar Sadan first but he did not find a safe place to keep the weapon there. He didn’t think that the Hindu Mahasabha office would be a safe place to keep the weapon. After this, Apte decided to stash the weapon with Dikshit Maharaj from Bombay’s Bhuleshwar Temple. Because the possibility of a police raid on a temple was low. Do you think he was an exemplary Hindu? He used a sacred place like a temple to hide weapons. At the temple, he asked Dikshit Maharaj for a revolver. An American revolver was arranged for him, but Maharaj had asked for ₹500 for that. Godse and Apte had assumed that they’d get it for free but since they were asked to pay, this deal fell through. After this Apte passed on the weapon to Karkare and told him to take the bag to Delhi with Pahwa. Pahwa still didn’t know that they were planning to have him shoot Gandhi. Nathuram Godse was diligently keeping track of even the smallest expense in his notebook. The taxi fare, the cost of the weapon, etc. Police confiscated this notebook later because of which we know about these transactions today. In case Pahwa failed to kill Gandhi, Narayan Apte had a Plan B too. According to Plan B, he wanted Badge to kill Gandhi. It wasn’t difficult to convince Badge. Apte told him that Savarkar had given him the responsibility of killing Gandhi. After this, Nathuram Godse went to Pune and included his younger brother Gopal Godse in this plan. 17th January 1948, 7 AM. Godse, Apte, Badge, and Shankar met at Bombay’s VT station. That morning they met several people to collect money. And after this, Godse said that they should pay respects to Savarkar. So, the four of them went to Savarkar Sadan. Shankar waited outside, Badge was asked to wait on the ground floor. And only Godse and Apte went up to meet Savarkar. After 5-10 minutes, they came down and Savarkar followed. Savarkar told them all to come back victorious. After this, at 1:30 PM, Godse and Apte boarded the flight to Delhi via Ahmedabad. On this flight, they met Dada Maharaj. During the plane’s layover in Ahmedabad, Dada Maharaj asked them about their failed plans of attacking Pakistan and Hyderabad. Godse remained silent but Apte replied, telling him to wait and watch for what they’ll do next. Friends, think about this. People who make plans to attack other cities because of their fanatic ideology, make such detailed plans to assassinate a person, would it not be correct to call such people terrorists? This is why Nathuram Godse is often called Independent India’s First Terrorist. 

17th January 1948, their flight landed in Delhi that evening. They booked a room in the Marina Hotel at Connaught Place. And for the next two days, 18th January and 19th January, they scoped out Birla House. They inspected the area around it too. Because Mahatma Gandhi was living in Birla House. Meanwhile, Gopal Godse joined them in Delhi carrying another revolver. Gopal Karkare and Pahwa stayed in Hindu Mahasabha’s office. On 17th January, Pahwa went to Delhi and met his uncle, there he found out that his father had arranged his marriage. And on 18th January, Pahwa went to his fiancee’s house. There he met his fiancee’s uncle. He told Pahwa that Jawaharlal Nehru was in a public gathering at the marketplace, and Pahwa went with him to attend the gathering. On the night of 19th January, Pahwa was preparing to go to sleep, when Narayan Apte came into his room. The plan was to assassinate Gandhi on 20th January. And only on the night before that, on 19th January, was Pahwa told that everyone wanted Pahwa to be the one to shoot Gandhi. That night when Apte talked about this with Karkare, and Pahwa was told about this for the first time, Pahwa simply refused to do this. Pahawa said that though he wasn’t one of Gandhi’s supporters, he had other priorities in his life. He was thinking of marrying the girl chosen by his father and by doing something so criminal, he didn’t want to ruin his life. At this point, the plan to kill Gandhi went awry. Godse didn’t want to be the shooter either. So, as per Plan B, Narayan Apte pushed this responsibility onto Badge. Pahwa wasn’t completely removed from this plan, to be sure that he wouldn’t go and tell someone about this plan, so they gave him another responsibility. He was given the responsibility of executing a blast with the gun cotton slab outside the prayer grounds of Birla House to cause a distraction. The plan was that Pahwa would create a distraction, and the others would throw hand grenades and during this chaos, Badge would go and shoot Gandhi. But when 20th January came, Plan B went wrong too. Pahwa sets off a blast as planned. But Badge got scared at the last moment. He hid his revolver under the backseat of the taxi. the taxi they were supposed to use to flee. Meanwhile, Nathuram Godse, Narayan Apte, and Gopal Godse fled in the taxi. It was the same taxi. When they looked under the backseat of the taxi, they found the revolver. Meanwhile, when Badge came out, he saw that none among the Godse brothers, Apte or the taxi were there. At this point, Badge realised that they were planning to escape without him. After a while, they met again in the Hindu Mahasabha office and Apte and Godse asked Badge about what happened. Badge cursed them out in the vilest way he could and left. On the other hand, there was chaos in the Birla House due to the blast. Police arrested Pahwa. Mahatma Gandhi was present there too. After the blast, he told others that there was no need to be afraid. If they were to get scared at this, how would they react if something really happened there. He said that it was nothing.

