TOTAL RECALL-NATHURAM GODSE,A INCREDIBLE REVOLUTIONARY -HOMAGE ON HIS 62nd MARTYRDOM DAY(15th NOVEMBER)-By SATYAMITRA
kalash(urn) containing the ashes of Marytr Godse and the last letter,wishing to immersed his ashes in Sindhu river of united India
GODSE’S LAST WISH WAS FOR HIS ASHES TO BE SUBMERGED IN THE INDUS RIVER OF AN UNDIVIDED INDIA,NO MATTER HOW MANY GENERATIONS IT TAKES.THAT URN CONTAINING HIS ASHES STILL STANDS IN PUNE.
Nathuram Godse was a learned man, very sharp and intelligent – editor of “Agrani” (one of the most famous newspaper of that time – with Nana Aapte). In his last editorial of “Agrani” which he changed overnight – he said “Gandhi must be stopped – at any cost” and he justified why Gandhiji’s assassination was not only inevitable but also a delayed action, wish that should have happened LONG AGO.
PROUD PARENT OF MARTYR NATHURAM GODSE
MARTYR GODSE WITH MARTYR NANA APTE
“I am going to assassinate him in the open, before the public, because I am going to do it as my duty. If I do it surreptitiously, it becomes a crime in my own eyes. I will not try to escape, I will surrender and naturally I will be hanged. One assassination, one hanging. I don’t want two executions for one assassination and I don’t want your involvement, participation or company.”
(This was for Nana-Apte and Veer Savarkar as they were against ghandhi’s policies too, Godse wanted to assassinate gandhi all by himself and took promise from Nana Apte that he will continue helping Veer Savarkar in rebuilding India as a strong free nation.)
“On January 30, I reached Birla Bhavan at 12 pm. Gandhi was sitting outside on a cot enjoying the sunshine. Vallabhbhai Patel’s granddaughter was sitting at his feet. I had the revolver with me. I could have assassinated him easily then, but I was convinced that his assassination was to be a punishment and a sentence against him, and I would execute him. I wanted witnesses for the execution but there were none. I did not want to escape after the execution as there was not an iota of guilt in my mind. I wanted to surrender, but surrender to whom? There was a good crowd to collect for the evening prayers. I decided on the evening of January 30 as the date for Gandhi’s execution.Gandhi climbed the steps and came forward. He had kept his hands on the shoulders of the two girls. I wanted just three seconds more. I moved two steps forward and faced Gandhi. Now I wanted to take out the revolver and salute him for whatever sacrifice and service he had made for the nation. One of the two girls was dangerously close to Gandhi and I was afraid that she might be injured in the course of firing. As a precautionary measure I went one more step ahead, bowed before him and gently pushed the girl away from the firing line. The next moment I fired at Gandhi.”
BERETTA 1934 GUN USED BY MARTYR GODSE TO KILL(VADH) EVIL SOUL
Gandhi was very weak, there was a feeble sound like ‘aah’ (There are proof that Gandhi did NOT say “Hey Raam” at that time – it’s just made up stuff ) from him and he fell down.
- v kalyanam
(CHENNAI: Gandhi neither uttered the widely believed “Hey Ram” nor the recently claimed “Ram… Ram” after he was shot from close range by Nathuram Godse, a former aide of the Gandhi claims.The death also came as the final blow to an already “disillusioned Gandhi”, Kalyanam Venkitaraman (85), Gandhiji’s then personal assistant, says.I was standing hardly half-a-metre from him when Nathuram Godse pumped five bullets into Gandhi, with one piercing his body. He fell down immediately and never uttered a word,” he said, recalling those tragic moments.Ironically, the police did not inquire people, including him, who were nearby Gandhi when he was shot.“Somebody claimed he had heard Gandhi uttering Ram… Ram, which was filed in the FIR.. but the truth is that not one word was uttered. For, how can one do so when he is shot at from such a short range?” Venkitaraman, who worked with Gandhi from 1943 till his death in 1948, asked.)
