Gandhi’s Assassination - Godse and

RSS Connection
An E-Digest

Compiled by Ram Puniyani

(For Private Circulation)

Center for Study of Society and Secularism

602 & 603, New Silver Star, Behind BEST Bus Depot, Santacruz (E), Mumbai: - 400 055.
E-mail: csss2work@gmail.com, www.csss-isla.com
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Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
 Contents
Page No.

Preface 03

1. RSS and Gandhi Murder 04

by A.G. Noorani

(Table: Sardar Patel’s Correspondence)

2. RSS and the Gandhi Murder 15

by Badri Raina

3. No discussion on who killed Mahatma Gandhi is complete without addressing

idea of a Hindu Rashtra 18
by Teesta Setalvad

4. Who Killed Gandhi? 22

by Tushar A Gandhi

5. RSS & Murder of Mahatma Gandhi: What do contemporary documents tell? 24

by Shamsul Islam

6. The First Terrorist of Independent India 25

by Subhash Gatade

7. Gandhi Murder and Role RSS: Debate Continues 32

by Ram Puniyani

8. Gandhi, RSS and Godse 34

by L.S. Hardenia

Book Review

9. Preserving the truth behind Gandhi’s Murder 39

by Hari Narayan

10. Savarkar and Hindutva 41

by A.G. Noorani

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Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
 Preface
Murder of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi was also the first major attack of Hindu
nationalism on Indian Nationalism. The murderer of Gandhi, Godse was deeply
steeped in the ideology of Hindu nationalism, he grew up in RSS and later also
started working for Hindu Mahasabha. In a way he was a unique blend of both the
streams of Hindu Nationalism, Hindu Mahasabha and RSS.

The Hindu nationalist RSS has always claimed that they have nothing to do with
Godse etc. to hide Godse’s association with RSS. In response to Rahul Gandhi’s
statement about Godse and RSS, RSS people have filed cases against Rahul Gandhi
bringing to fore the debate about Gandhi murder, Godse and his connection with
RSS.

This small compilation in the form of E Digest has picked up few pertinent articles
on this theme to apprise activists and those interested in knowing the truth behind
the same.

I am grateful to authors whose articles have been reproduced here.

Ram Puniyani
Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
Mumbai

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Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
 1. RSS & Gandhi’s murder
By A.G. Noorani

There is enough historical evidence to nail the RSS’ lie that Nathuram Godse was not a
member of that organisation when he assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 1948.

