GOPAL GODSE'S LAST INTERVIEW SAYS THIS
When a person has been felled by three successive bullets at pointblank range, is it medically feasible that he can say 'Hey Ram' at that point of time? Gopal Vinayak Godse, younger brother of Nathuram Godse, who was reportedly present at the Birla House on 30 January, 1948, at the site of the Gandhi assassination, denied the fact that Gandhi had said so. He said that Gandhi, on being shot thrice, immediately slumped down unconscious. According to him, the 'Hey Ram' call was a clever implant into the narrative by the then Government of India to elevate Gandhiji's spiritual stature to sainthood and deify him thus in the eyes of the world for good.
As the interview unfolds, Gopal Godse unequivocally criticises Gandhi on so many counts, from Noakhali to Partition, from his emotional blackmailing and misleading the Hindus into yielding to the Muslims to his opposition and mischievous sidelining of Subhas Chandra Bose post the latter's Congress Presidency at Haripura.
Gopal Godse served a prison term of eighteen years for his plotting to assassinate Gandhi and on release ever remained a shunned character by most Indians save some sympathisers of the Godse cause to save India from further appeasement of Pakistan and the surrender of Hindu interests. But, as may be well imagined, it was a hard life of social ostracism that he and his family had to bear for an act of assassination which the Godses considered as supremely patriotic. These are not my views but the views entertained by the Godse brothers as articulated in Nathuran Godse's brilliant defence in court and by Gopal Godse decades after release when he was finally filmed during this interview.
According to Gopal Godse we ought to remember every year the victims of Noakhali in October, 1946 when Hindus by the thousands were butchered, their womenfolk molested, their property ransacked and masses of them force-converted to Islam. It is our national duty to pay annual homage to them. But such has never been our lot for at the helm of affairs was a very arrogant leader who prided in calling himself secular when he was patently anti-Hindu and pro-Muslim in his dealings.
Gopal Godse goes on to say that Gandhiji used to undertake fasts unto death merely to exert emotional pressure on the Hindus to yield to his demands and not on the Muslims in an equal measure to do the same. Moreover, when it mattered most at the time of Partition, Gandhiji retracted on his public statement that the country would have to be partitioned over his dead body, and meekly accepted Partition without putting up his standard ploy of self-starvation to achieve his end. This was typical of Gandhi who had made many an earlier, so-to-say, fast unto death only to secure his end.
Godse was indignant at Gandhi exhorting the Hindus to die en masse at the hands of the riotous Muslims, should things precipitate to such a state, but not to raise their arms by way of self-defence. That Gandhi was, thus, ever exhorting the Hindus to make extreme sacrifices for their Muslim brothers and never making the same plea to the Muslims was clearly an indication of his pro-Muslim and anti-Hindu stance. Not only that, his exhorting the Hindus to tamely die at the hands of the violent Muslim mobs without a show of resistance was cruel of him and one worth denunciation.
The interview meandered from Manu Smriti to Mustafa Kemal Pasha, from Veer Savarkar to Jinnah and Suhrawardy, but the thematic content of it ever revolved round the injustices that Gandhi had from the beginning of his political career in India done towards the Hindus from Khilafat to the 55 crore rupees which he forced Vallabhbhai Patel to give to Pakistan at the height of the 1948 Kashmir War with which that perfidious State purchased arms to inflict deathly wounds on India. The deaths to the soldiers on our side that resulted from that untimely generosity could be attributed directly to Gandhi and he ought to be held responsible for the loss of those lives.
Whether one agrees entirely with Gopal Godse and his interpretation of history in relation to Gandhi or not, one cannot ignore the reasonableness of most of his arguments and the rectitude of the gentleman despite the lifelong rigours he had to suffer on account of his connection with the gory deed of 30 January, 1948. How history will judge Nathuram Godse and his associates only time will tell but it is necessary to take a fresh look at the motivations and their articulated justifications for such that had impelled them unto treading such a bloody path in their bid to save the motherland from further ruin. Unto that end this essay has been written and now I take leave of my readers as they ruminate on the pros and cons of this epic event in India's modern history -- the assassination of Gandhi.