Gandhi-after-Vadh(assassination)
FIR ON GANDHI VADH(ASSASSINATION)
After the firing I raised my hand holding the revolver and shouted, ‘Police, police’. For 30 seconds nobody came forward and I scanned the crowd. I saw a police officer. I signalled to him to come forward and arrest me. He came and caught my wrist, then a second man came and touched the revolver… I let it go…”
MARTYR GODSE
The trial commenced on June 22, 1948, before Mr. Atma Charan, a senior member of the judicial branch of the Indian Civil Service, who was specially appointed for the purpose and invested with powers to give him the requisite jurisdiction. This was necessary because the judge would have to deal with offences committed beyond his normal territorial jurisdiction. The trial was held inside the Red Fort, Delhi, but the court was open to the public and the Press, and the proceedings were extensively reported in all newspapers. The accused persons had full liberty to have the assistance of counsel of their own choice. Eight persons were charged with murder. The examination of the witnesses and the recording of their evidence was concluded on November 6, Out of the men charged, Savarkar was acquitted, two, viz. Nathuram Godse and his friend Apte, were sentenced to death and the remaining five were awarded sentences of imprisonment for life. Four days later appeals were filed in the Punjab High Court on behalf of all seven convicted persons. Godse did not challenge his conviction upon the charge of murder, nor did he question the propriety of the death sentence. His appeal was confined to the finding that there was a conspiracy. He assumed complete and sole responsibility for the death of Mahatma Gandhi, and vehemently denied that anyone else had anything to do with it.(The Murder of the Mahatma by Justice G.D. Khosla (Chatto & Windus, London, 1963)
Nathuram and Gopal Godse were the sons of a village postmaster. Godse had made a study of Bhagwadgita and knew most of its verses by heart. He liked to quote them to justify acts of violence in pursuing a righteous aim. Madan Lal Pahwa, a Punjabi Hindu from Pakpattan (now in Pakistan), had the markings of a firebrand. He saw his father and aunt being massacred by a Muslim mob before he left Pakistan. He tried in vain to secure employment, and his continued failures added to his sense of resentment. In December 1947 he met Apte and Godse, and began organizing demonstrations by groups of refugees against the Government and its apparent lack of sympathy for the Hindu victims of the partition.
DISCOURSE BY GODSE
The highlight of the appeal before us was the discourse delivered by Nathuram Godse in his defence. He spoke for several hours discussing, in the first instance, the facts of the case and then the motives which had prompted him to take Mahatma Gandhi’s life. He had pursued the same line in the long written statement which he had filed in the trial court, and the following passages taken from this statement will give some indication of his opinions and attitudes:
“Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had been intensely proud of Hindudom as a whole. Nevertheless, as I grew up, I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any ‘ism’, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I publicly joined anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus should be treated with equal status as to rights, social and religious, and should be high or low on their merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession.”
Atrocities on Hindus in Naokhali
“In 1946 or thereabout the Muslim atrocities perpetrated on the Hindus under the Government patronage of Suhrawardy in Noakhali, made our blood boil. Our shame and indignation knew no bounds, when we saw that Gandhiji had come forward to shield that very Suhrawardy and began to style him as ‘Sahid-Saheb’ – a Martyr Soul (!) even in his prayer meetings.”
Corpses of Hindus killed -lying-among-pieces-of-wood-in-preparation-for-cremation-after-bloody-rioting-by-muslims-calcutta-kolkata-1946.
CONGRESS GOVERNMENT KILLS THE HINDUS
“Just after that followed the terrible outburst of Muslim fanacticism in the Punjab and other parts of India. The Congress government began to persecute, prosecute and shoot the Hindus themselves who dared to resist the Muslim forces in Bihar, Calcutta, Punjab and other places. Our worst fears seemed to be coming true, and yet how painful and disgraceful it was for us to find that the 15th of August 1947 was celebrated with illuminations and festivities, while the whole of the Punjab was set by the Muslims in flames and Hindu blood ran in rivers. The Hindu Mahasabhaites of my persuasion decided to boycott the festivities and the Congressite Government, and to launch a fighting programme to check Muslim onslaughts.”