The next day, Gandhi also said that the person who did this, calling him a brother, we don’t need to hate him. He told the inspector not to harass him. And he wanted everyone to pray to God to guide him onto an honest path. After their failed assassination attempt, Godse and Apte went back to Mumbai. 23rd January, 1948. The two decide that Godse will be the one to kill Gandhi. Apte and Karkare would be there to lend support. But by now, the police were already looking for them. Pahwa had confessed to everything during the police interrogation. Ahmednagar’s Karkare, and Pune newspaper Hindu Rashtra’s editor, publisher, and the editor’s younger brother were planning to kill Gandhi. He told him about the bearded weapon supplier and his servant too. After this, Godse, Apte, and Karkare started working underground. On 25th January, They met in the Elphinstone Hotel. Godse felt that the revolver he had wouldn’t be effective enough. So he went to Gwalior and there Parchure arranged a fully loaded automatic Beretta pistol for him. In the evening, Karkare went to check the security arrangements at Gandhi’s prayer meetings. The next day, 30th January, at 5 PM, Gandhi’s prayer meeting was about to begin. Godse had arrived 10 minutes earlier. That day, Gandhi had a meeting with Sardar Patel at 4:30 PM. The meeting ended at 5:10 PM. Right then, two leaders from Gujarat’s Kathiawad were waiting to meet him. His grand niece Manu asked if he would meet them. To this, Gandhi asked her to tell them that they could talk to him after the prayers, if he remained alive. By the time Gandhi came out, he was 15 minutes late. He placed his hands on his grandnieces Manu and Abha’s shoulders and entered the prayer meeting. By then Godse had reached Gandhi. He reached Gandhi beyond Manu. Pretending to touch his feet. Manu tried to stop him saying that they were already running late, but Godse pushed aside Manu, greeted Gandhi, pulled out his revolver and fired thrice. The only thing Gandhi could say was “He Ram!” Look at the coincidence. That morning Gandhi told Manu that if someone shot him and he died without groaning with God’s names on his lips, then she should tell the world that he was a true Mahatma. After Gandhi was shot, the police officers standing nearby took Godse into custody. But Apte and Karkare had fled already. When the news of Gandhi’s assassination broke, the entire nation was shocked. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said, “The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere. When it was found that the Hindu Mahasabha and Nathuram Godse were behind this assassination, thousands of people gathered outside Savarkar Sadan. They tried to set the building on fire, but the police intervened at the right time and stopped the mob. In Nagpur, the stone was thrown at RSS headquarters and Golwalkar’s house. Across the nation, the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha offices were attacked. Their members ran for their lives and went into hiding. People like Godse and Savarkar had thought that by killing Gandhi, they would bring the Hindus on their side, and people would support them. But the result was the opposite. By killing Gandhi, Godse made Gandhi greater. And his ideology is stronger. Even in their wildest dreams, the members of RSS and Hindu Mahasabha hadn’t imagined that they would get such a big public backlash. Within 24 hours, their situation had worsened so much that they were looking for ways to save themselves. 31st January 1948, Golwalkar issued a written statement in which he called Gandhi the ‘Great Mahatma.’ He pretended to have been Gandhi’s supporter but before this assassination he used to spew poison against Gandhi. And RSS, to protect themselves, said that they believed in Gandhi’s ideals. On 31st January, when police went to Sawarkar house, Sawarkar asked the CID’s Deputy Commissioner if they were there to arrest him. But the police were there to search. 

