Customer Reviews

The men who killed Gandhi

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book, describing the plot that was behind the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, follows the dark by-alleys of Pune (then known as Poona) and into the homes of the middle class Brahmins who were incensed at the inexplicable sacrifices made by Gandhi on behalf of the new nation, favoring Pakistan, a breakaway state that had just attacked its borders militarily. Men who were educated and principled (Godse was a journalist and Apte worked for the Air Force) were driven equally by principle and by hate to commit the ultimate action against the state.

The story really describes a clash of principles between an aging man, who helped free a nation from the British, had never administered or governed a thing in his life, and was driven by impractical ideas of eternal sacrifices to buy peace against an equally patriotic set of people who believed that the new nation had to hold firm and forge its own identity, free from the dogma and single minded direction from the Father of the Nation and establish a rightful place in secular India and in the world outside for the Hindus who even as a majority were ceding their rights unwillingly because of Gandhi's blackmails to fast unto death and under a hyper-tolerant saintly gift to an enemy who had attacked and occupied its borders..

For me, growing up through the 1950s and 1960s in India, a lot of the attached material including Nathuram Godse's last will and statement was new and unfamilar, as they were banned from publication and was carefully censored by the Indian state. I believe that the Government of India had also banned the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) also on the grounds that they were associated with the act of murder. The ban may well have saved India during those years because what emerges from these documents is a point of view that was contrary and equally valid as the course taken by the Government of India under the urging of Mahatma Gandhi. There would definitely be a risk of a major insurrection after the hanging of Godse if these opinions had surfaced.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, can justify an assasination or any act of murder. This book though evokes some sympathy for a different type of Indian patriot and helps the reader understand the motivations under which they were compelled to try to intervene in the inexorable march of events.

I recommend the book whole-heartedly to people who want a balanced view of Indian history to countermand the official positions taken by the Government of India over the years.