On Saturday, September 10, I was invited to lunch
at a dear friend’s home. Present were his sister
and brother-in-law. On seeing me she told me, in
disbelief and mild shock, that some flunkey of the
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) had claimed
on the TV that I had apologised for asserting that
the RSS had killed Gandhi. I was, momentarily,
taken aback. I had never tendered any apology to
this disreputable and utterly despicable body,
orally or in writing. Indeed, no person of any
intelligence would make such an assertion either,
however deep his loathing for the RSS—like this
writer’s. The reason is simple. Whether it is a
registered society or a company, it is still an
organisation and acts, necessarily, through its
members or officials.
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
To deny that the RSS killed Gandhi is, therefore,
to raise an Aunt Sully for the sheer pleasure of
knocking her down. No one alleges that any such
resolution was passed by the RSS’ Kendriya
Karyakari Mandal at a meeting in its cavern in
Nagpur, or that Godse had acted on its behalf.
What is alleged is that he was a member of the
RSS and shared its ideas. What is relevant is that
he fully shared his organisation’s outlook on hate
and violence and this is what drove him to
commit that ghastly crime. The RSS cannot
escape blame, as Vallabhbhai Patel pointed out to
Syama Prasad Mookerjee. An organisation whose
member commits a crime incurs odium. What
could be the fons et origo, the origin, of the
slander? My mind went back to an unfortunate
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episode 15 years ago when I wrote a weekly
column from 1992 to 2000 for The Statesman,
which was edited by a dear friend, Cushrow R.
Irani, who had bravely stood up to Indira Gandhi’s
authoritarian regime during the Emergency. He
was generous; be it in regard to space or content.
Sadly, around 2000, our friendship came under a
strain. We disagreed on a couple of things;
especially on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). We
communicated less. I agreed to go to Kolkata to
participate in a debate held under the auspices of
the paper, on September 16, 2000, only in order
to clear the air over my writings on Kashmir. He
politely brushed aside my anxieties on the
growing differences. The RSS had filed a case of
defamation in New Delhi in respect of an article I
had written; rather, in respect of a cartoon that
was published as an illustration [to the article].
Irani referred to the RSS’ case defiantly in his
speech on that occasion in the presence of
Sushma Swaraj and a friend, Salman Haidar. His
resolve to fight it out was impressive.
It was most unfortunate that my effort at a
candid talk did not succeed. In the last week of
December that year, I received a letter from him
informing me that my review of a book on
Kashmir would not be published and in future I
should contribute reviews only of books that
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
were sent to me and of none other. In all those
nearly nine years I had freely reviewed books
which publishers had sent to me directly,
including foreign publishers. I was hurt and
offended and wrote back instantly to say that I
would not be writing for The Statesman after all.
It was a hasty and ungracious response. Irani was
naturally most offended and hurt, too;
quite rightly so. The friendship suffered.
I mention this personal episode,
unusually, because it has a bearing on the
case that was filed and its conclusion. To
begin with, I was roped in despite the
fact that there was not a word in my
article on Gandhi’s murder, let alone the
RSS’ responsibility for that crime. There
are fortunately two documents of
unimpeachable credibility on the two
crucial points, namely, my article and
Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse’s
membership of the RSS.
The first is a letter by one Suresh Bajpayee,
secretary, RSS, which was published in The
Statesman as early as on January 25, 2000, almost
exactly a year before I was obliged to appear
before a magistrate in one of the Tis Hazari Courts
in New Delhi. It read thus: “We have seen with
pain and anguish the cartoon published on the
editorial page of your paper in the issue of 15-16
January along with the article ‘RSS and Services-
II’. It shows a person wearing shorts, white shirt
with folded sleeves and wearing a cap firing from
a pistol on Mahatma Gandhi. On the back of the
assassin have been written the words ‘RSS’. The
Mahatma is seen fallen on the ground with blood
flowing from his chest. The author of this cartoon
is some Debabrata. Thus, the cartoon clearly tells
the reader that it was the RSS organisation which
murdered Mahatma Gandhi. We are sure that
you are aware of the basic facts of the matter
which are contrary to what has been shown in the
cartoon.” The next nine long paragraphs were
devoted to establishing the RSS’ innocence.
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Three features deserve note. First, there was no
reference to me at all or even a mention of the
writer of the article. Secondly, the subject of the
article was not Gandhi’s murder but the ban on
the recruitment of members of the RSS, besides
those of bodies like the Jamaat-e-Islami, to public
services. The Gujarat government headed by
Narendra Modi sought to lift the ban with the
encouragement of his then patron L.K. Advani,
Union Home Minister. Lastly, the entire grievance
ventilated in this letter was in respect of the
cartoon alone. The cartoonist’s name was
mentioned.
What, then, was I supposed to apologise for? A
statement I had not made? Yet, some months
later, a criminal complaint was filed against Irani,
as Editor, Printer, and Publisher, the cartoonist
and, incredibly, against me, as the writer of the
article.
When the case first came up for hearing in
January 2001, I was under handicaps more than
one. My relations with Irani, though not severed,
were strained. I did not know a single member of
the Bar practising in those courts and I would be
obliged repeatedly to fly from Mumbai to New
Delhi at my own expense. Since Irani, judging by
his speech on September 16, 2000, seemed set on
fighting out the case, I readily accepted his offer
of joint appearance through an advocate of his
choice. I was obliged to go to Delhi once to seek
exemption from personal appearance, which the
court readily granted. To ask for a discharge on
the ground that no offence was disclosed against
me at all was to break ranks and incur
unpleasantness. Especially since Irani was
committed to fighting out the case.
Queries about the progress of the case later
elicited vague answers in reassurance and, finally,
the information that it was all over, hinting at a
settlement. My requests for its terms were
ignored. To this day I do not know what those
terms were and whether the advocate who
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
represented us all was instructed to apologise for
all of us orally in court or whether there was a
written apology agreed to by Irani; if so, it was
not shown to me, nor, of course, the terms of the
statement in court. If it was an apology, my
consent and approval were not sought at all. I
was not party to any settlement that might have
been reached between C.R. Irani and the RSS. He
never mentioned any apology.
I could not possibly have concurred in any
apology. Only a few days earlier, my book The RSS
and the BJP had been launched; on December 6,
2000, by Jyoti Basu in New Delhi. It had a whole
chapter (4) on “The RSS and Gandhi”. It was
published by LeftWord. In 2002, after the case got
over in 2001, LeftWord published my book
Savarkar and Hindutva: The Godse Connection. Its
chapter 5, on Gandhi’s murder, sets out the entire
evidence on Nathuram Godse and Vinayak
Damodar Savarkar, the RSS and BJP’s ideologue,
and refutes the claim that Godse had left the RSS.
Since then, I have missed no opportunity to nail
the Sangh Parivar’s lies; to cite a few: 1. On
September 28, 2005, in Chennai, I spoke at the
Asian College of Journalism on Savarkar’s
complicity. The discussion was moderated by N.
Ram, then Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu. 2. In an
article in Hindustan Times of March 4, 2003, I
reverted at length to the theme of attacking the
decision to put up Savarkar’s portrait in
Parliament House opposite that of Gandhi. 3. In
an article in The Hindu of January 30, 2013,
entitled “How Savarkar escaped the gallows”, I
dealt at length with his culpability for the crime.
Thus, for over a decade and a half, I have
consistently, unflinchingly written on the nexus
between Savarkar and Godse and also Godse’s
membership and loyalty to the RSS without
anyone in its media wing challenging my
credentials. I shall continue to do so as long as I
am alive.
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Gopal Godse’s testimony
This brings me to the second document. It is an
interview given by the assassin Nathuram Godse’s
brother, Gopal Godse, also an accused in the
case, to Arvind Rajagopal. It was with reference to
the BJP president L.K. Advani’s statement on
November 21, 1993, that Godse was “a bitter
critic” of the RSS and “we have had nothing to do
with Godse” (The Times of India, November 22,
1993).
This is what his brother Gopal Godse had to say of
Advani and of Nathuram’s membership of the
RSS. The questions and answers are set out:
“Q. Were you a part of the RSS?
A. All the brothers were in the RSS. Nathuram,
Dattatreya, myself and Govind. You can say we
grew up in the RSS rather than in our homes. It
was like a family to us.
Q. Nathuram stayed in the RSS? He did not leave
it?
A. Nathuram had become a baudhik karyavah
(intellectual worker) in the RSS. He said in his
statement that he left the RSS. He said it because
Golwalkar and the RSS were in a lot of trouble
after the murder of Gandhi. But he did not leave
the RSS.
Q. Advani has recently said that Nathuram had
nothing to do with RSS.
A. I have countered him, saying it is cowardice to
say that. You can say that RSS did not pass a
resolution, saying that, ‘go and assassinate
Gandhi.’ But you do not disown him [Nathuram].
The Hindu Mahasabha did not disown him. In
1944 Nathuram started doing Hindu Mahasabha
work when he had been a baudhik karyavah in
the RSS” (Frontline, January 28, 1994).
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
Let me now proceed to revert to the entire
subject “with added enthusiasm” and nail the
RSS’ lies to the counter. The evidence may be
considered under five heads—the RSS’ addiction
to hate, laced with venom; its use of violence; the
relationship between the Hindu Mahasabha, led
by V.D. Savarkar, and the RSS, and, relatedly,
between Godse and Savarkar, coupled with his
membership of the RSS; the BJP; and lastly, the
exposures at the Gandhi murder trial.
1. Dislike is not uncommon among political
adversaries; hatred is rare. The RSS’ hatred is
laced with venom. Its supremo M.S. Golwalkar’s
book Bunch of Thoughts (1966) reeks of
venomous hate towards Muslims, Christians, and
Communists (Chapter 12); and towards Gandhi:
“Those who declared ‘No swaraj without Hindu-
Muslim unity’ have thus perpetrated the greatest
treason on our society. They have committed the
most heinous sin of killing the life-spirit of a great
and ancient people. To preach impotency to a
society which gave rise to a Shivaji who, in the
words of the great historian Jadunath Sarkar,
‘proved to the whole world that the Hindu has
drunk the elixir of immortality’, and to break the
self-confident and proud spirit of such a great and
virile society has no parallel in the history of the
world for sheer magnitude of its betrayal.…
“This leadership only came as a bitter climax of
the despicable tribe of so many of our ancestors
who during the past twelve hundred years sold
their national honour and freedom to foreigners,
and joined hands with the inveterate enemies of
our country and our religion in cutting the throats
of their own kith and kin to gratify their personal
egoism, selfishness and rivalry. No wonder
nemesis overtook such a people in the form of
such a self-destructive leadership.” The reference
to “nemesis” is significant.
Savarkar shared this poison. On May 14, 1944, he
said: “The Hindu Sangathanists should not
contribute a single pie to the Congressite
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Kasturba (Gandhi) Fund (Historic Statements,
page 109).
Conspiracy and the hunt for Golwalkar
2. Violence. Rajeshwar Dayal, who became
Foreign Secretary, was Chief Secretary of Uttar
Pradesh in 1947. He testified: “I must record an
episode of a very grave nature when the
procrastination and indecision of the U.P. Cabinet
led to dire consequences. When communal
tension was still at fever-pitch, the Deputy
Inspector-General of Police of the Western Range,
a very seasoned and capable officer, B.B.L. Jaitley,
arrived at my house in great secrecy. He was
accompanied by two of his officers who brought
with them two large steel trunks securely locked.
When the trunks were opened, they revealed
incontrovertible evidence of a dastardly
conspiracy to create a communal holocaust
throughout the western districts of the province.
The trunks were crammed with blueprints of
great accuracy and professionalism of every town
and village in the vast area, prominently marking
out the Muslim localities and habitations. There
were also detailed instructions regarding access
to the various locations, and other matters which
amply revealed their sinister purport.
“Greatly alarmed by those revelations, I
immediately took the police party to the
Premier’s house (G.B. Pant). There, in a closed
room, Jaitley gave a full report of his discovery,
backed by all the evidence contained in the steel
trunks. Timely raids conducted on the premises of
the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) had
brought the massive conspiracy to light. The
whole plot had been concerted under the
direction and supervision of the Supremo of the
organisation himself. Both Jaitley and I pressed
for the immediate arrest of the prime accused,
Shri Golwalkar, who was still in the area.
“Pantji could not but accept the evidence of his
eyes and ears and expressed deep concern. But
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
instead of agreeing to the immediate arrest of the
ring leader as we had hoped, and as Kidwai would
have done, he asked for the matter to be placed
for consideration by Cabinet at its next meeting.
It was no doubt a matter of political delicacy as
the roots of the RSS had gone deep into the body
politic. There were also other political
compulsions as RSS sympathisers, both covert
and overt, were to be found in the Congress party
itself and even in the Cabinet. It was no secret
that the presiding officer of the Upper House,
Atma Govind Kher, was himself an adherent and
his sons were openly members of the RSS.…
“Golwalkar, however, had been tipped off and he
was nowhere to be found in the area. He was
tracked down southwards but he managed to
elude the couriers in pursuit. This in fructuous
chase continued from place to place and weeks
passed. Came January 30, 1948, when the
Mahatma, that supreme apostle of peace, fell to a
bullet fired by an RSS fanatic. The whole tragic
episode left me sick at heart” (A Life of our Times,
1998, pages 93-94; emphasis added).
The Home Minister, Vallabhbhai Patel, wrote to
the Mahasabhaite in the Cabinet, Syama Prasad
Mookerjee, who founded the Jan Sangh in 1951,
in these terms: “As regards the RSS and the Hindu
Mahasabha, the case relating to Gandhiji’s
murder is sub judice and I should not like to say
anything about the participation of the two
organisations, but our reports do confirm that, as
a result of the activities of these two bodies,
particularly the former (i.e. the RSS), an
atmosphere was created in the country in which
such a ghastly tragedy became possible. There is
no doubt in my mind that the extreme section of
the Hindu Mahasabha was involved in this
conspiracy. The activities of the RSS constituted a
clear threat to the existence of Government and
the State. Our reports show that those activities,
despite the ban, have not died down. Indeed, as
time has marched on, the RSS circles are
becoming more defiant and are indulging in their
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subversive activities in an increasing measure”
(Sardar Patel’s Correspondence, Volume 6, page
323). Thus, the RSS created the atmosphere Patel
described in which the crime was committed.
3. Nathuram Godse as member of the RSS. His
brother Gopal Godse’s testimony is conclusive. As
for the Mahasabha, Nathuram Godse was
besotted with Savarkar. Larry Collins and
Dominique Lapierre’s book Freedom at Midnight
was based on police records. They record that he
took to “a new kind of secular shrine, the
headquarters of the RSS” (page 365). The RSS and
the Mahasabha had at times lovers’ quarrels. In
September 1932, the Mahasabha said that it
“appreciates the efforts of Dr. Hedgewar for
starting a strong organisation of Hindus named
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Central
Provinces and Berar (whose capital was Nagpur)
and other places and recommends that its
branches be established in all Provinces so that it
may be an Akhil Bharatiya Organisation” (History
of the Hindu Mahasabha, page 199; an appendix
has a laudatory note on the RSS on page 425).
In a letter to Savarkar, Nathuram Godse wrote: “It
is a fact generally accepted that if there is to be a
Hindu Sangathan not only in Maharashtra but in
the whole of India, it would be systematically
brought about by one, and the only powerful
institution, that is the RSS” (K.L. Gauba,
Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, 1969, pages
83-84; the letter was an exhibit in the trial. The
book is based on the trial records).
4. The BJP’s rejection of Gandhi. For some time,
the BJP echoed its predecessor, the Jana Sangh,
and their mentor, the RSS’ disdain for Gandhi. In
the mid-1990s, when the capture of power at the
Centre was in sight, it did a volte face. On October
5, 1997, the RSS mouthpiece Organiser published
an advertisement by a Delhi publisher for six
“Readable Attractive New Books”; two of them
were by Gopal Godse: Qutab Minar is Vishnu
Dhwaja and Gandhiji’s Murder and After. The
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
third book advertised was May it Please Your
Honour, the assassin’s statement in court.
Another was by the judge who ordered the locks
of the gates to the Babri Masjid opened on
February 1, 1986, in flagrant breach of the law.
Organiser is hardly likely to accept
advertisements for books critical of the RSS.
Two decades after the assassination, on January
11, 1970, Organiser, then edited by K.R. Malkani,
could remember Gandhi only in these terms in its
editorial: “It was in support of Nehru’s pro-
Pakistan stand that Gandhiji went on fast and, in
the process, turned the people’s wrath on
himself.” So, Nathuram Godse represented “the
people”, and the murder he perpetrated was an
expression of “the people’s wrath”. In 1961, Deen
Dayal Upadhyaya said: “With all respect for
Gandhiji, let us cease to call him ‘Father of the
Nation’. If we understand the old basis of
nationalism, then it will be clear that it is nothing
but Hinduism.”
The Times of India editorially noted on October
17, 1989: “Mr. Advani, while holding forth on
‘Bharat Mata’, now goes so far as to deny that
Mahatma Gandhi was the Father of the Nation.”
None should be surprised at a photograph
showing the RSS supremo, M.S. Golwalkar,
sharing, in Pune in 1952, a platform with V.D.
Savarkar, who had narrowly escaped conviction in
the Gandhi murder case.
In a complete volte face, Sushma Swaraj, the BJP’s
general secretary belatedly declared on October
17, 1997: “Mahatma Gandhi is not the monopoly
of the Congress Party.” There was a spate of false
claims of loyalty to the Mahatma, which I exposed
in detail in my book The RSS and The BJP (pages
81-83).
A lawyer’s letter
5. At the trial. Godse did his best to deny
proximity to Savarkar to protect him while
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Savarkar virtually disowned him. An able
advocate, P.L. Inamdar, himself a devotee of
Savarkar, secured the acquittal of his client, D.S.
Parchure. His book reveals his disenchantment
with Savarkar as well as his surprise at Savarkar’s
acquittal for reasons he does not conceal from
the reader (The Story of the Red Fort Trial 1948-
49, Popular Prakashan, 1979, pages 141, 143 and
147). I quote it in extenso as it sheds light on
Savarkar’s character and his “innocence”. The
book has received little notice.
Inamdar writes:
“During the whole of the trial, I never saw
Savarkar turning his head towards even
Nathuram, who used to sit by him, in fact next to
him, much less speak with him. While the other
accused freely talked to each other exchanging
notes or banter, Savarkar sat there sphinx-like in
silence, completely ignoring his co-accused in the
dock, in an unerringly disciplined manner. He did
not talk to me in court during the whole of the
trial except once. He had, I thought, perhaps
resolved to act in court, his defense against the
charge of conspiracy with Nathuram or with any
one of the accused and, in fact, to perform his
role demonstratively, even with respect to the
counsels of the other accused!
“During the various talks I had with Nathuram, he
told me that he was deeply hurt by this—
Tatyarao’s [Savarkar’s] calculated, demonstrative
non-association with him either in court or in the
Red Fort jail during all the days of the Red Fort
trial. How Nathuram yearned for a touch of
Tatyarao’s hand, a word of sympathy, or at least a
look of compassion in the secluded confines of
the cells! Nathuram referred to his hurt feelings
in this regard even during my last meeting with
him at the Simla High Court!....
“Savarkar had prepared a written statement in
defense of his case replete with appendices of
newspaper cuttings and he read out the
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
statement in the court with all the gimmicks of an
orator bemoaning his fate of being charged with
the murder of Mahatmaji by the independent
Indian Government, when he had admired and
eulogised the personality of the Mahatmaji so
sincerely and so often. Savarkar actually wiped his
cheeks in court while reading this part of his
oration….
“Savarkar claimed that he was wholly innocent of
the crime! I am alive to the stage of his career at
which Savarkar then was. But believe me,
Savarkar was very nervous and was getting more
and more agitated as the trial progressed. In the
second week of September 1948, I received word
from our senior, Bhopatkar, to say that Savarkar
wanted to see me and that he had sought the
permission of the court, allowing me to visit the
jail for that purpose. I was a little surprised and
moreover nervous to have to tread on the path of
my seniors, but my vanity took over and I
consented to go to the jail and see Savarkar. I saw
Savarkar on or about the second Saturday in
September 1948 in the Red Fort jail. …After a few
words of explanation as to why he had called me,
and warding off my humble protest for being
called upon to interfere in the work of my seniors,
he said, ‘I have very much liked your terse and
correct expression. …I want your opinion and
assistance. I hope you do not mind.’
“‘Oh! It will be my proud privilege,’ I said, and we
proceeded to discuss the case against him in
particular and also in general. I found him well
posted with the details of the case against him;
they were very few. He talked about them in
thoroughly learned and elaborate legal jargon
using such expressions as hearsay evidence of the
first degree, second degree, etc. All that I had to
do was, either express my approval of the line of
argument, or suggest a few variations, which he
made a note of. He repeatedly asked me if he
would be acquitted and wanted me to assure him
sincerely. What I noted was that he did not ask
me a single question about the case against my
Page | 10
clients, Dr. Parchure and Gopal Godse or about
any of the other accused including Nathuram, nor
any question about me personally. I spent nearly
three hours with him.…
“I do not remember even today, when and how
Judge Atma Charan read out the operative
portion of the order of acquittal of Savarkar! All I
remember even today is that I had tried to look
hard at Atma Charan, asking myself if he was the
same Atma Charan who had one day said to me:
‘Believe me, I shall do full justice to the case
which you have so ably put up!’ I angrily told
myself, ‘Yes, this is Atma Charan’s answer to the
last paragraph of the summing up of the case!’”
Disbelief, even anger, at Savarkar’s acquittal is as
apparent as it is justified. Inamdar knew a lot.
Inamdar, himself a committed Mahasabhaite
ideologically, knew the truth. He had no
hesitation in asserting that “Nathuram was a
staunch RSS man” (page 25). He writes of “the
avowed RSS leaders from Poona, Nathuram
Godse and Apte” (page 108). This reference was
part of his argument at the trial. He knew how
very close Nathuram Godse was to Savarkar. Such
a major operation would not have, however,
been undertaken without the supremo’s
blessings.
Approver Badge’s version
The sole witness against Savarkar was Digambar
Badge, who had turned approver. On January 14,
1948, moments after they met that day in
Bombay, Apte, Godse and Badge went to Savarkar
Sadan. “Apte asked me to wait outside. Apte and
Godse went inside. They came back 5-10 minutes
later. Apte asked me if I was prepared to go with
them to Delhi. I asked him as to what was the
work at Delhi. Apte told me that Tatyarao had
decided that Gandhiji, Jawahar Lal Nehru and
Suhrawardy should be ‘finished’ and had
entrusted that work to them. He further told me
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
that for that purpose I should accompany them to
Delhi.” Badge returned to Bombay on January 17
and met Godse and Apte.
“We got down from the taxi, and walked down to
the house of Savarkar. Shankar was asked to wait
outside the compound of Savarkar Sadan. Apte,
Godse and I entered the compound of that house.
Apte asked me to wait in the room on the ground
floor. Nathuram Godse and Apte then went up.
They came down after 5-10 minutes. Godse and
Apte as they came down the stairs were followed
immediately by Tatyarao. Tatyarao said be
successful and come. The exact words used were
‘Yashasvi houn ya’. Tatyarao had addressed these
words to Apte and Godse. We four then got into
the taxi and proceeded towards the Ruia College.
Apte said in the taxi that Tatyarao had predicted
that Gandhiji’s hundred years were over. Apte
further said that there was no doubt that our
work would be successfully finished. The exact
words used were ‘Tatyaravani ase bhavishya kale
ahew ki Gandhijichi sambhar varshe bharali—ata
apale kam nishchita honor yat kahi sanshya
nahi.’”
The judge noted: “The examination and the cross-
examination of the approver went on from
20.7.1948 till 30.7.1948. He was cross-examined
for nearly seven days. There was thus an ample
opportunity to observe his demeanour and the
manner of his giving evidence. He gave his version
of the facts in a direct and straightforward
manner. He did not evade cross-examination or
attempt to evade or fence with any question. It
would not have been possible for anyone to have
given evidence so unfalteringly stretching over
such a long period and with such particularity in
regard to the facts which had never taken place.
It is difficult to conceive of anyone memorising so
long and so detailed a story if altogether without
foundation.”
Badge was accepted as a truthful witness. But the
law required that an approver’s evidence must be
Page | 11
independently corroborated. He was the sole
witness. That corroboration came later before a
former judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Jivan
Lal Kapoor, in 1966 when a Commission of Inquiry
was constituted and he was asked to inquire into
all the aspects of the conspiracy. Two aides of
Savarkar deposed before him—Appa Ramchandra
Kasar, his bodyguard, and Gajanan Vishnu Damle,
his secretary. Both confirmed Badge’s account of
Savarkar’s meetings with Godse and Apte.
Justice Kapur observed: “The statements of both
these witnesses show that both Apte and Godse
were frequent visitors of Savarkar at Bombay and
at conferences and at every meeting they are
shown to have been with Savarkar. …All this
shows that people who were subsequently
involved in the murder of Mahatma Gandhi were
all congregating sometime or the other at
Savarkar Sadan and sometimes had long
interviews with Savarkar…. Apte and Godse
visited him both before the bomb was thrown
and also before the murder was committed and
on each occasion they had long interviews.”
Had they but testified in court, Savarkar would
have been convicted. There was none of the
ambiguity surrounding Godse and Apte’s visits to
Savarkar on January 14 and 17, 1948. Appa
Ramchandra Kasar told the Kapur Commission
that they visited him also on or about January 23
or 24 when they returned from Delhi after the
bomb incident. Gajanan Vishnu Damle deposed
that Godse and Apte saw Savarkar “in the middle
of January and sat with him [Savarkar] in his
garden”.
Justice Kapur concluded: “All these facts taken
together were destructive of any theory other
than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and
his group”.
Justice Kapur found that “many RSS members
were members of the Hindu Mahasabha”. One of
his conclusions: “(4)(a) The RSS was the best
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
organised and militant Hindu organisation in India
and although it was not affiliated to the Hindu
Mahasabha, its prominent organisers and
workers were members of the Hindu Mahasabha
ideology.”
Behind the ban on RSS
Why was the RSS banned if it was pure as driven
snow —and banned by Patel? The reasons were
set out in a communiqué on February 4, 1948,
soon after Gandhi’s assassination on January 30.
It said: “Undesirable and even dangerous
activities have been carried on by members of the
Sangh. It has been found that in several parts of
the country individual members of Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh have indulged in acts of
violence involving arson, robbery, dacoity, and
murder and have collected illicit arms and
ammunitions. They have been found circulating
leaflets exhorting people to resort to terrorist
methods, to collect firearms, to create
disaffection against the government and suborn
the police and the military. These activities have
been carried on under a cloak of secrecy, and the
government has considered from time to time
how far these activities rendered it incumbent on
them to deal with the Sangh in its corporate
capacity.
“It was then unanimously agreed in November
1947 that the stage when the Sangh should be
dealt with as an association had not yet arrived
and that individuals should continue to be dealt
with sternly as hitherto. The objectionable and
harmful activities of the Sangh have, however,
continued unabated and the cult of violence
sponsored and inspired by the activities of the
Sangh has claimed many victims. The latest and
the most precious to fall was Gandhiji himself.
“In these circumstances it is the bounden duty of
the government to take effective measures to
curb this reappearance of violence in a virulent
form and as a first step to this end, they have
Page | 12
decided to declare the Sangh as an unlawful
association.” Gandhi’s murder forced the
government to deal with the RSS “in its corporate
capacity”.
On February 14 and 15, 1948, the Mahasabha’s
working committee said: “It was a matter of
shame and humiliation that the alleged assassin
was connected with the Hindu Mahasabha” and
“unequivocally condemned this foul act”.
Since Godse was very much a member of the RSS,
as his own brother testified, will the RSS follow
the Mahasabha’s example and hang its head in
shame?