- TRIAL COURT
GANDHI’S MUSLIM APPEASEMENT
One hundred and ten million people have been torn from their homes of which not less than four million are Muslims, and when I found that even after such terrible results Gandhiji continued to pursue the same policy of appeasement, my blood boiled and I could not tolerate him any longer. I do not mean to use hard words against Gandhiji personally, nor do I wish to conceal my utter dissent from any disapproval of the very foundation of his policy and methods.
GANDHI’S LAST PRO-MUSLIM FAST
The accumulating provocation of 32 years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last, goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhiji should be brought to an end immediately. On coming back to India he developed a subjective mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on in his own way. Against such an attitude there can be no half-way house; either the Congress had to surrender its will to his, and had to be content with playing the second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him.
GODSE’S SELF ASSESSMENT
Briefly speaking, I thought to myself and foresaw that I shall be totally ruined and the only thing that I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred and that I shall have lost all my honour, even more valuable than my life, if I were to kill Gandhiji. But at the same time I felt that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely be practical, able to retaliate, and would be powerful with armed forces. No doubt, my own future would be totally ruined but the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan. People may even call me and dub me as devoid of any sense or foolish, but the nation would be free to follow the course founded on reason which I consider to be necessary for sound nation-building. After having fully considered the question, I took the final decision in the matter but I did not speak about it to anyone whatsoever. I took courage in both my hands and I did fire the shots at Gandhiji, on 30th January 1948, on the prayer-grounds in Birla House. There now remains hardly anything for me to say. If devotion to one’s country amounts to a sin, I admit I have committed that sin. If it is meritorious, I humbly claim the merit thereof. I fully and confidently believe that if there be any other Court of justice beyond the one founded by the mortals, my act will not be taken as unjust. If after death there be no such place to reach or to go to, there is nothing to be said. I have resorted to the action I did purely for the benefit of the humanity. Do say that my shots were fired at the person whose policy and action had brought rack (sic) and ruin and destruction to lacs of Hindus.
May the country properly known as Hindustan be again united and be one, and may the people be taught to discard the defeatist mentality leading them to submit to the aggressors. This is my last wish and prayer to the Almighty. My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism leveled against it on all sides. I have no doubt honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof on some day in future”.
His main theme, however, was the nature of a righteous man’s duty, his dharma as laid down in the Hindu scriptures. He made moving references to historical events and delivered an impassioned appeal to Hindus to hold and preserve their motherland and fight for it with their very lives. He ended his peroration on a high note of emotion,recitingverses from Bhagwadgita
.
The audience was visibly and audibly moved. There was a deep silence when he ceased speaking. Many women were in tears and men were coughing and searching for their handkerchiefs. The silence was accentuated and made deeper by the sound of an occasional subdued sniff or a muffled cough. It seemed to me that I was taking part in some kind of melodrama or in a scene out of a Holywood feature film. I have, however, no doubt that had the audience of that day been constituted into a jury and entrusted with the task of deciding Godse’s appeal, they would have brought in a verdict of ‘not guilty’ by an overwhelming majority.
LAST MOMENTS-THE 15TH NOVEMBER,1949-MARTYRDOM DAY
Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte were executed in Ambala jail at 8 A. M. on Tuesday, November 15, 1949 i.e. after twenty one and a half months of the shooting incident. Several versions, some of them quite distorted, have been put out and published about their conduct. The writer along with Karkare and Madanlal was with the condemned prisoners till twenty minutes before the execution. Both of them looked composed, steady and with their wits about them. They did not seem to need any special efforts to maintain that composure. Their faces looked calm and peaceful. They talked and chitchatted. They talked among themselves, with the Jail staff, and with us.We had tea and coffee. When the tray of coffee was brought by the Sepoy, Nathuram just looked at the Superintendent Shri Arjun Das who was standing by, and smiled.Shri Arjun Das was not in mood to smile back.He was going to kill both these condemned convicts a few minutes later. He took it to be a misfortune for him.