RSS and Hindu Mahasabha completely disowned Godse saying that he wasn’t their member. Godse was first brought to Tughlak Road police station where they asked preliminary questions, after that, he was interrogated at the Parliament Street Police Station. On 31st January, he was presented before the magistrate and thereafter sent to police custody. By that evening, Godse started feeling uneasy. He thought that after killing Gandhi, he would become a hero and Hindu and Sikh refugees would support him. But nothing of the sort happened. Even those who were against Gandhi before, started speaking out in support of Gandhi after this. 4th February 1948, based on Sardar Patel’s decision, the Indian government banned RSS all across the country. This ban was removed the following year in 1949, on the condition that RSS would keep itself away from political activities. It was supposed to adopt the Indian constitution and work solely as a cultural organisation. But interestingly, it was only on 26th January, 2002 that the Indian flag was hoisted at RSS headquarters for the first time. Before this, they hoisted their saffron flag only. Jamshed Dorab Nagarwala, the Deputy Commissioner of Bombay CID. The same person who arrested Pahwa on 20th January. At 5:30 AM on 31st January, his team arrested Badge. By 5th February, they had found Gopal Godse. But Apte and Karkare were still at large. Meanwhile, Nathuram told the police about Apte’s girlfriend Manorama, and by tracking Manorama, the police could get to Apte and Karkare. Finally, Nathuram, Apte, Karkare, Gopal, Pahwa, Badge, and Shankar were in jail. On 27th February, 1948, Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel wrote a letter to Jawaharlal Nehru in which he said that he was taking daily updates on Bapu’s assassination case. He wrote that the fanatical wing of Hindu Mahasabha under Savarkar was behind this assassination conspiracy and they were the ones who executed it. After this, Savarkar was also arrested. Nathuram’s interrogation continued till 4th March and on 24th May, Godse and others were put to trial. In court, Godse revealed why they killed Gandhi. He claimed that Gandhi was responsible for partition. While in reality, this was a complete lie. In reality, Gandhi was one of the few who were against the partition even up to the last moment. You know this already. If you didn’t, you can watch this video where I talk about the history related to partition in detail. On 3rd June 1947, the day the partition was announced, Gandhi told Rajendra Prasad, “I can see only evil in the plan.” While the truth is that Savarkar, whom Nathuram Godse revered the most, in 1943 had said that he had no issues with Jinnah’s two-nation theory. Had Godse actually believed in this reason, he would have shot his mentor Savarkar first. Along with Jinnah. The second reason he cited was that Gandhi was on his indefinite fast because he wanted to give ₹550 million from the Indian government’s cash balance to Pakistan. This was baseless too. Actually, Gandhi’s indefinite strike was to promote peace between the people of the two religions.

In the press notice issued by the Indian government back then there’s no mention of Gandhi asking for ₹550 million to be given to Pakistan. The hunger strike Godse was talking about, was held in January 1948, while they were planning to assassinate Gandhi in July 1947. The third reason Godse mentioned in court was that Gandhi was anti-Hindu. 

What can I say about this?