****

Letter- Sardar Vallabhai Patel to RSS Chief Guru Golwalkar – 1948 #Godse #mustread

Sabrang Archives (1999)

‘RSS has never backed Godse: The Rashtriya Swayam Sevak

Sangh consistently lashes out at some “vested political
interests” for taking recourse to lie and calumny to malign
“patriotic and nationalist” organisations.” Commenting on an
advertisement highlighting a quote allegedly of RSS chief
Rajendra Singh, general secretary H.V.Seshadri said, “The RSS
has never supported the act of Nathuram Godse.” (1999). A
similar discourse is audible today.

The fascist agenda of the RSS has always justified the

assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Enclosed is the entire text
of a letter written by none less than Sardar Vallabhai Patel,
independent India’s first union home minister commenting on
RSS activities following Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. The
entire text is invaluable. He says clearly, “The RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhiji’s death.”

Sardar Vallabhai Patel, union home minister, to Guru Golwalkar, RSS chief in a letter written on September 11, 1948.
The letter is quoted in full in Desraj Goel’s Rahstriya Swayamsevak Sangh.The entire Text :

Aurangzeb Road,
New Delhi,

11th Sept. 1948

Brother Sri Golwalkar,

Received your letter dated 11th August. Jawaharlal has also sent me your letter of the
same date.

You are very well aware of my views on the RSS. I have expressed these thoughts at
Jaipur in December last month at Lucknow in January. The people had welcomed

Page | 13
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
 those views. I had hoped that your people also would accept them. But they appear to
have no effect on the RSS persons, nor was there any change in their programmes.
There can be no doubt that the RSS did service to the Hindu Society. In the areas
where there was the need for help and organisation, the young men of the RSS
protected women and children and strove much for their sake. No person of
understanding could have a word of objection regarding that. But the objectionable
part arose when they, burning with revenge, began attacking Mussalmans. Organising
Hindus and helping them is one thing but going in for revenge for its sufferings on
innocent and helpless men, women and children is quite another thing.

Apart from this, their opposition to the Congress, that too of such virulence,
disregarding all considerations of personality, decency or decorum, created a kind of
unrest among the people. All their speeches were full communal poison. It was not
necessary to spread poison and enthuse the Hindus and organise for their protection.
As a final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the valuable life
of Gandhiji. Even an iota of sympathy of the Government or of the people no more
remained for the RSS. In fact the opposition grew. Opposition turned more
severe, when the RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhiji’s
death. Under these conditions it became inevitable for the Government to take action
against the RSS.

Since then, over six months have elapsed. We have hoped that after this lapse of time,
with full and proper consideration the RSS persons would come to the right path. But
from the reports that come to me, it is evident that attempts to put fresh life into their
same old activities are afoot. I once again ask you to give your thought to my Jaipur
and Lucknow speeches and accept the path I had indicated for the RSS. I am quite
certain that therein lies the good of the RSS and the country and moving in that path
we can join hands in achieving the welfare of our country. Of course, you are aware
that we are passing through delicate times. It is the duty of everyone from the highest
to the lowliest in this country to contribute his mite, in whatever way possible, to the
service of the country. In this delicate hour there is no place for party conflicts and old
quarrels. I thoroughly convinced that the RSS men can carry on their patriotic
endeavor only by joining the Congress and not by keeping separate or by opposing. I
am glad that you have been released. I hope that you will arrive at the proper decision
after due consideration of what I have said above. With regard to restrictions imposed
upon you I am in correspondence with the CP Government. I shall let you know after
receiving their reply.

Yours

(SD.) VALLABH BHAI PATEL

(Rendered from the original in Hindi)*

Justice on Trial: Historic Document of Guruji-Government Correspondence, pp. 26-8;

Page | 14
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
N.B. This letter also, incidentally, clarifies the misunderstanding created that the Sardar had invited them to join the Congress;
the invitation is for rethinking and change of heart and then giving it a concrete shape by merger into the Congress. The same
thing JP tried to accomplish later and failed.

Another quote from Sardar Patel:

“As regards the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha… our reports do confirm that, as a
result of the activities of these two bodies, particularly the former (RSS) an
atmosphere was created in the country in which such a ghastly tragedy became
possible.”

Sardar Vallabhai Patel, union home minister to Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee,
who later founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, in a letter on July 18, 1948. Sardar
Patel Correspondence, Volume 6, edited by Durga Das.

2. RSS And The Gandhi Murder

By Badri Raina

ONE repetitive cliché of ‘centrist’ opinion is that

Left-wingers and Right-wingers are, at bottom,
blood brothers. Although this is a subject for
detailed scrutiny, just two points may quickly be
made, since these relate intimately to the
concerns of the present article. One, that
whereas Left-wing politics seeks consistently to
expand and enrich democracy, Right-wing politics
invariably seeks to restrict the grounds of
legitimacy. Secondly, and one speaks here of the
modern Indian experience, whereas Indian
revolutionaries have always owned up to their
deeds, Indian fascists, led by the RSS, have
invariably taken recourse to subterfuge and
denial in matters wherein their role brings them
widespread disgrace.
Of the latter, the circumstances of Bapu’s murder
provide the most telling instance. The denial of
the RSS here is particularly mean, being often a
suitably calibrated one.
NATHURAM GODSE’S RSS CONNECTIONS
Not even in this day and age does the RSS deny
that Gandhi was not one of its favourite people.
As to Nathuram Godse its denial of his
membership of the RSS was staunch till Curran
(1950-51) revealed that fact in his otherwise
sympathetic book; this despite the fact that
Godse had himself said in his trial that “I have
worked for several years in the RSS.” The current
posture of the RSS is that Godse had given up his
membership long before the Gandhi murder.
The point is, where are the records? What we do
know is from Gopal Godse, Nathuram’s co-
convicted brother. Speaking of his brothers’ last
moments before the hanging, Gopal Godse avers:
on reaching the platform he cited a verse of
devotion to the Motherland; the verse in question
was as follows:

Page | 15
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection

Namaste sadaa vatsale matribhume
Tvya hindubhume sukhamvardite hum,
Mahamangle puney bhume tvdharthe
Patitvesh kaayaa namaste namaste.
Des Raj Goyal, a one-time swayamsevak, tells us
in his book, RSS (1979) that the above comprises
the opening verse of the RSS prayer sung in every
shakha. Goyal then provides two all-important
facts bearing on this prayer: one, that “outsiders
are not acquainted with it”; and, two, that at the
time of Godse’s acknowledged membership of
the RSS (1930-34) “this prayer was not sung even
in the RSS” and that “the Sanskrit prayer, of which
this verse forms a part, was adopted only in
1940” (Goyal, 142). How then did Nathuram
recite the above prayer as a sort of epitaph to his
despicable life? In fact, the clinching evidence of
Nathuram’s membership of the RSS has also
come from Gopal Godse, his brother in his book
Why I Assassinated Mahatma Gandhi (1993)
wherein he says unambiguously: “He (Nathuram)
has said in his statement that he left the RSS. He
said it because Golwalker and the RSS were in a
lot of trouble after the murder of Gandhi. But he
did not leave the RSS.” In the same book he also
characterises Advani’s denial of Nathuram’s
membership of the RSS at the time of the murder
as “cowardice.”
Consider the further detail supplied by Pyarelal in
his biography of the Mahatma (The Last Phase,
756): “A letter which Sardar Patel received after
the assassination from a young man, who
according to his own statement had been gulled
into joining the RSS organisation but was later
disillusioned, described how members of the RSS
at some places had been instructed beforehand
to tune in their radio sets on the fateful Friday for
the ‘good news.’ After the news sweets were
distributed in RSS circles at several places,
including Delhi.”
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
Obvious question: if the RSS had nothing to do
with the event of that evil Friday how does one
explain what is said in the cited letter?
CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
If all that is not ‘evidence’ what were the
circumstances of the moment?
The RSS relies heavily on Patel’s letter of February
27, 1948 in which he intimates Nehru that the RSS
was not involved; rather, it was an extremist wing
of the Hindu Mahasabha. But what did Patel have
to say to two other people—S P Mukerjee and
“Brother Sri Golwalker”? To the former he wrote
(letter dated. July 18,’1948):
“As regards the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha,
the case relating to Gandhi Ji’s murder is sub
judice and I should not like to say anything about
the participation of the two organisations, but our
reports do confirm that, as a result of the
activities of these two bodies, particularly the
former, an atmosphere was created in the country
in which such a ghastly tragedy became
possible….The activities of the RSS constituted a
clear threat to the existence of government and
the state….Indeed, as time has marched on, the
RSS circles are becoming more defiant and are
indulging in their subversive activities in an
increasing measure.”
In writing to “Brother Sri Golwalker” on Sept 11,’1948
Patel, while acknowledging that “the RSS did service
to the Hindu Society,” laments that the “objectionable
part arose when they. . . began attacking
Mussalmans” (referring to RSS workers). More
explicitly:
“All their speeches were full of communal poison. . . As
a result of the poison, the country had to suffer the
sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhiji…In fact
opposition (to the RSS) grew. . . when the RSS men
expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhiji’s
death.”
Page | 16
GODSE/SAVARKAR CONNECTION
What of the Godse/Savarkar connection? First, let us
recall what Curran tells us—that Savarkar did not
leave the RSS because he thought it was deviating
from the mainlines of Hindu/fascist ideology; Curran
writes of Hedgewar’s tour in Maharashtra in 1932:
“One of his advisers on this tour was Nathuram
Godse…Godse had joined the RSS in 1930 winning
prominence as a speaker and organiser; he left the
Sangh in 1934 because Hedgewar refused to make the
RSS a political organisation”(Curran, Militant
Hinduism, 18-19).
Making too much of the separation between the
Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS, therefore, can only be
a technical nicety. In fact we know that Savarkar’s
brother, Babu Rao Savarkar, had merged his Tarun
Hindu Mahasabha with the RSS.
Enough is known about Savarkar’s role in the murder.
Digambar Badge, the approver in the trial of 1949
(Red Fort) before Justice Atma Charan, was to refer to
the meeting at Savarkar’s home on January 17, ’1948
where the latter was to say to the conspirators
“Yashasvi houn ya” ergo “Be successful and come
back.”
And the Justice Jivan Lal Kapur Commission which
revisited the Gandhi murder in 1966, although again
obliged to exonerate Savarkar for want of
corroborative evidence in support of the approver’s
confession, was, like Galileo at the stake, obliged
nonetheless to remark that the facts taken together
were “destructive of any theory other than the
conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his
group”(which included Godse). And when Patel refers
to the role of the “fanatical wing of the Hindu
Mahsabha” in his letter to Nehru (February 27,’1948)
without mentioning Savarkar, we know what he was
talking about.
The point is, look where you will and the
differentiations sought to be made between the Hindu
Mahasabha and the RSS in the context of the Gandhi
murder are no more than self-serving sleights-of-
hand. Gandhi’s elimination was clearly perceived as a
‘nationalist’ requirement by the combined
****
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
Hindu/Fascist camp. The bone of contention between
this camp and the Congress movement led by Gandhi
comprised conceptualising the defining features of
Independent India. The Mahasabha/RSS view was
nowhere more identical than in this. One only has to
read how Savarkar (1938, Nagpur session) and
Golwalker (in We, Our Nationhood Defined, 1938)
spoke to this issue.
Savarkar: “The original political sin, which our Hindu
Congressites. . . committed at the beginning of the
Indian National Congress movement and are
persistingly committing still of running after the
mirage of a territorial Indian Nation and of seeking to
kill. . . the life growth of an organic Hindu Nation. . . .
We Hindus are a Nation by ourselves because
religious, racial, cultural, and historical affinities bind
us intimately into a homogenous nation”.
Golwalker: “The idea was spread that for the first time
the people were going to live a national life, the
Nation in the land naturally was composed of all those
who happened to reside therein and that all these
people were to unite on a common ‘National’ platform
and win back ‘freedom’ by ‘Constitutional means.’
Wrong notions of democracy strengthened the view
and we began to class ourselves with our old invaders
and foes under the outlandish name—Indian—and
tried to win them over to join hands with us in our
struggle. The result of this poison is well known….with
our own hands are undermining true Nationality.”
Again: “All those not belonging to the national, i.e.,
Hindu race, religion, culture and language, naturally
fall out of the pale of real ‘National’ life. We repeat: in
Hindusthan, the land of the Hindus, lives and should
live the Hindu Nation—satisfying all the five essential
requirements of the scientific nation concept of the
modern world.”
Thus all the way from Savarkar, through Golwalker,
Deoras and the current day ‘cultural nationalists’ the
Nation is conceived of not as a bounded territory but
as a racial/religious construct. Gandhi’s fault it was
that he said any ‘swaraj will be incomplete without
Hindu-Muslim unity.” He paid the price.
Page | 17
 3. No discussion on who killed Mahatma Gandhi is
complete without addressing idea of a Hindu Rashtra
By Teesta Setalvad
Jul 28, 2016

Scroll did a disservice by being carelessly selective in its recent article, says the activist lawyer.