Written by Sugata Bose
When a person has been felled by three successive bullets at pointblank range, is it medically feasible that he can say 'Hey Ram' at that point of time? Gopal Vinayak Godse, younger brother of Nathuram Godse, who was reportedly present at the Birla House on 30 January, 1948, at the site of the Gandhi assassination, denied the fact that Gandhi had said so. He said that Gandhi, on being shot thrice, immediately slumped down unconscious. According to him, the 'Hey Ram' call was a clever implant into the narrative by the then Government of India to elevate Gandhiji's spiritual stature to sainthood and deify him thus in the eyes of the world for good.
As the interview unfolds, Gopal Godse unequivocally criticises Gandhi on so many counts, from Noakhali to Partition, from his emotional blackmailing and misleading the Hindus into yielding to the Muslims to his opposition and mischievous sidelining of Subhas Chandra Bose post the latter's Congress Presidency at Haripura.
Gopal Godse served a prison term of eighteen years for his plotting to assassinate Gandhi and on release ever remained a shunned character by most Indians save some sympathisers of the Godse cause to save India from further appeasement of Pakistan and the surrender of Hindu interests. But, as may be well imagined, it was a hard life of social ostracism that he and his family had to bear for an act of assassination which the Godses considered as supremely patriotic. These are not my views but the views entertained by the Godse brothers as articulated in Nathuran Godse's brilliant defence in court and by Gopal Godse decades after release when he was finally filmed during this interview.
According to Gopal Godse we ought to remember every year the victims of Noakhali in October, 1946 when Hindus by the thousands were butchered, their womenfolk molested, their property ransacked and masses of them force-converted to Islam. It is our national duty to pay annual homage to them. But such has never been our lot for at the helm of affairs was a very arrogant leader who prided in calling himself secular when he was patently anti-Hindu and pro-Muslim in his dealings.
Gopal Godse goes on to say that Gandhiji used to undertake fasts unto death merely to exert emotional pressure on the Hindus to yield to his demands and not on the Muslims in an equal measure to do the same. Moreover, when it mattered most at the time of Partition, Gandhiji retracted on his public statement that the country would have to be partitioned over his dead body, and meekly accepted Partition without putting up his standard ploy of self-starvation to achieve his end. This was typical of Gandhi who had made many an earlier, so-to-say, fast unto death only to secure his end.
Godse was indignant at Gandhi exhorting the Hindus to die en masse at the hands of the riotous Muslims, should things precipitate to such a state, but not to raise their arms by way of self-defence. That Gandhi was, thus, ever exhorting the Hindus to make extreme sacrifices for their Muslim brothers and never making the same plea to the Muslims was clearly an indication of his pro-Muslim and anti-Hindu stance. Not only that, his exhorting the Hindus to tamely die at the hands of the violent Muslim mobs without a show of resistance was cruel of him and one worth denunciation.
The interview meandered from Manu Smriti to Mustafa Kemal Pasha, from Veer Savarkar to Jinnah and Suhrawardy, but the thematic content of it ever revolved round the injustices that Gandhi had from the beginning of his political career in India done towards the Hindus from Khilafat to the 55 crore rupees which he forced Vallabhbhai Patel to give to Pakistan at the height of the 1948 Kashmir War with which that perfidious State purchased arms to inflict deathly wounds on India. The deaths to the soldiers on our side that resulted from that untimely generosity could be attributed directly to Gandhi and he ought to be held responsible for the loss of those lives.
Whether one agrees entirely with Gopal Godse and his interpretation of history in relation to Gandhi or not, one cannot ignore the reasonableness of most of his arguments and the rectitude of the gentleman despite the lifelong rigours he had to suffer on account of his connection with the gory deed of 30 January, 1948. How history will judge Nathuram Godse and his associates only time will tell but it is necessary to take a fresh look at the motivations and their articulated justifications for such that had impelled them unto treading such a bloody path in their bid to save the motherland from further ruin. Unto that end this essay has been written and now I take leave of my readers as they ruminate on the pros and cons of this epic event in India's modern history -- the assassination of Gandhi.
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo : left -- Nathuram Godse ; right -- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
P.S. : Given below are the YouTube links to the last interview of Gopal Godse and one more like video which have formed the subject matter of this essay :
https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.youtube.com/
P.S. : Given below are the YouTube links to the last interview of Gopal Godse and one more like video which have formed the subject matter of this essay :
https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.youtube.com/
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