Gandhi had practiced Hinduism all his life. In his gatherings, meetings, books, He constantly talked about the teachings of Bhagavad Gita. And there was a man calling him anti-Hindu, who was using Hindu temples to hide his weapons. Dr Ram Manohar Lohia wrote about this in 1950. Gandhi’s murder wasn’t about his stance on the Hindu-Muslim divide. In reality, this fight was between extremist Hindus and liberal Hindus. Hindus like Gandhi, believed in tolerance and brotherhood, wanted all castes and women to be treated equally. This angered these extremist Hindus. They wanted to continue the caste system. Where Brahmins would be on top and the ‘Dalits’ at the bottom. Where women could be suppressed by men. In the guise of defending Hinduism, they were actually trying to save the caste system. You can see the same struggle in our country even today. On the one hand, we have the normal Hindus, who want to live in peace and happiness. They believe in tolerance and equality. They don’t follow the caste system. On the other hand, you have the fanatic Hindus following Godse’s ideology, you can see them working as online trolls nowadays. They use filthy language, pass violent threats to women, and believe in casteism. These are the people who dream of a Hindu Nation. And spew poison against Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and people from the ‘lower castes.’ They are so brainwashed that according to them, even the first category Hindus are anti-Hindu. Godse was similarly brainwashed. And the prosecution faced no hurdles to proving that Godse was the one behind this conspiracy. But during this trial, it became difficult to prove Savarkar’s involvement in this conspiracy. In order to defend himself, Savarkar said that he had been sick and hadn’t met Godse and Apte for over a year. When Badge became the police’s informer, he told them about many incidents to prove Savarkar’s involvement in this conspiracy. Like, trying to stash the weapons in Savarkar Sadan. Meeting Savarkar before going to Delhi and him telling them to come back victorious. Apart from this, the actress Shanta Modak who met Godse in the train also testified that she had dropped off Godse and Apte at Savarkar Sadan. But the judge of this trial believed that Savarkar could not be punished based solely on Badge’s testimony. Savarkar’s bodyguard gave his statement to the Bombay police stating that Godse, Apte, and Karkare came to meet Savarkar thrice in January. Savarkar’s secretary also gave a statement that in the first week of January, Karkare and a Punjabi boy and in the middle of January, Godse and Apte had gone to meet Savarkar. But neither of them testified in court. So, Savarkar could avoid all forms of punishment. In this case, Godse and Apte were given the death penalty. Savarkar was released, and the other 5 accused were given life imprisonment. They were sentenced on 10th February, 1949. Godse filed an appeal against this on 22nd February to the East Punjab High Court in Shimla. In the High Court, Justice GD Khosla, who presided over Godse case, later wrote his book, The Murder of the Mahatma, Godse would often falter. His behaviour showed fear and anxiety. He tried to put up the facade of bravery, but his voice would croak. He had lost his energy. On 17th May, after the arguments were over in the High Court, Godse received a letter from Ramdas Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s son. In this letter, he said that he had requested the Governor General of India that Godse shouldn’t be given the death penalty. In reply, Godse said that he had no words left as a human being to express his feelings for the wounds he dealt to Ramdas and his family, caused by the sorrowful end of his father. Godse asked to meet him before his execution.

In his book, Gandhi’s Assassin, Dhirendra Jha wrote that Gopal Godse had later written that if bringing about a change of heart was a main principle of Gandhism, then it should have been followed by not passing the death sentence. Nathuram was anxiously waiting for such an attempt from Gandhi’s supporters.These were desperate attempts that followed Gandhi’s assassination to use Gandhi’s ideology to spare his murderers. This proves once again that though Gandhi was killed by Godse, But at the end of the day, Gandhi won.

On 22nd June, the High Court maintained the death sentence. After this, Godse appealed to the Privy Council of England to save his life. Because at this point in time, India was still a British Dominion and it was the final court of appeals for Indians. But in October 1949, even the Privy Council dismissed Godse’s appeal. 

In November 1949, LG Thatte, Godse’s accomplice in the 1944 murder attempt on Gandhi, wrote a letter to the Governor General of India in which he asked that Godse and Apte be kept under the supervision of the Sarvodaya Samaj, followers of Gandhi, so that Godse and Apte could be reformed. This shows that even Godse’s companions were trying to get Godse to follow Gandhi’s path in order to save his life. 

Should Godse be hanged for assassinating Gandhi?

Because had Gandhi been alive, he would’ve been against it. That’s how he had dealt with previous assassination attempts on him. The question was answered back then by one of the greatest followers of Gandhi at that time, Kishorlal Mashruwala, in an article in the journal Harijan, started by Gandhi. He said that if we look at it according to Gandhi’s principles, giving the death penalty to Mahatma Gandhi’s killers would take away from his glory. So letting the killers live would be ‘an act of supreme grace.’ But it might also be seen as if the government was incapable of governing. And it would also be seen as the end of the death penalty. Because if Godse was allowed to live and if future murderers were given the death sentence, it might be misunderstood that murderers of those preaching non-violence won’t be severely punished. So, only if the Indian government handed out the death sentence to Godse, it would make all misinterpretations difficult. After this article, the debate on the death sentence came to an end and Godse was hanged till death on 15th November, 1949. 

In his book, Justice GD Khosla wrote that in jail, during the last days of his life, Godse had regretted his actions. He claimed that were he to be given another chance, he would have spent his remaining life promoting peace and serving his nation. This makes it absolutely clear that Gandhi was victorious. Gandhi’s ideologies won.

One of the greatest scientists of the world, Albert Einstein said this about Gandhi, “Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.” It will be difficult for future generations to believe that there once lived such a noble person.