The murder of Mahatma Gandhi, or more
dramatically put, the assassination of Mahatma
Gandhi was the first act of terror committed in
independent India, as I wrote in the introduction
to the volume, Beyond Doubt-A Dossier on
Gandhi’s Assassination (2015, Tulika). It was also,
I wrote; a declaration of war and a statement of
intent.
It was a declaration of war by a section of society
which remained largely on the fringes during the
independence struggle and was committed to
religion-based nationhood, and wanted India to
become a Hindu rashtra. This was a section that
bore visceral dislike toward the idea of composite
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
culture and inclusive nationhood advocated by
the Mahatma.
It is this ideology that unashamedly rules India
today.
Any discussion on the assassination, therefore,
needs to address the issues around the killing, the
motives of the assassins. It should also examine
further why Gandhi and what he stood for posed
such a dire threat to the worldview of the killers.
Whenever the murder is discussed, and the
factors responsible for the killing tossed around,
public memory can often become carelessly
selective, unwarrantedly perhaps spawning a
Page | 18
dangerous ambivalence. I refer here specifically
to the July 21 article that deliberately or
otherwise skips crucial bits of the event. There
are also several inaccuracies in the report that has
carelessly quoted from earlier published articles.
Setting the record straight
There is need to set the record straight. The
killing of Gandhi was not an isolated act but the
last successful one of a series of attempts that
began as early as 1934. Since the first attack on
June 25 1934, there had been a total of five
attempts on Gandhi’s life: in July and September
1944, September 1946, and January 20, 1948, ten
days before he was actually shot dead.
Nathuram Godse was involved in two of the
previous attempts besides the last one – that is,
in a total of three, completely upsetting the
comfortable narrative of Godse’s actions not
being pre-meditated and coldly and carefully
planned.
This aspect is completely missing from the article
that fails to ask (while superficially relying on a
sinister justification for the killing that Godse’s
belief that “Gandhi helped create Pakistan” was
the reason behind the killing) why some groups of
persons found Gandhi and his beliefs so
thoroughly repugnant that they had to eliminate
him.
It was Gandhi’s commitment to composite
nationhood as opposed to a religion-based state
(Pakistan or Hindu Rashtra) and his support for
the law against untouchability (he made a historic
speech in the Central legislature in 1935) that
made him enemy No 1 for all those who dreamt
then – and conspire even today – to convert India
into a Hindu Rashtra.
One of the crucial reasons for editing the
volume Beyond Doubt was to bring to readers in
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
English the seminal work of senior journalist and
writer Jagan Phadnis who researched the killing
back in 1998 as also the important contribution of
Chunibhai Vaidya from Gujarat. These works
along with historian YD Phadke’s analysis of the
Kapoor Commission Report published
in Communalism Combat are crucial reading for
serious readers on the subject, and are included
in the volume.
That the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was
banned by the government of India within two
days of the assassination, through a Government
Resolution dated February 2, 1948, is surely a
critical part of the narrative, which is absent in its
recounting 68 years later. The language of this
resolution, reproduced in Beyond Doubt, is
unequivocal when it speaks of the determination
of the government of India
“to root out the forces of hate and violence that
are at work in our country and imperil the
freedom of the Nation and darken her fair name.
In pursuance of this politics [the GR says] the GOI
has decided to declare as unlawful the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh in the Chief Commissioner’s
Provinces. Similar action is also being taken in the
Governor’s provinces.”
The banning of the RSS within five months of
India becoming independent and within two days
of the dastardly killing of Mahatma Gandhi has
been linked to the ‘undesirable and even
dangerous activities carried out by individual
members of the Sangh who have indulged in acts
of violence involving arson, robbery, dacoity and
murder and have collected illicit arms and
ammunition. They have been found, “circulating
leaflets exhorting people to resort to terrorist
methods, to collect firearms, to create
disaffection against the government and suborn
the police and the military….The objectionable
and harmful activities of the Sangh have,
however, continued unabated and the cult of
Page | 19
violence sponsored and inspired by the activities
of the Sangh has claimed many victims. The latest
and the most precious to fall was Gandhiji
himself.” The GR was first published in the August
2004 issue of Communalism Combat, as part of
the cover story, titled Hey Ram.
Ban and lifting the ban
The story does not end here. The communications
between the Government of India through then
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Home
Minister Vallabhai Patel with the RSS also show
up the falsehoods perpetrated by the Sangh,
which has tried to distort even this part of history.
On September 11, 1948, the famous letter
written by Patel to RSS chief MS Golwalkar
strongly decries the systematic hate tactics of the
Sangh before and after Gandhi’s assassination.
This letter has been quoted in full in Desraj
Goyal’s Rahstriya Swayamsevak Sangh (First
published in 1979, Revised edition in 2000,
Radhakrishna Prakashan Pvt Ltd, New Delhi).
More importantly, this and another letter written
by Patel to the founder of the Bharatiya Jana
Sangh Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee dated July
18, 1948 make clear the links between the RSS
and the Hindu Mahasabha.
The September 11, 1948 letter is of particular
significance as it outlines the kind of activities the
RSS was observed to indulge in.
“But the objectionable part arose when they,
burning with revenge, began attacking
Mussalmans. Organising Hindus and helping them
is one thing but going in for revenge for its
sufferings on innocent and helpless men, women
and children is quite another thing……..All their
speeches were full communal poison. It was not
necessary to spread poison and enthuse the
Hindus and organise for their protection. As a
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
final result of the poison, the country had to
suffer the sacrifice of the valuable life of Gandhiji.
Even an iota of sympathy of the Government or
of the people no more remained for the RSS. In
fact the opposition grew. Opposition turned more
severe, when the RSS men expressed joy and
distributed sweets after Gandhiji’s death. Under
these conditions it became inevitable for the
Government to take action against the RSS.”
A government of India press note of November
14, 1948 relates to the outright rejection of a
representation by Golwalkar to lift the ban on the
RSS by the Home Ministry, refers to the "anti-
national, often subversive and violent activities of
the RSS”.
This press note, also obtained from the archives
of the government of India, was first published in
the August 2004 issue of Communalism
Combat, as part of the cover story, titled Hey
Ram.
The government of India took into account the
considered opinion of provincial governments
before arriving at its decision to ban the RSS. An
article of The Indian Express dated February 7,
1948 reports that an RSS leader from Nagpur who
had presented Godse with the revolver with
which he killed Gandhi had been arrested. Other
persons arrested included Professor
Varahadpande of the City College, Nagpur.
This news report states that another professor of
Nagpur had told his students a day before the
assassination that “Gandhiji would be murdered”.
An associate of the gang of conspirators,
Devendra Kumar, was reported by the same
newspaper to have surrendered to the District
Magistrate, Mirzapur and taken to Lucknow
under armed escort.
There is more such material which forms part of
the annexes to the Kapoor Commission which will
Page | 20
form part of the second volume of Beyond
Doubt that I am currently annotating and editing.
For the record, towards the end of the judgement
in the Gandhi Murder case, Special Judge
Atmacharan made the following remarks in
regards to the conduct of the police with relation
to the bomb attack on Gandhi on January 20,
barely ten days before the day he died.
“ I may bring to the notice of the Central
Government the slackness of the police in the
investigation of the case during the period
between January 20-30,1948... Had the slightest
keenness been shown in the investigation of the
case at that stage, the tragedy could have been
averted.”
The terms of reference to the Kapoor Commission
clearly show that it was not within its ambit to
investigate whether or not the RSS was involved
in the murder. It would be pertinent to again
quote from the Government communiqué dated
11 July, 1949 provided in Appendix IV to Desraj
Goyal’sRahstriya Swayamsevak Sangh which laid
down the conditions for lifting the ban on the
RSS.
“The RSS leader has undertaken to make the
loyalty to the Union Constitution and respect for
the National Flag more explicit in the Constitution
of the RSS and to provide clearly that persons
believing or resorting to violent and secret
methods will have no place in the Sangh..”
Among other conditions was that the RSS would
function only as a cultural organisation.
Hindu rashtra
A genuine understanding of the motivations
behind the ideology that killed Gandhi cannot
skirt around the fundamental issue of religion-
based nationhood. The contempt for the Indian
Constitution is writ large in MS Golwalkar’s Bunch
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
of Thoughts, which is proudly available on the RSS
website even today (for example, see Page 119).
Despite its assurances to the government of India,
the Indian tricolour remained anathema to the
Sangh for 52 years after India became
independent. It was only on January 26, 2002,
that the RSS hoisted the tricolour on its
headquarters. Until then it was always
the bhagwa dhwaj,representing the Hindu nation.
In fact, the English organ of the
RSS, Organiser (dated August 14, 1947) carried a
feature titled “Mystery behind the bhagwa
dhawaj” which, while demanding hoisting of the
saffron flag at the ramparts of Red Fort in Delhi,
openly denigrated the choice of the Tri-colour as
the National Flag in the following words:
“The people who have come to power by the kick
of fate may give in our hands the Tricolour but it
never be respected and owned by Hindus. The
word three is in itself an evil, and a flag having
three colours will certainly produce a very bad
psychological effect and is injurious to a country.”
It became even more brazen once the first RSS-
driven government in New Delhi under Atal
Behari Vajpayee came into power as the
organisation’s mouthpiece Organiser proudly
advertised the books published by Surya Bharati
Prakashan, Gandhi Ji’s Murder and After by co-
accused and brother of the assassin, Gopal
Godse, as also May It Please Your Honour,by
Nathuram Godse.
Both the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha have
made money by glamourising the killer of Gandhi
and claimed proud privilege for the reasons for
the killing.
The crux of the issue for the Sangh and those who
have opposed its supremacist ideology has always
been about who has or has not the right to equal
Page | 21
rights and citizenship in the India of today. On this
issue Gandhi and the RSS stood on the extreme
opposites ends of the spectrum. Not only can no
one deny this, but it is this crucial issue that
remains central to the debate around which
***
4. Who Killed Gandhi?
By Tushar A. Gandhi
Nathuram Godse shot Bapu thrice and killed him.
But this chronic failure was incapable of
succeeding without the support of an
organisation and its fanatic cadre. The accused
enjoyed country wide support, easy and unlimited
funds and supplies. This could not have been
possible without organisational involvement.
There were two organisations with whom all the
accused were closely associated, RSS and Hindu
Mahasabha. For some strange reason despite
clues and confessions these two organisations
were never investigated. Why? We will never
know.
Godse and Apte were known to boast and brag,
but were not known to deliver. To impress
Savarkar they used to brag about various schemes
to attack Muslims, Nizam of Hyderabad and
Muslim League. Their modus operandi was to
seek Savarkar's blessings for their schemes and
then seek finance and support from members of
RSS, Hindu Mahasabha and staunch Savarkarites.
One of the first scheme they sold was a plan to
raid revenue agencies of the Hyderabad Nizam
close to its border with the Bombay Province. For
this they collected funds, then they approached
Dixit Maharaj and asked him for one of his large
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
forces were responsible for the murder of the
Mahatma.
Teesta Setalvad is co-editor, Sabrangindia.
cars. Three weeks went by when no news of raids
on the Nizam were reported, Dixit Maharaj came
looking for his car, he found Apte romancing his
girl friend in the car he had borrowed for the raid.
Next the duo came up with a proposal to blow up
the Pak Assembly with a mortar. They secured
Savarkar's blessings and collected funds, but did
not deliver. When news came that two special
trains carrying weapons arms and ammunitions,
Pakistan's share, would travel to Pakistan. The
duo sold a scheme of blowing up both the trains
using bazookas. This time too, no action.
Then they decided to buy a Stengun and use it to
strafe fleeing Muslims. They abandoned it after
not being able to even cock it. The final scheme
they attempted to sell was to set up a supply
chain of arms and ammunitions to fight the
Kabalis invading Kashmir, they planned to recruit
and train young Hindu fighters to fight the Kabalis
invading Kashmir, but by now their backers had
lost faith in them.
There was a link between all the failed attempts
on Bapu's life and his murder. There were five
known attempts on Bapu's life, which failed. In
each one of them the common factor was Poona,
Page | 22
Godse, Apte and RSS and Hindu Mahasabha
members. Accept for the last one, all happened
prior to independence and were not investigated.
The first on 25th June 1934, Poona; second July
1944, Panchgani; third September, 1944,
Sevagram; fourth, 19th June, 1946, Somewhere in
the Western Ghats between Karjat and Khandala;
and fifth on 20th January, 1948, Birla House, New
Delhi. All failed, accept in the first and fourth
where no one was caught and none were
investigated, in the three others Apte, Godse and
the participation of RSS and Hindu Mahasabha
members was reported.
What is chilling is that unlike popular perception
that Godse took advantage of an opportunity to
murdered Bapu, Bapu's murder was methodically
planned and although the attempts failed, finally
it was these preparations which helped chronic
failures, Godse and Apte, succeed.
Since 1946, after the Direct Action Day killings
and the retaliatory massacres in its wake,
whenever Bapu was in Delhi and he conducted his
public multi faith evening prayers, every time the
Aayats from the Koran were read, people would
raise up and protest. The protests turned
progressively severe and aggressive. Apte and
Godse had even boasted about carrying out one
very aggressive protest at the Sweeper's Colony,
'We sacred him off' they had boasted in Poona.
The last failed attempt and when Nathuram
eventually murdered Bapu were both at the time
of his evening prayers. The plan was to create an
impression to convey that people were angry
with Bapu for his insistence on reciting Islamic
***
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
prayers and the murder happened as an eruption
of spontaneous fury against his obduracy. Godse
and Apte did not have the capability to sustain
such a long term campaign, the RSS did.
Till two days before Bapu was murdered, Godse
did not possess a gun. Miraculously on 28th
