Godse is often a misunderstood

character. He is referred to as a Hindu

fanatic. It is often hard to understand
Godse because the Government of India
had suppressed information about him.
His court statements, letters etc. were
all banned from the public until recently.
Judging from his writings one thing
becomes very clear - He was no fanatic.
His court statements are very well read
out and indicate a calm and collected
mental disposition. He never even once
speaks ill about Gandhi as a person, but
only attacks Gandhi’s policies which
caused ruin and untold misery to Hindus.
Another interesting point to note is that
Godse had been working with the Hindu
refugees fleeing from Pakistan. He had
seen the horrible atrocities committed
on them. Many women had their hands
cut off, nose cut off, even little girls had
been raped mercilessly. Despite this
Godse did not harm even single Muslim
in India which he could easily have. So it
would be a grave mistake to call him a
Hindu fanatic.
Let us start by studying the motive
behind Godse’s act. By seeing the nature
of the assassination in public space and
Godse’s act of turning himself over to
the Police, we can see that Godse did
not do this for personal reasons. He very
well knew that he would be hanged and
his name would be disgraced as Gandhi
was considered a saint. And again Godse
could have ran away and escaped
punishment. But he did the reverse. He
called a police officer and courted arrest.
Before we proceed it would be wise to
understand the backdrop of the
assassination.
The central government had taken a
decision — Pakistan will not be given Rs
55 crores. On January 13 Gandhi started
a fast unto death that Pakistan must be
given the money. On January 13, the
central government changed its earlier
decision and announced that Pakistan
would be given the amount. On January
13, Nathuram decided to assassinate
Gandhi.
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, sth tht
shud’ve happened LONG AGO.
In Nathuram’s words - “ I don’t refute
Gandhi’s theory of non-violence. He may
be a saint but he is not a politician. His
theory of non-violence denies self-
defence and self-interest. The non-
violence that defines the fight for
survival as violence is a theory not of
non-violence but of self-destruction.The
division of the nation was an
unnecessary decision. What was the
percentage of the Muslim population as
compared to the population of the
nation? There was no need for a
separate nation. Had it been a just
demand, Maulana Azad would not have
stayed back in India. But because Jinnah
insisted and because Gandhi took his
side, India was divided, in spite of
opposition from the nation, the Cabinet.
An individual is never greater than a
nation.
In a democracy you cannot put forward
your demands at knife-point. Jinnah did
it and Gandhi stabbed the nation with
the same knife. He dissected the land
and gave a piece to Pakistan. We did
picket that time but in vain. The Father
of our Nation went to perform his
paternal duties for Pakistan! Gandhi
blackmailed the cabinet with his fast
unto death. His body, his threats to die
are causing the destruction —
geographical as well as economical — of
the nation. Today, Muslims have taken a
part of the nation, tomorrow Sikhs may
ask for Punjab. The religions are again
dividend into castes, they will demand
sub-divisions of the divisions. What
remains of the concept of one nation,
national integration? Why did we fight
the British in unison for independence?
Why not separately? Bhagat Singh did
not ask only for an independent Punjab
or Subhash Chandra Bose for an
independent Bengal?
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. 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.
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…”
Forgotten Heros: [Veer Savarkar, Lala
lajpatrai, Subhashchandra Bose,
Bhagatsingh, Rajguru, Tansirani, Shivaji,
Rana Pratap and thousands of other
freedom fighters]
Dirty politicians will only teach us only
about gandhi and one sided ahimsa.