He had developed friendship with the two. He sat and talked with them for hours. He had political understanding of the events. He knew the feelings of national integrity of the two. Otherwise, he thought, why should these persons from Maharashtra get upset when Punjab, a province over a thousand miles away, war torn? Why should they feel sorry for the persons uprooted there and plunge themselves into fire ?
The Superintendent had seen bloodshed in the wake of India’s freedom. He cursed the hypocrites who uttered now and then of having got independence without shedding a drop of blood ! On whose account is this bloodshed of Punjab to be debited? He thought.
The Superintendent was going to add to the bloodshed in cold blood !
We saw the Superintendent push back his tears behind his sighs. How could he smile back at Nathuram ?
Yet he felt, it might be the last with of the condemned convict. Why not please him ? He, forced a smile on his face and looked inquisitively at Nathuram.
“Do you remember, Shreemanji,” said Nathuram. “I had told you once, `I don’t mind the gallows, but I must have a cup of coffee before the swing’! That cup is here I Thank you very much !”
Shri Arjun Das did not sob !
Nathuram then turned to the Doctor. He said, “Dr. Chhabda, I have left your book with Shri Trilok Singh, Assistant Superintendent, with my autograph on it. I hope you don’t need any more signatures !”
Nathuram talked with the same ease with which he had talked to his maternal uncle the previous day. He had said, “Mama, I have arranged for the. return of your thousand rupees.”
Narayan Apte reminded the Superintendent of the dispatch of his thesis. Apte had written during the last ten days a thesis on the Administration set-up.’
The superintendent had sent it to Government. But Government has not, so far, passed it on either to Apte’s wife or to his brothers.
The Magistrate of the District, Shri Narottam Sahgal who was present there ascertained if the two had a passport to the unknown and if so whether it was valid.
The two started for their journey beyond life. They had carried with them in their hands the Bhagwat Geeta, a map of undivided Hindustan and a Saffron flag.
The platform wins situated behind the condemned yard.’ The beam could accommodate three at a time.
On the way, Apte seemed enjoying the morning sun in the midst ‘ of winter. He had experienced it after a long lapse.
He exclaimed, “What is pleasant sun shine Pandit !” He used to call Nathuram `Pandit’ on occasions.
Nathuram said, “You are seeing it after a long time. In Simla it is usual.”
“indeed it is heavenly:”
“Bestowed on us by our Motherland at this heavenly juncture !” endorsed Nathuram.
On reaching the platform they recited a verse of devotion to the Motherland.
Obeisance to thee ever, O Sacred Mother ! In the lap of Hindu Land have I been nurtured by thee in happiness.
Greatly auspicious, Oh Sacred land,
For thy sake I lay down my life!
Obeisance to thee. Obeisance to thee.
Their hands were tied at the back. The hangman put the noose around their necks and left the surplus rope on their shoulders. He also tied tied together with a cord the toes of each.
Nathuram and Narayan shouted slogans which reverberated over the radius of a hundred feet in the silent atmosphere around.
`Akhand Bharat Amar Rahe !’
`Vande Mataram.’
The Superintendent gave the green signal to the hangman. The hangman in turn Pulled the lever. The bridge grove way.
Nature embraced the two in gravitation and gave their souls a lift in her invisible chariot to the unknown.
The operation was over with the drop of the rope but without any drop of blood .
Nathuram’s death was instantaneous. Narayan’s knees once tried to reach his chin. He shook in that unconscious state for a couple of minutes and then life was completely extinct.
The Assistant Superintendent Shri Ram Nath Sharma performed the last rites before the bodies were cremated.
The articles carried by the two in their hands were passed on to the writer.
The cremation was carried out within the Jail.
“If devotion to one’s country amounts to a sin, I admit I have committed that sin. If it is meritorious, I humbly claim the merit thereof. I fully and confidently believe that if there be any other court of justice beyond the one founded by the mortals, my act will not be taken as unjust. If after the death there be no such place to reach or to go, there is nothing to be said. I have resorted to the action I did purely for the benefit of the humanity. I do say that my shots were fired .”
- -MARTYR PANDIT NATHU RAM GODSE
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