January 1948, Godse and Apte procured one of
the best pistols of that time from Gwalior. The
most efficient, a favourite of close range killers,
fully loaded, 'Fascist Special' Beretta 9 mm Semi-
Automatic. Parchure of Gwalior, was arrested for
helping them procure the gun, he confessed
everything. But in the High Court appeal, a clever
defence lawyer got him acquitted citing a
procedural lapse in his arrest. What is shocking is
that, how Godse acquired the gun and where it
came from was never investigated. They could
not have procured the gun without the help of a
pan national organisation. RSS was a pan national
organisation with a fanatically loyal cadre who
were willing to abide by 'Aadesh', orders from
headquarters.
No courts or inquiry commissions ever absolved
RSS from involvement in the Gandhi murder, they
could not because they were not asked to pass
judgement on them.
The fact remains that although on 30th January
1948 at 5:17 pm Nathuram Godse did pump 3
bullets into Bapu's chest from point blank range
and murdered him, the loaded gun was put in his
hands by his patrons and supportive
organisations, and the Aadesh, order came from
them too.
Page | 23
 5. RSS & Murder of Mahatma Gandhi: What do
contemporary documents tell?
By Shamsul Islam,
The Milli Gazette
Published Online: Mar 17, 2011
After the murder of Mahatma Gandhi on January
30, 1948, the RSS was banned on February 4,
1948. It was banned for anti-national activities
and the government communiqué banning the
RSS was self-explanatory: "In their resolution of
February 2, 1948 the Government of India
declared their determination to root out the
forces of hate and violence that are at work in our
country and imperil the freedom of the Nation
and darken her fair name. In pursuance of this
policy the Government of India have decided to
declare unlawful the RSS." [Cited in Justice on
Trial, RSS, Bangalore, 1962, p. 64.]
The communiqué went on to disclose that the
ban on the RSS was imposed because,
"undesirable and even dangerous activities have
been carried on by members of the Sangh. It has
been found that in several parts of the country
individual members of the RSS have indulged in
acts of violence involving arson, robbery, dacoity,
and murder and have collected illicit arms and
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
ammunition. They have been found circulating
leaflets exhorting people to resort to terrorist
methods, to collect firearms, to create
disaffection against the government and suborn
the police and the military." [Ibid, pp. 65-66.]
It is well-known that the then Home Minister,
Sardar Patel, had a soft-corner for the RSS and
continues to be a favourite with the RSS. However
even Sardar Patel found it difficult to defend the
RSS in the aftermath of Gandhiji's assassination.
In a letter written to the head of the RSS,
Golwalkar, dated 11 September 1948, Sardar
Patel stated:
"Organizing the Hindus and helping them is one
thing but going in for revenge for its sufferings on
innocent and helpless men, women and children
is quite another thing…Apart from this, their
opposition to the Congress, that too of such
virulence, disregarding all considerations of
personality, decency or decorum, created a kind
Page | 24
of unrest among the people. All their speeches
were full of communal poison. It was not
necessary to spread poison in order to enthuse
the Hindus and organize for their protection. As a
final result of the poison, the country had to
suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable life of
Gandhiji. Even an iota of the sympathy of the
Government, or of the people, no more remained
for the RSS. In fact opposition grew. Opposition
turned more severe, when the RSS men
expressed joy and distributed sweets after
Gandhiji's death. Under these conditions it
became inevitable for the Government to take
action against the RSS…Since then, over six
months have elapsed. We had hoped that after
this lapse of time, with full and proper
consideration the RSS persons would come to the
right path. But from the reports that come to me,
it is evident that attempts to put fresh life into
their same old activities are afoot." [Ibid, pp. 26-
28.]
Hindu Mahasabha and RSS were jointly
responsible for the murder of Father of Nation,
Mahatma Gandhi, this fact was further
corroborated by Sardar Patel in a letter to a
prominent leader of Hindu Mahasabha, Shyama
Prasad Mookerjee on July 18, 1948. Sardar wrote:
***
6. The First Terrorist of Independent India
By Subhash Gatade
http://www.countercurrents.org/gatade171113.htm
Countercurrents.org ,17 November, 2013
...Government have, however, noticed with
regret that in practice members of Rashtriya
Swayamsewak Sangh have not adhered to their
professed ideals.
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
"As regards the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha,
the case relating to Gandhiji's murder is sub
judice and I should not like to say anything about
the participation of the two organizations, but our
reports do confirm that, as a result of the
activities of these two bodies, particularly the
former, an atmosphere was created in the
country in which such a ghastly tragedy became
possible. There is no doubt in my mind that the
extreme section of the Hindu Mahasabha was
involved in the conspiracy.
The activities of the RSS constituted a clear threat
to the existence of Government and the State.
Our reports show that those activities, despite
the ban, have not died down. Indeed, as time has
marched on, the RSS circles are becoming more
defiant and are indulging in their subversive
activities in an increasing measure." [Letter 64 in
Sardar Patel: Select Correspondence 1945-1950,
Volume 2, Navjiwan Publishing House,
Ahmedabad, 1977, pp. 276-277.]
Prof. Shamsul Islam teaches political science in
Satyawati College, Delhi University and may be
reached at notoinjustice[@]gmail[.]com
This article appeared in The Milli Gazette print
issue of 16-28 February 2011 on page no. 8
“Undesirable and even dangerous activities have
been carried on by the members of the Sangh. It
has been found that in several parts of the
country individual members of the Rashtriya
Swayamsewak Sangh have indulged in acts of
Page | 25
violence involving arson, robbery, dacoity and
murder and have collected illicit arms and
ammunitions. They have been found circulating
leaflets, exhorting people to resort to terrorist
methods, to collect firearms, to create
disaffection against the government and suborn
the police and military.”
(The government communique of February 4,
1948, announcing the ban on RSS after Gandhi’s
assassination)
On Nathuram Godse, (19th May 1910 - 15th Nov
1949) Advani asserts that Godse had “severed
links with RSS in 1933… had begun to bitterly
criticise the RSS”. This was flatly contradicted by
none other than Godse’s brother Gopal, who was
also an accused at the trial for conspiracy to
murder. He published his book Why I
Assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in December
1993. Speaking in New Delhi on the occasion of
the release of his book, Gopal Godse revealed
what many had suspected—they had both been
active members of the RSS (The Statesman;
December 24, 1993).
(Ref: Whitewashing Godse is part of the Sangh
Parivar’s sordid game, From: Frontline, January
26, 2013)
What could be said to be the first act of terrorism
in independent India?
Everybody would agree that killing of Mahatma
Gandhi by a Hindu fanatic Nathuram Godse
constitutes the first terrorist act in independent
India. Godse, a Maharashtrian Brahmin, hailing
from Pune was associated with Hindu Mahasabha
at the time of Mahatma’s assassination and had
his initial forays in the world of politics with the
RSS. During his tour of the area Hedgewar, the
first supremo of RSS, use to be accompanied by
Nathuram, the future assassin of Gandhi. Godse
had in fact joined the RSS in 1930, winning
prominence as a speaker and organiser.
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
The world at large knows how the Hindu fanatics
had planned the murder of the Mahatma and
how the likes of Savarkar and Golwalkar, the
second Supremo of RSS could be held to be
responsible for creating the ambience of hate
which culminated in the gruesome act. Sardar
Patel’s letter to Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, who
was then member Hindu Mahasabha and who
later formed Bharatiya Jansangh with RSS’s
support provides enough details about the
background (18th July, 1948)
... our reports do confirm that, as a result of the
activities of these two bodies, particularly the
former (the RSS), an atmosphere was created in
the country in which such a ghastly tragedy
(Gandhiji’s assassination) became possible. There
is no doubt in my mind that the extreme section
of the Hindu Mahasabha was involved in this
conspiracy. The activities of the RSS constituted a
clear threat to the existence of government and
the state. Our reports show that those activities,
despite the ban, have not died down. Indeed, as
time has marched on, the RSS circles are
becoming more defiant and are indulging in their
subversive activities in an increasing measure
If somebody poses before you another simple
query relating to similar episodes in the sixty plus
year trajectory of independent India - then what
would be your response. Perhaps you would like
to add the death of Indira Gandhi - killed by her
Sikh bodyguards , killing of Rajeev Gandhi - who
fell to a suicide attack by a Tamil Hindu woman,
or for that matter demolition of the 500 year old
Babri mosque by the marauders of the RSS-VHP-
BJP-Shiv Sena. If one follows the debate further
you would like to underline the 1984 riots (
actually genocide of Sikhs mainly perpetrated by
Hindu lumpen elements instigated by the then
ruling Congress Party with due connivance of
Hindutva brigade), emergence of Khalistani
terrorists movement or the eight year old Gujarat
genocide executed with military precision
allegedly by the RSS and its affiliated
Page | 26
organisations led by one of those Hindu Hriday
Samrats.
Compare all these major episodes in the history
of Independent india - which encompassed many
a terrorist acts within them - with the mental
image which conjures up in your mind or which
finds prominence in the media when one listens
to any terrorist act in any part of the country.
Does it have any resemblance with the image of a
member of the majority community or one of
those minority communities ? You would agree
that the mental image/projected image has
features specific to one of the religious minorities
in our country. If in the late eighties or early
nineties it would have been the image of a
turbaned Sikh, the end of first decade of the 21st
century has found its replacement with a bearded
Muslim.
Question naturally arises why is it that despite
their participation in many a gruesome incidents,
the role played by them in instigating riots (as
noted by many a commissions of enquiry) or
there [their]admission before camera about the
planning which went in making a genocide
happen (courtesy Tehelka sting operation or the
interview given by Keka Shastri to rediff.com) the
Hindu fanatic has not become a part of our social
common sense. Why when someone called
Sadhvi Pragya or Major Purohit or Dayanand
Pandey or for that matter Swami Aseemanand
are found to be engaged in conspiring and
executing terrorist acts and police decipher their
certain involvement in similar sinister operations
earlier as well, we are ready to call them
‘exception’ and when a completely innocent
Muslim youth is arrested by the police, the media
is ready to paint him the real mastermind of few
terrorist acts. Why the slogan coined by one of
the majoritarian formations ‘All Muslims are not
terrorists but all terrorists are Muslim’ does not
receive broadest possible condemnation which it
deserves.
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
Perhaps there is no simple answer to this query.
One will have to delve deep into our past, take a
dispassionate look at the anti-colonial struggle
and also the tragic phase of partition riots.
Simultaneously we will have to discern the
threads of our present, understand for ourselves
the role of different actors as well as the role of
ideologies to reach any tentative understanding.
It is for everyone to see that in a multi-religious,
multilingual country like ours the complexities of
the situation are itself immense. We find
ourselves in a situation where while
‘communalism’ of the majority community could
be construed as ‘nationalism’, every assertion by
the minority community on genuine demands
tends to be seen with a ‘communal’ colour. And it
follows from this that ‘terrorism’ unleashed by
the majoritarians is easily disguised under the
bursting of ‘pent up anger’ against the minorities
whereas ‘terrorist acts’ committed by minorities
of different kinds are construed as the biggest
danger facing the nation.
What follows here is an attempt to move beyond
the social common sense around ‘terrorism’
where we are witness to continuous
stigmatisation of a particular community for
actions of its lunatic fringe. This is an
understanding which has received a new boost in
the aftermath of 9/11 and the ‘war against terror’
unleashed by the US regime, to further its
imperialist ambitions.
The need of the hour is to understand that
‘terrorism’ cannot be the monopoly of a
particular community. And it is a product of the
typical circumstances which societies encounter
or find themselves in and the nature of the
dominant or dominated forces in operation in
those societies and their larger worldview.
In this connection the most important lesson,
which should be remembered, is that the law and
order machinery should be even handed in its
approach in unearthing the truth behind every
Page | 27
terrorist incident or act. It should not repeat its
earlier folly of stigmatizing the whole community,
which it is alleged to have engaged in during last
few years after similar terrorist acts. It should also
not be seen going soft on Hindu militant
formations for fear of providing political capital to
Hindutva organizations.
II
Very few people know the animosity maintained
by Hindutva fanatics towards Gandhi which was
evident in four attempts on his life before
Nathuram Godse’s final attempt. (Chunibhai
Vaidya, a leading Gandhian from Gujarat talks
about total six attempts. Apart from the details of
various attempts mentioned below he talks about
an attempt on his life in Sept 1946 also.)
The first one happened in Pune (25th June 1934)
when Mahatma Gandhi was going to Corporation
auditorium to deliver a speech. Kasturba Gandhi,
his wife was also accompanying him. Incidentally
the car in which Gandhis were travelling
developed some snag and was delayed whereas
the other car which was in their motorcade
reached the venue where a bomb was thrown at
the car. The explosion caused injuries to some
policemen and ordinary people.
The second attempt on Mahatma Gandhi’s life
also involved his future assasin namely Nathuram
Godse. Gandhi was visiting Panchagani, a hill
station near Pune (May 1944) where a young
crowd of 15-20 young people came through a
chartered bus. They organised a daylong protest
demonstration against him but refused to talk
when Gandhi invited them. During the prayer
meeting in the evening Nathuram rushed towards
Gandhi with a dagger in his hand where he was
overpowered by others.
The third attempt happened when Gandhi’s talks
with Jinnah started in Sep 1944. When Gandhi
was leaving for Mumbai from Sevagram Ashram,
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
a group of fanatic Hindu youth led by Nathuram
Godse tried to stop him. Their contention was
that Gandhi does not travel to Mumbai to hold
talks with Jinnah. Nathuram was again found in
possession of a dagger.
The fourth attempt on Gandhi’s life (20 th January
1948) involved roughly the same group namely
Madanlal Pahwa, Shankar Kistaiya, Digambar
Badge, Vishnu Karkare, Gopal Godse, Nathuram
Godse, and Narayan Apte. The plan was to attack
Mahatma Gandhi and Huseyn Shaheed
Suhrawardy. In this failed attempt Madanlal
Pahwa placed a cotton ball enclosing a bomb on
the wall behind the podium in Birla Bhavan,
where Gandhi was staying. The bomb went off
without creating any panic, although Madanlal
Pahwa was caught. Other members of the group
