1948 Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi

69 years ago, on January 30, 1948, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi died shortly after being shot several times in the chest at point blank range by Nathuram Godse at Birla House in New Delhi, India.

The assassination was recreated in this clip from the 1982 Oscar-winning film “Gandhi,” with Ben Kingsley as Gandhi and Harsh Nayyan as Godse. A 1948 newspaper account of the assassination from “The Hindu” is on MKGandhi.org.

Nathuram Godse was arrested immediately after the shooting. The assassination was determined to be a conspiracy and his cohorts were rounded up: Narayan Apte, Digambar Badge, Gopal Godse, Vishnu Karkare and Madanlal Pahwa, all identified as prominent Hindu Nationalists. Based upon the confession of Digambar Badge, police also arrested Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, as the alleged mastermind of the plot. Badge’s testimony, however, went uncorroborated and Savarkar was released.

How Savarkar Escaped the Gallows (The Hindu: 1-30-2013)

Godse and Apte were convicted and were both hanged at Ambala jail on November 15, 1949.

Why I Killed Gandhi (Godse’s address to the court)

Badge was pardoned in exchange for turning “approver” (state’s evidence).

Karkare received a life sentence plus 17 years. Released in 1964, he died of a heart attack 10 years later on April 6.

Pahwa got life and was also released in 1964. He died of renal failure in 2002, his big regret that he wasn’t the actual assassin.

Gopal Godse, Nathuram’s brother, also got life. He was released in 1965 and died in 2005. In a 2000 interview with Time Magazine, Gopal insisted that Gandhi did not say “Oh God” after he was shot.

Gandhi is widely reported to have made this prophetic statement two days before his assassination: “If I’m to die by the bullet of a mad man, I must do so smiling. God must be in my heart and on my lips. And if anything happens, you are not to shed a single tear.”

More Gandhi Quotes on Page 2