who were assigned to shoot Gandhi in the
ensuing melee developed cold feet and did not
act.
And the last one happened on 30th January at
5:17 p.m. when Nathuram Godse approached him
and shot him three times in his chest at point
blank range. All those involved in the crime were
arrested and were tried in a court which attracted
lot of media attention. Nathuram Godse and
Narayan Apte were sentenced to death by the
courts and others were awarded life
imprisonment. As far as Savarkar was concerned
he was acquitted and set free due to lack of
evidence. It was worth noting that Jawaharlal
Nehru as well as Gandhi’s two sons, who felt that
the two men were merely pawns of top Hindutva
leaders, demanded commutation of their death
sentence as they sincerely felt that executing the
assassins would in fact dishonour their father’s
legacy who was a staunch opponent of death
penalty. Nathuram Godse as well as the other
conspirator Narayan Apte were hanged at Ambala
Jail on November 15, 1949.
How did the killers of Gandhi tried [try] to
rationalise their criminal act. According to them
Page | 28
Gandhiji supported the idea of a separate state
for Muslims, thus in a sense he was responsible
for the creation of Pakistan. Secondly,
belligerence of Muslims was a result of Gandhiji's
policy of appeasement. Thirdly, in spite of the
Pakistani aggression in Kashmir, Gandhiji fasted
to compel the government of India to release an
amount of Rs. 55 crores due to Pakistan.
Anyone familiar with that period of history can
decipher that all these allegations are malicious
and factually incorrect also. In fact, the idea of
communal amity which Gandhi upheld all his life
was a complete anathema to the exclusivist,
Hindu Supremacist world view of the members of
RSS, Hindu Mahasabha. And while nation was a
racial/religious construct in the imagination of the
Hindutva forces, for Gandhi and rest of the
nationalists it was a territorial construct or a
bounded territory comprising of different
communities, collectivities living there.
And looking at the fourteen year old history of
unsuccessful attempts on his life, it becomes clear
that the conspiracy to eliminate Gandhiji was
conceived much earlier than the successful
accomplishment thereof. The grounds advanced
for such a heinous crime could be seen as clever
rationalisation to hoodwink the gullible.
III
The issue of Nathuram Godse’s connections with
RSS (if any) still remains far from settled. In fact,
any discussion on Mahatma Gandhi’s
assassination has always led RSS and its affiliated
organisations to adopt a very ambivalent stand
vis-a-vis Nathuram Godse and his team. On the
one hand they are found to be making extra
efforts to exhibit that neither of them have had
any association with him at least at the time of
murder. Of course they have not forgotten to
argue that one needs to understand the
frustration felt by people over Gandhi’s actions.
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
Look at what L.K. Advani, the then senior leader
of BJP said:
‘Nathuram Godse was a bitter critic of the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. His charge was
that the RSS had made Hindus impotent. We have
had nothing to do with Godse. The Congress is in
the habit of reviving this allegation against us
when it finds nothing else.’ (The Times of India,
November 22, 1993)
As everybody knows people closely associated
with Nathuram Godse, who themselves were
party to the conspiracy to kill Gandhi, have a
different take on the whole relation. In his book
‘Why I Assassinated Mahatma Gandhi’ (1993)
Gopal Godse says unambiguously: “He
(Nathuram) has said in his statement that he left
the RSS. He said it because Golwalkar and the RSS
were in a lot of trouble after the murder of
Gandhi. But he did not leave the RSS.” In the
same book he also characterises Advani’s denial
of Nathuram’s membership of the RSS at the time
of the murder as “cowardice.”
In an interview to ‘Frontline’ (January 28, 1994,
Interview by Arvind Rajgopal) Gopal Godse
repeats what he had to say:
Q. Were you a part of the RSS
A. All the brothers were in the RSS. Nathuram,
Dattaaatreya, myself and Govind. You can say we
grew up in the RSS rather in our homes. It was
like a family to us.
Q. Nathuram stayed in the RSS? He did not leave
it?
A. Nathuram had become a baudhik karyavah
(intellectual worker) in the RSS. He said in his
statement that he left the RSS. He said it because
Golwalkar and the RSS were in a lot of trouble
after the murder of Gandhi. But he did not leave
the RSS.
Page | 29
Q. Advani has recently said that Nathuram had
nothing to do with RSS.
A. I have countered him, saying it is cowardice to
say that. You can say that RSS did not pass a
resolution, saying that, ‘go and assassinate
Gandhi.’ But you do not disown him (Nathuram).
The Hindu Mahasabha did not disown him.
In 1944 Nathuram started doing Hindu Mahsabha
work when he had been a baudhik karyavah in
the RSS.
Discussing his brothers’ last moments before the
hanging, Gopal Godse tells us in his above
mentioned book: on reaching the platform he
cited a verse of devotion to the Motherland; the
verse in question was as follows:
Namaste sadaa vatsale matribhume
Tvya hindubhume sukhamvardite hum,
Mahamangle puney bhume tvdharthe
Patitvesh kaayaa namaste namaste.
Anyone who has closely watched the daily routine
at the RSS Shakha s/he would reveal that the
above comprises the opening verse of the RSS
prayer sung in every shakha.
IV
“Yashasvi hohun ya (Be successful and return)."
—V.D. Savarkar's parting shot, quoted in police
records, to Gandhi assassin Nathuram Godse and
co-conspirator Narayan Dattatreya Apte
It is on record that in his deposition before the
court in the Gandhi murder case, Nathuram
Godse was conscious to distance himself from RSS
as well as from Savarkar. It is a different matter
that archival records show that Godse worked
closely with Savarkar since 1935. The assassin’s
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
and his other collobrators strategy definitely
saved Savarkar from getting convicted in the
assassination case despite playing a key role in
the conspiracy (as later enquiries revealed).
In fact, the trial judge in the case Atma Charan
had framed the first charge against all eight
accused, including Savarkar, that they had
conspired to commit Gandhi's murder. Curiously,
he convicted all others but let off Savarkar on the
technical ground that there was no corroborative
proof to confirm approver Digambar Badge's
evidence who became prosecution’s key witness.
Yet, the trial judge found Badge to be a
trustworthy witness.
Badge happened to be a Hindu Mahasabha
worker who had supplied the gun cotton slab to
Godse and others and which was used by
Madanlal. He told the court many important facts
about Savarkar's involvement in the assassination
plot. According to a report in ‘Outlook’ (‘The
Mastermind ?’, Rajesh Ramchandran, 6 Sep 2004)
which discusses snippets from the National
archives to see if RSS icon (namely Savarkar) had
any role in Gandhi’s assassination or not.
Badge told the police about the motive of the
assassins. "Apte asked whether I was willing to
accompany them to Delhi. I enquired for what
purpose, whereupon Apte said that 'Tatyarao'
meaning Savarkar decided that Gandhiji,
Jawaharlal Nehru and Suhrawardhy should be
finished and that this work had been entrusted to
them."
..."I was asked to remain downstairs .. and both of
them, i.e., Apte and Godse went upstairs to take
darshan of Savarkar. After five or 10 minutes,
they both came down and as they were getting
down the stairs, Savarkar followed them down
the stairs and said to them 'Yeshasvi hohun ya (be
successful and return)'. On the way back from
Savarkar, Sadan Apte told Badge that, 'Tatyarao
Page | 30
had predicted that Gandhiji's 100 years were
over.... '
It is worth noting that DCP Jamshed Nagarvala of
the Bombay Presidency, who was asked by
Morarji Desai, then Bombay’s home minister to
put a close watch on Savarkar’s house and his
movements after the bomb incident on 20th
January involving Madanlal Pahwa, clearly
explains the reasons behind this action in his
crime report : “"The source informed that it was
at the direct instigation and instance of Savarkar
that this conspiracy was hatched and plan
prepared to take the life of Mahatmaji, and his
pretense to be ill and out of politics was a mere
cover.... Hence it was decided to immediately put
a watch on the house of Savarkar." And when
Savarkar’s lawyer questioned this move by the
police in the trial court and asked the home
minister to respond, Morarji Desai is reported to
have countered: “Shall I give my reasons? It is for
Savarkar to decide whether I should answer. I am
prepared to give my reasons.” Upon this.
Savarkar’s lawyer said: “I withdraw my question.”
(See J.C.Jain, The Murder of Mahatma Gandhi:
Prelude and Aftermath, Chetna Ltd, Bombay,
1961, p.104)
Exactly sixteen years after Gandhi’s assassination
a public furore forced the then government to
take a fresh look at the conspiracy and also to
look into the fact that whether there was any
deliberate dereliction of duty on the part of
people in high authority or not. It got precipitated
after a public programme was organised in Pune
to celebrate the release of the conspirators from
jail after the expiry of their sentences (12th Nov
1964) and where some of the speakers revealed
that they had they had prior information about
the murder. Under pressure of 29 members of
parliament and public opinion the then Union
home minister Gulzarilal Nanda, constituted a
commission led by Jeevanlal Kapur, a retired
judge of the Supreme Court, to conduct the
inquiry.
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
Kapur commission also examined Savarkar's role
in the assassination. As things had unfolded in the
trial court of Atma Charan, Godse had claimed full
responsibility for planning and carrying out the
attack, in absence of an independent
corroboration of the prosecution witness. Here
Badge’s testimony was not accepted as it lacked
lacked independent corroboration. This was later
corroborated by the testimony of two of
Savarkar's close aides - Appa Ramachandra Kasar,
his bodyguard, and Gajanan Vishnu Damle, his
secretary, who had not testified in the original
trial but later testified before the Justice Kapur
commission set up in 1965. Kasar told the Kapur
Commission that they visited him on or about
January 23 or 24, which was when they returned
from Delhi after the bomb incident. Damle
deposed that Godse and Apte saw Savarkar in the
middle of January and sat with him (Savarkar) in
his garden. Justice Kapur concluded: "All these
facts taken together were destructive of any
theory other than the conspiracy to murder by
Savarkar and his group.”
Postscript: It is not generally known that the day
Godse died – 15 th November – is celebrated by
Hindutva fanatics as ‘martyrdom’ day in different
parts of the country. In parts of western India,
such programmes are organised publicly. A play
on the life of Nathuram – Me Nathuram Boltoy (I
Nathuram Speak) which looks at those events
from the perspective of a Hindutva fanatic runs
into packed houses in Maharashtra.
Time to remember that Godse might be dead but
the danger of Godse’s worldview gaining further
legitimacy exists.
Subhash Gatade is the author of Pahad Se Uncha
Aadmi (2010) Godse's Children: Hindutva Terror
in India,(2011) and The Saffron Condition: The
Politics of Repression and Exclusion in Neoliberal
India(2011). He is also the Convener of New
Socialist Initiative (NSI)
Email: subhash.gatade@gmail.com
Page | 31
 7. Gandhi Murder and Role of RSS: Debate Continues
By Ram Puniyani
Last week (March 2014) Rahul Gandhi in an
election campaign meeting said that ‘RSS people
killed Gandhiji and today their people and BJP talk
of him…They opposed Sardar Patel and Gandhiji.”
In a reaction to his statement RSS has lodged a
complaint with election commission. This is not
the first time that Rahul Gandhi has made such a
statement; on an earlier occasion also he had
made similar statement. What is the truth of
Gandhi murder; did RSS as an organization had
any role in it? Were members of RSS involved in
it? What was the reaction of RSS followers in the
wake of Gandhi murder? What was the response
of Sardar Patel, the then Home minister in Union
Cabinet to this ghastly murder?
These have been the subject matters of many
books, films and plays, apart from myriad of
books and articles. While the incident, the
commissions of inquiry and the judgment are
there for all to see, the deeper causes of Gandhi
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
murder have not been debated, the underlying
cause of contrasting Nationalisms is not brought
to the fore in most of the debates. Today it is
necessary not only to unearth the incident of
Gandhi murder but it is also imperative to
understand that Gandhi murder had deeper
ideological underpinnings, those related to two
notions of Nationalism, the one Indian
Nationalism, which Gandhi espoused and strived
for and other the Hindu Nationalism, the
nationalism pursued by Godse, Gandhi’s
murderer. Incidentally the current Prime
Ministerial candidate of BJP, the political wing of
RSS, is also boasting about his nationalism being
Hindu, so the matters become all the more
relevant in the current political context.
After the murder of Mahatma, the official RSS line
had been that we have nothing to do with Godse;
neither is he a member of RSS. They could get
away with this as there was no official record of
Page | 32
members of RSS, and they could disown Godse at
legal level. As such Godse joined RSS in 1930 and
very soon rose to be its bauddhik pracharak
(intellectual propagator), “Having worked for the
uplift of the Hindus I felt it necessary to take part
in political activities of the country for the
protection of just rights of Hindus. I therefore left
the Sangh (RSS) and joined Hindu Mahasabha
(Godse, ‘Why I Assassinated Mahatma Gandhi’
1993, and Pg. 102). He held Mahatma
responsible for appeasing Muslims, and thereby
the formation of Pakistan. He joined Hindu
Mahasabha, at that time the only political party
of Hindutva, and became general secretary of its
Pune Branch. In due course he started a
newspaper, as founder editor, called Agrani or
Hindu Rashtra.
In an interview given to ‘The Times of India’ (25
Jan 98) Nathuram’s brother Gopal Godse, who
was also an accomplice in the murder, elaborates
the apparent reasons and Nathuram’s RSS
membership. “The appeasement policy followed
by him (Gandhi) and imposed on all Congress
governments’ encouraged the Muslim separatist
tendencies that eventually created Pakistan….
Technically and theoretically he (Nathuram) was a
member (of RSS), but he stopped workings for it
later. His statement in the court that he had left
the RSS was to protect the RSS workers who
would be imprisoned following the murder. On
the understanding that they (RSS workers) would
benefit from his dissociating himself from the
RSS, he gladly did it.”
This murder was celebrated by RSS followers by
distributing sweets, Sardar Patel wrote, “All their
(RSS) leaders’ speeches were full of communal
poison. As a final result, the poisonous
atmosphere was created in which such a ghastly
tragedy (Gandhi’s murder) became possible. RSS
men expressed their joy and distributed sweets
after Gandhi’s death.” Excerpts from Sardar
Patel’s letters to M S Golwalkar and S P
Mookerjee. (Outlook, April 27, 1998) The way
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
Hindu communalists were spewing poison against
Gandhi, it was logical outcome of their
politics. They used the word wadh for this
murder; this word stands for killing a demon who
is harming the society. In a way Gandhi murder
was the first major offensive of the Hindutva
politics on Indian Nationalism, in a way it was to
herald the onset of bigger dangers which
Hindutva politics has assumed today.
Contrary to the claims of Godse that it was only
his planning, the commissions of inquiry have
stated that it was a conspiracy by various
followers of Hindu Mahsabha-RSS ideology, who
planned to kill the Mahatma as he, a Hindu, was a
big obstacle to turn this country in to a Hindu
nation. Sardar Patel wrote that it was a fanatical
wing of the Hindu Mahasabha directly under
Savarkar that hatched the conspiracy and saw it
through,…of course his assassination was
welcomed by those of the RSS and Hindu
Mahasabha who were strongly opposed to his
way of thinking and to his policy…” (Sardar Patel
Quoted in Justice Kapoor report Chapter I page
43). Justice Jivan Lal Kapoor himself concluded
that “…all the facts taken together were
destructive of any theory other than the
conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group.”
This Hindutva became the base of politics of
Hindu Mahsabha and RSS. Gandhi in contrast was
a Hindu but was opposed to the idea of Nation
being a Hindu nation. Similarly we see Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad; a Muslim never supported the
idea of a Muslim Nation Pakistan.Gandhi and
Hindutva politics were two opposite poles.
Gandhi united the whole nation on secular
grounds, cutting across region, religion and caste.
He was a religious person but he was opposed to
misuse of religion for political goals… “In India, for
whose fashioning I have worked all my life, every
man enjoys equality of status, whatever his
religion is. The state is bound to be wholly
secular” (Harijan August 31, 1947) and,” religion
is a personal affair of each individual, it must not
Page | 33
be mixed up with politics or national affairs”(ibid
pg 90).While Hindu Mahasabha and RSS believed
that this nation is a Hindu nation and minorities
have to remain subordinate to Hindus. They
mostly did not take part in anti British agitations
and struggles. For example Savarkar who was an
anti British revolutionary in the beginning of his
life, after getting released from Andman jail,
never participated in any anti British movement
or joined and national movement. RSS followers
barring Hedgewar, occasionally and in the
beginning also did not take part in freedom
movement. Their main focus was countering the
Muslim communalists and subjugating them, they
were not against the British power as such.
The issue of 55 crores was a mere pretext As a
matter of fact this 55 crore was the Pakistan’s
share from the united treasury. The first
installment of the money was already given and
55 crores were to be given. Meanwhile Pakistan
attacked Kashmir. Indian Government withheld
these 55 crores after Pakistan attack on Kashmir.
Kashmir that time was an independent state and
Gandhi, true to his ethical stand in political arena,
asked the government not to link Pakistan’s share
with the Kashmir problem.
****
8. Gandhi, RSS and Godse
By L.S. Hardenia
Greatest Gandhi Hater
Mahatma Gandhi was always at the top in the list
of leaders who were hated by the RSS. The main
reason for this hatred was their view that Gandhi
was the biggest impediment in spreading the
concept of Hindu Rashtra. The RSS was aware of
the fact that though Gandhi was one of the
greatest Hindus but at the same time, he was the
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
Any way this was a pretext as even before Gandhi
talked about Pakistan’s share of 55 crores,
already four attacks were made on Gandhi’s life,
in some of which Godse was also involved. Jagan
Phadnis in his book ‘Mahatmyachi
Akher’ (Lokvangymay Griha, 1994) correctly
argues that Gandhi murder was not on the
charges propagated by them (Partition and
insistence on paying Pakistan’s dues (55 crore)
from the treasury), but due to the basic deep
differences with the social politics of Gandhi and
that of the followers of the Hindu Rashtra. These
two reasons are proffered merely as a pretext for
the same. We need to understand that when BJP
and company talk of nationalism, they are not
talking of Indian Nationalism but Hindu
nationalism, which is the not so hidden part of
their political agenda. The present attacks on
secular fabric of our polity are yet another
assassination attempts of Mahatma. So talking
about the deeper causes of his murder will
remain relevant till the attacks on secular
democratic values of the country continue to
hover on the nation.
strongest opponent of making India a Hindu
Rashtra. Gandhi was against religion-based
discrimination. Hindu Rashtra will continue to be
a dream if Gandhi is alive. RSS adopted a very
shrewd strategy for the physical elimination of
Gandhi.
Though Gandhi was killed by a staunch RSS
activist, they succeeded in creating an impression
that Godse had nothing to do with the RSS. But
Page | 34
many, including Morarji Desai, former Prime
Minister did not think so. He was of the
confirmed view that Godse was a RSS worker.
Desai writes in his autobiography: "On 30
January, while Bapu was on his way to the prayer
meeting three shots were fired at him from a
revolver. Bapu fell and died soon after. Nathuram
Godse was the man responsible for the murder.
He had been a worker of the Rashtriya Swayam
Sevak Sangh in Poona and also the editor of a
paper.
"The plain-clothes men arrested him on the spot.
Godse, a fanatic Hindu, believed that Bapu was
partial to Muslims and was unjust to Hindus, and
was under the illusion that, by murdering Bapu,
he was rendering a great service to the Hindu
community. As far as I remember, he made a
statement to this effect during his trial.
“I heard this terrible news within half-an-hour of
the incident and was shocked. I did not then
know who had committed the crime and was
worried about one possibility. I was afraid that if
the murderer was a Muslim there would be a
great upheaval and the Hindu community might
resort to undesirable and dangerous steps. This
worry disappeared when I learnt that a Hindu was
responsible for this dastardly act."
Govind Sahai, in his book, analyses the motives
for Gandhi's murder. He writes: (Page 4-5)
"Mahatma Gandhi's murder shook the people
from their complacence and awakened them
from their indifference. A wave of indignation
swept the country. The people rose en masse to
demand complete annihilation of the
organisations, whose ideologies of hatred and
violence had made the assassination of Mahatma
Gandhi in certain ways inevitable. It was,
therefore, necessary now for the Government of
India to take action against an organisation like
the RSS. But when the ban was actually imposed
it proved a boon in disguise for the Sangh and its
leaders. Now, it is commonly admitted that but
for the ban and the arrests of the RSS leaders and
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
workers, the uncontrollable popular frenzy and
indignation of the people following the
assassination of the Mahatma would have greatly
endangered the lives of the Sanghites.
"It would be foolish to say that Gandhiji's murder
was the act of an individual. On the contrary, it
was, in fact, the logical result of a system of
thought and an attitude of mind which the hot-
headed gospel of communal hatred and
continuous preaching of violence and retaliation
had created in the country. The Sangh leadership
contributed a lot to the intensification of this
violent attitude of mind. Public memory is no
doubt short but at the same time, not so short as
to forget how, in those days, it was a common
talk among the RSS people. All sorts of malicious
motives were imputed to Mahatma Gandhi and
he was painted as the greatest enemy of the
Hindus and the most incorrigible friend of the
Muslims."
Who was Godse? This question has been
repeatedly discussed in various books and
periodicals. A prestigious English magazine
brought out a special issue on the RSS. The
‘Outlook’ dated April 27, 1998 discussed in detail
the antecedents of Godse. The piece with the title
"The Godse Dilemma" was written by Rajesh
Joshi. Excerpts from it are being reproduced here.
"The RSS has great difficulty in either
acknowledging or rejecting Nathuram Godse. The
official line is that the RSS had nothing to do with
Godse and he was not a member when he killed
Mahatma Gandhi. But only three months ago,
Professor Rajendra Singh, RSS chief, told
‘Outlook’: "Godse was motivated by Akhand
Bharat. His intention was good but he used the
wrong method."
Who was Godse
“Born in 1908 in the family of a village
postmaster, Godse was drawn to the philosophy
of Hindu nationalism. In his early days, he
participated in stray movements against caste
discrimination to "reform Hindu society". He was
Page | 35
a moderately-educated person, with a fairly good
command on English, greatly influenced by the
writings of Veer Savarkar, president of the
aggressive Hindu Mahasabha. He had also read
Dadabhai Naoroji, Tilak and Gokhale.
In 1930, at the age of 22, Godse became a
member of the RSS, which was then considered
to be an organisation of Marathi Brahmin youths.
Very soon he carved a niche for himself in the
Sangh and became a 'Baudhik Pracharak'
(intellectual propagator). His brother Gopal
Godse says, ‘Nathuram had declared before the
court that he had left the RSS in 1934 as the then
RSS chief was facing a lot of trouble. But he
actually never left the organisation.’ In those
days, the RSS didn't maintain a record of the
membership, and, therefore, the organisation has
littledifficulty in disowning Godse. The RSS
headquarters in Delhi recently instructed Suruchi
Prakashan not to sell any literature on Godse.
“A unified India, comprising Pakistan, Bangladesh
and Myanmar was Godse's dream and in his will
he decreed that his ‘ashes may be immersed in
the holy Sindhu river when she will again flow
freely under the aegis of the flag of Hindustan.’
“As a member of the RSS, Godse once went on a
tour with its founder KB Hedgewar. In 1934, he
left the RSS because he wanted to transform the
RSS- ‘a cultural outfit’- into an aggressive Hindu
political party. At that time, the Hindu
Mahasabha was the only ‘political party of
Hindus’ which preached militarisation of Hindus.
Soon after coming into contact with Savarkar,
Godsebecame a member of the party. Later, he
became general secretary of its Pune branch. But
gradually he started feeling uncomfortable in the
Hindu Mahasabha because he thought Savarkar
was being soft on the Congress.
“In 1944, Godse, along with his friend Narayan
Apte, launched a newspaper called ‘Hindu
Rashtra’ from Pune to propagate the ideology. He
was closely monitoring Gandhi, whose efforts to
bring about Hindu-Muslim unity infuriated him.
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
Interestingly, when MS Golwalkar became RSS
chief, he ridiculed Gandhi's stand of "no Swaraj
without Hindu-Muslim unity". At 5.10 pm on
January 30, 1948, Godse fired three shots at
Gandhi at Birla Bhavan. His newspaper carried the
story of the assassination mentioning the name of
its editor as the assassin. Godse and accomplice
Apte were hanged in Ambala jail on November
15, 1949.
“After the murder of Mahatma Gandhi in January
1948, the RSS was banned by the government.
Although not directly involved in the
assassination, the organisation had been active in
the Punjab violence, and had much support
among disaffected refugees. Their worldview was
akin to Nathuram Godse's, and it was widely
rumoured that RSS men had privately celebrated
his killing of the Mahatma. Writing to the Punjab
government, two weeks after Gandhi's death,
Nehru said that 'we have had enough suffering
already in India because of the activities of the
RSS and like groups...These people have the blood
of Mahatma Gandhi on their hands, and pious
disclaimers and disassociation now have no
meaning.'
Patel Bans RSS
“So the RSS was banned, and its cadres arrested.
However, after a year, the government decided to
make the organisation legal once more. Its head,
M.S. Golwalkar, had now agreed to ask his men to
‘profess loyalty to the Constitution of India and
the national flag; and to restrict the Sangh's
activities to the cultural sphere abjuring violence
or secrecy'. The RSS chief promised the Home
Minister, Vallabhbhai Patel, that 'while rendering
help to the people in distress, we have laid our
emphasis on promoting peace in the country'.
Patel himself had mixed feelings about the RSS.
While deploring their anti-Muslim rhetoric, he
admired their dedication and discipline”.
Gandhi's murder gave a big jolt to the RSS. There
was wide-spread anger against the RSS all over
the country and also abroad. Immediately after
Page | 36
the murder, a ban was imposed on the RSS. The
Government of India Communiqué banning the
RSS was issued on Feb. 4, 1948. The text of the
communiqué is being reproduced here:
"In their resolution of February 2, 1948, the
Government of India declared their
determination to root out the forces of hate and
violence that are at work in our country and
imperil the freedom of the Nation and darken her
fair name. In pursuance of this policy, the
Government of India have decided to declare
unlawful the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the
Chief Commissioner's Provinces. Similar action is
also being taken in the Governors' Provinces.
"As democratic governments, the Government of
India and the provincial governments have always
been anxious to allow reasonable scope for
genuine political, social and economic
activities to all parties and organisations,
including those whose policies and purposes
differ from, or even run counter to their own,
subject to the consideration that such activities
should not transgress certain commonly
recognised limits of propriety or law. The
professed aims and objects of the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh are to promote the physical,
intellectual and moral
well-being of the Hindus and also to foster
feelings of brotherhood, love and service
amongst them. Government themselves are most
anxious to improve the general material and
intellectual well-being of all sections of the
people and have got schemes on hand which are
designed to carry out these objects, particularly
the provision of physical training and education in
military matters to the youth of the country.
Government have, however, noticed with regret
that in practice, members of the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh have not adhered to their
professed ideals.
Dangerous Activities of RSS
"Undesirable and even dangerous activities have
been carried on by members of the Sangh. It has
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
been found that in several parts of the country,
individual members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh have indulged in acts of violence involving
arson, robbery, dacoity, and murder and have
collected illicit arms and ammunitions. They have
been found circulating leaflets exhorting people
to resort to terrorist methods, to collect fire arms,
to create disaffection against the government and
suborn the police and the military. These
activities have been carried on under a cloak of
secrecy, and the government have considered
from time to time, how far these activities
rendered it incumbent on them to deal with the
Sangh in its corporate capacity. The last occasion
when the government defined this attitude was
when the Premiers and the Home Ministers of
provinces met in Delhi in conference towards the
end of November.
"It was then unanimously agreed that the stage
when the Sangh should be dealt with as an
association had not yet arrived and that
individuals should continue to be dealt with
sternly as hitherto. The objectionable and harmful
activities of the Sangh have, however, continued
unabated and the cult of violence sponsored and
inspired by the activities of the Sangh has claimed
many victims. The latest and the most precious to
fall was Gandhiji himself.
"In these circumstances it is the bounden duty of
the government to take effective measures to
curb this re-appearance of violence in a virulent
form and as a first step to this end, they have
decided to declare the Sangh as an unlawful
association. Government have no doubt that in
taking this measure they have the support of all
law-abiding citizens, of all those who have the
welfare of the country at heart” - (RSS, Desraj
Goyal, P 201)
Soon after the release of Guru Golwalkar, a Press
Note was issued on Nov. 14, 1948 explaining the
issues involved. The press note is being
reproduced here:
Page | 37
"Soon after his release from prison in Nagpur
after the statutory period of six months, Mr.
Golwalkar, head of the RSS organisation, made
approaches to the government which indicated a
possibility that the activities of that organisation
might be diverted and confined to channels which
would have no harmful effect on the communal
situation in the country. He also expressed a
desire to interview the Home Minister. In order to
enable him to do so, the Government of India
requested the CP government to cancel an order
issued by them under which Mr. Golwalkar's
movements had been restricted to the city of
Nagpur and to facilitate his departure for Delhi
for the specific purpose of seeing the Home
Minister.
"Mr. Golwalkar, accordingly, came to Delhi and
had his first interview with the Home Minister
soon after his arrival. There was an exchange of
views and Mr.. Golwalkar wanted some time to
consult his followers in an attempt to influence
them on the right lines. Some days later, he had
his second interview during which he expressed
his inability to bind himself to any change until
the ban was lifted. He felt that the lifting of the
ban would strengthen his hands in dealing with
his followers. Simultaneously, however, the
Government of India had got in touch with
provincial governments to acquaint themselves
with their views and the latest information about
the activities of the RSS. The information received
by the Government of India shows that the
activities carried on in various forms and ways by
the people associated with the RSS tend to be
anti-national and often subversive and violent
and that persistent attempts are being made by
the RSS to revive an atmosphere in the country
which was productive of such disastrous
consequences in the past. For these reasons, the
provincial governments have declared themselves
***
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
opposed to the withdrawal of the ban and the
Government of India have concurred with the
view of the provincial governments.
"This position was conveyed to Mr. Golwalkar
towards the end of the last month and he was
told that since the purpose for which he had been
allowed to come to Delhi had been served, he
should now return to Nagpur. Mr. Golwalkar was
not prepared to accept this position and
expressed a desire to see the Home Minister and
the Prime Minister on their return to Delhi. The
Home Minister declined to grant a further
interview, but in order to give him a chance to
interview the Prime Minister on his return, if the
latter so desired, he was allowed to remain in
Delhi under certain restrictive orders issued by
the District Magistrate of Delhi. Mr. Golwalkar
declined to accept the orders of restrictions, but
has made no attempts to contravene the
restrictions imposed on him. He has written
letters both to the Prime Minister and Home
Minister explaining inter alia that the RSS agrees
entirely in the conception of a secular state for
India and that it accepts the National Flag of the
country and requesting that the ban imposed on
the organisation in February should now be lifted.
These professions of the RSS leader are, however,
quite inconsistent with the practice of his
followers and for the reasons already explained
above, the Government of India find themselves
unable to advise provincial governments to lift
the ban. The Prime Minister has, therefore,
declined the interview which Mr. Golwalkar had
sought.
"Mr. Golwalkar is accordingly being informed that
he should make immediate arrangements to
return to Nagpur. The Government of India are
also taking appropriate steps to ensure that Mr.
Golwalkar complies with these instructions”. (RSS,
Desraj Goyal, P 203).
Page | 38
 Book review
9. Preserving the Truth Behind Gandhi’s Murder
By Hari Narayan
BEYOND DOUBT — A Dossier on Gandhi’s Assassination: Compiled by Teesta Setalvad; Tulika Books, 35 A/1 (ground
floor), Shahpur Jat, New Delhi-110049. Rs. 450.
June 25, 1934 has got a curious connection to the
three shots fired at around 5:10 pm on the fateful
Friday of January 30, 1948, shots that would go
on to silence the life of a 79-year-old frail but
resolute Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. For it
was on that day, while on a visit to Pune, that
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
Gandhiji witnessed the first of six attempts on his
life, the sixth of which was to result in his death.
That two of the four subsequent unsuccessful
attempts were to involve his eventual assassin,
Nathuram Godse, did not force law enforcement
authorities to keep an eye on the misguided
Hindu fanatic. The act of murder of an individual
to whom poet Rabindranath Tagore gave the
moniker ‘Mahatma’, one who Subhash Chandra
Bose referred to as ‘Father of the Nation’, has
rightly been called by Teesta Setalvad in this
dossier as the first act of terror committed in
independent India. For what was it if not the
result of an organised conspiracy on the part of a
section of people to spread terror among Indian
public at large?
Setalvad, the curator of this collection of articles,
documents and excerpts from books on the
assassination, says the book’s aim is to collect and
preserve the archival truths associated with the
Mahatma’s murder, documents that she feels are
under threat of cleansing under the present
dispensation.
The murder, she says, was “a declaration of war
and a statement of intent.” Declaration of war by
a section of society, which remained largely on
the fringes during the independence struggle.
This was a section that bore visceral dislike
toward the idea of composite culture and
inclusive nationhood advocated by the Mahatma.
However, subsequent events, the most seminal of
which was the adoption of an intellectual
Page | 39
masterpiece in the form of the Indian
Constitution on January 26, 1950, make it clear
that the assassination failed on both counts.
The Fundamental Rights and Economic Principles,
which first found mention in the Karachi
Resolution of 1931 and to which this book refers
to as the antithesis of all that the Hindu Right
stood for, were incorporated and, later,
institutionalised by the three pillars of our
democracy. It was Magna Carta more than
Manusmriti that guided the way we govern our
political life. However, as indicated in different
sections of this book, the majoritarian ideology
that led to Gandhiji’s killing and communal
violence in independent India continued to
flourish under the patronage of fringe
organisations.
A considerable portion of the book reproduces
archival files, and documents. However, the parts
in which it is at its most impressive are the places
where the lucidity of literature trumps the
monotony of journalism. For instance, the essay
‘The Last Hours of the Mahatma’ by Stephen
Murphy, where it is indicated that the Mahatma
had a foreboding on that Friday morning that he
won’t live for long. Or the compassionate
editorials published by Pakistani newspapers
which paid poignant tributes to the Mahatma,
which prove that his ideas did have their admirers
in India’s conjoined twin toward the west in its
initial days. One of them that appeared in
Pakistan Times compared his killing to the
crucifixion of Christ. Another one, by poet Faiz
Ahmad Faiz, calling Gandhiji “a symbol of hope
and courage” to Muslims, said his death was a
loss to both countries.
The most important piece here is the English
translation of Jagan Phadnis’s book Mahatmyachi
Akher (End of the Sage) on which the strength of
Setalvad’s collection rests. Phadnis stresses that
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
the murder was a failed attempt to silence the
soul of someone who, in life and death,
championed right to equality and dignity of the
masses, someone whose thinking shaped the very
idea of an independent India. Pankaj Mishra, in
his biography of Buddha, compared the
philosophy of Gautama to that propagated by
Gandhi — the belief that a change in attitude can
be brought about by appealing to one’s
conscience. Gandhiji believed that in practicing
non-violence, one’s sympathies should be
expressed toward the oppressor as well as the
victim, to the point where the oppressor
undergoes a change of heart.
His death, however, failed to bring about a
change of heart in his assassins. Be it Nathuram
or his brother and co-conspirator Gopal Godse,
whose interview in 1994 to Arvind Rajagopal is
reproduced in this book, they remained
unrepentant till the end. However, had he
survived on that Friday, Gandhiji — having
forgiven Godse for one of the previous attempts
on his life — would have chosen not to consider
him an adversary.
This book holds the Hindu Right guilty of
propagating the majoritarian idea of Hindu
Rashtra. However, the mainstreaming of the kind
of inclusive politics that the Mahatma visualised
made sure that such impulses, which in due
course became de rigeur in Pakistan, were kept in
check.
The kind of admiration the Mahatma invokes in
different sections of not just our society but also
that of other nations, in contrast to the revulsion
his antitheses provoke, proves that moderation
triumphs over vituperation in the long run.
Keywords: Gandhi assasination, Nathuram
Godse, Karachi Resolution, Teesta
Setalvad, Beyond Doubt — A Dossier on Gandhi’s
Assassination, history books
Page | 40
 Book Review
10. Savarkar and Hindutva
By A.G. Noorani
On a sunny humid Saturday morning, with
nothing to do at home, I headed out to look for
myself the bookstore Kitab Khana, located in an
area called Fort in Mumbai. Couple of months ago
I had passed through dark alleys near C.S.T and
had stumbled upon a large mansion-like building
with ‘Kitab Mahal’ written on its large entrance,
underneath ‘Indo American Society’ and I
mistakenly assumed it to be the bookstore. The
reflecting sunlight made me more level headed
and I searched for address of Kitab Khaana on my
phone while standing in front of Kitab Mahal. I
walked along crowded streets, to be surprised by
a roadside mobile accessories vendor who
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
recognized make of my phone by glancing at its
backside for a fraction of a second! On entering
Kitab Khana, one could feel its rich interiors with
marble statues lining top of the shelves on one
side, with the other one leading to a café located
inside the store. History section disappointingly
was suffocating small – there were hardly any
books I was unaware of. So amongst the few
which I had not heard of, ‘Savarkar and Hindutva
– The Godse Connection’ by A.G. Noorani caught
my eye. A.G. Noorani is a regular columnist in
Frontline magazine, and I devour his well
researched and sometimes difficult to understand
book reviews. He also practiced as an advocated
in Supreme Court of India. Rise of Hindutva is an
illuminating one in a land revered for moderate
Hindus and accepting nature of Hinduism.
Christophe Jaffrelot’s ‘Hindu Nationalist
Movement and Indian Politics’ lay unread on my
shelf, but I couldn’t stop myself from buying this
one.
Mr. Noorani starts with efforts of BJP from 1990s
onwards towards reviving the image of Vinayak
Damodar Savarkar. However, he writes, “only in
2002 could Lal Kishen Advani, the BJP’s foremost
exponent of Hindutva, muster courage to laud
Savarkar as a national hero”. That Savarkar’s
portrait replaced that of Gandhi during BJP’s rule
cannot be more despicable and ironical given that
Nathuram Godse, was Savarkar’s disciple, and
Gandhi’s assassin. Because of ideological
differences in politics of BJP and Congress, BJP
had to bring out its side of contribution towards
achievement of Indian independence, and this is
Page | 41
what they came up with. Coverage of the book is
wide indeed – from books to articles, from
speeches to court orders – everything has been
unearthed to bring facts on the table. He laments
that “a fair and definitive biography of Savarkar is
yet to appear. The standard work in English is
Dhananjay Keer’s biography which often borders
on hagiography”. Author mentions hard work put
in by Savarkar for his first book The First Indian
War of Independence – 1857, a “veritable classic”
and gives him credit where due.
However, the so called revolutionary character of
Savarkar falls apart when he is sent to jail owing
to his involvement in two murders of British men.
He was sent to Cellular Jail in Port Blair, wherein
after spending considerable amount in jail, he
bows to British masters and his family is putting
frantic efforts to get him released. The
“submissive, even obsequious” nature of him is
evident from verbatim letters written by him to
British, asking for forgiveness. The point which
stirs a debate in my head is when it is mentioned
that “Savarkar was the first to propound the two-
nation theory. He propounded it first in Hindutva
in 1923” and “Jinnah propounded his two-nation
theory in 1939”. This was something I couldn’t
immediately fathom because MJ Akbar, in
Tinderbox, had mentioned and clearly written
how the movement for separation of Muslims
and Hindus (for fear of being left behind after the
British) had roots in eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. This topic however will need more
research (1, 2) and reading from my side before
commenting further. I felt the author should have
delved deeper about why he believes only
Savarkar was the first ever proponent and not
elite Muslims (especially of Bengal) in 18th and
19th centuries, rather than just accuse him of the
Gandhi’s Assassination- Godse and RSS Connection
disastrous theory on the basis of his writings in
Hindutva.
About Gandhi’s murder, the author, based on
various court orders and letters, concludes that
Savarkar was involved in the planning of it,
however RSS (as an organization) wasn’t – but
members of Hindu Mahasabha were directly
involved in the assassination. In chapter ‘Gandhi’s
Murder’ he chalks out movements of suspects
and how their first attempt at assassination failed
and succeeded only during their second attempt,
both in Delhi. Accused in the case were Nathuram
Godse, Narayan Apte, Vishnu Karkare, Madanlal
Pahwa, Shankar Kistayya, Gopal Godse, V.D.
Savarkar and Dattatraya Parchure. Barring
“Kistayya, all were committed Mahasabhaites
blindly loyal to Savarkar”. And it was all the more
surprising to read that “Nathuram Godse and
Apte left by plane on the afternoon of the 17th
arriving at Delhi in the evening and stayed at the
Marina Hotel, then a fairly posh European style
hotel in Connaught Circus”. Author then points to
various statements of accused and action of the
prosecution to nail them. He verbatim quotes
their statements and notes how law is structured
differently for a civil suit and a criminal suit.
Savarkars honorific title of ‘Veer’ is ripped apart
owing to his fawning behavior when in trouble
with the government, whether British or Indian.
His vile-filled articles against Muslims and even
Arabs (during the creation of State of Israel) bring
forth a personality which is less of a revolutionary
and more of an extremist, and extremist however
who is scared to death when faced with
accusations. In the end, Savarkar went scot-free
only because Judge Atma Charan felt “’unsafe’ to
convict Savarkar on Badge’s uncorroborated
evidence even though he had found him to be a
truthful witness”. Though Sardar Patel’s views,
Page | 42
“morally, it is possible that one’s conviction may
be the other way about” (when writing about how
one may be innocent in the eye of law, but not
necessarily morally), and Justice Jivan Lal Kapur
end up nailing the truth by laying bare “the
pattern underlying earlier crimes – Curzon Wylie’s
murder in 1909, Jackson’s murder in 1909, an
attempt to murder Hotson in 1931, and Gandhi’s
murder in 1948”.
This book is not meant for somebody who is
unaware of BJP / RSS / twentieth century Indian
history as it straight away enters into a muddled
world of politics and hardliners. The book is short
with 147 pages barring bibliography. It is a bit
drab in places and repetitive on some aspects of
the case. Author does however cross the line
more often than not by passing crude personal
comments about Savarkar, rather than being
objective about it. Leaving aside the jingoism, it
makes for an eye opener on Savarkar – the man
still leading BJP / RSS towards light of a path not
so righteous.

***

Selected Readings

1. A.G.Noorani: Savarkar and Hindutva-Godse Connection, Left Word

2. Deshraj Goyal: RSS, Radha Krishna, Delhi 2000
3. Teesta Setalvad: Beyond Doubt- A Dossier on Gandhi’s Assassination, Tulika
4. Ram Puniyani: The Second Assassination of Gandhi, Olive, Calicut 2015
5. Jagan Phadnis, ‘Mahatmyachi Akher’ (Lokvangymay Griha, 1994)

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