[doctorzlo]

He was born at the beginning of this century on May 19, 1910. His father Vinayakrao was in the postal service, his mother's name was Laxmi.

Vinayakrao was drawing a salary of Rs 15 per month. He used to spend Rs 10 on his family and send Rs 5 to his parents. Vinayakrao and his wife had three sons, none of them survived. They prayed to God, had their fourth son, Nathuram..

The rest of his life was very smooth.

He never stole in his childhood, so there was no question of apologising to his father. He never took a vow of celibacy as He was already practising celibacy. He was moving around the refugee camps and helping the destitute with food and clothes. But he did not wander half-naked because the refugees were naked. he never spun yarn, never cleaned his toilet, never observed silence till he was hanged. There was only one common factor in Gandhi's life and his. They were both the cause of each other's death. He wanted to live for his principles and he was prepared to die for his principles.

[Peptobismol]

nice thread ramya. it would be interesting to get into the mindset of the person who committed one of the most atrocious murders in history.

ramya, have u read Godse's biography? i dont remember the name of the book. it also contains his testimonial in court. he explains why he killed Gandhi. one will realise that he wasnt all evil, but rather a terribly misdirected soul. I think a film like Hey Ram brilliantly captures his point of view with the help of a fictional character. Sad that the film was killed by cheap politics.

[doctorzlo]

Savarkar was aquitted purely on technical grounds. However, his bodyguard and secretary later admitted that Ghodse and Savarkar met twice, just days before Gandhi's murder.

[NeroASERCH]

This site is an attempt to provide some information about the violent assasination of India's great freedom fighter, Mahatma Gandhi, who believed in non-voilence throughout his life. The shocking fact is that the assasins were not headstrong fundamentalists but were highly educated intellectuals who loved their motherland as much, if not more, as Gandhiji. Then why did they do so ? There are two sides to every coin. This is just a humble attempt to flip the coin and bring out the other side of this dark episode in the history.

[brraverishhh]

Godse was not very well educated but he was very fluent speaker and a good Writer in English. He was also a skilled car-driver. He wanted to involve into serious politics and devote himself for the welfare of Hindus. He thought marriage as a hindrance to this and vowed "Brahmachryam" for himself.
In his early days Godse was a devotee of Gandhi. He has been to jail for his participation in "Non-cooperation" movement of Gandhi.

In the year 1937 he met Sawarkkar. He was very much inspired by Sawarkkar and he joined himself in the "Hindu Mahasabha". From 1947 he worked as an editor for "The Hindu Raashtra"

[NeroASERCH]

Good attempt Rami !

I used to hear of many who did not have a belief on the Great Mahatma ! Just wanna know what are their justifications on turning against a man who has dedicated his life to non-violence !

[softy54534]

Even after India Pakistan partition, there were riots in both the countries. Lakhs of Hindus lost their wealth, riches and homes and fled towards India as refugees. Even the trains in which those Hindu refugees fled were not spared. The trains were attacked midway. A refugee train from a place called “Wah” was attacked mercilessly by muslim fanatics. More than 200 hindus were killed in that attack.

Many trains which came to “Koojraath” railway station, in the outskirts of Punjab, were attacked and more 500 passengers were killed. The refugee train “Quetta mail” from Quetta was attacked midway and 850 hindu refugees were massacred.
As a reply to a speech of Master Dharasingh in a Hindu meeting, thousands of Hindus in Rawal Pindi were brutally attacked. Lots and lots of ladies commited suicide to protect their chastity. The incident, which happened on 30th Nov 1947, is reffered as “Raawalpindi rape” by historians.
Godse and Apthe started hating Gandhi from the time he approved India-Pakistan partition.

[NeroASERCH]

Good thread Rami. Hope this gives more light on what happened actually.

I believe Godse wrote a book on what prompted him to assassinate Mahatma but was banned by the then Govt

Whatever said and done , whatever may be his intentions , killing someone is not the ultimate solution

By this time, I mean end 1947, Gandhiji was already virtually away from mainstream activity as he didnt take up any position in politics of free India. It was Nehru who took charge.

Looking forward to exchanges from others .

[brraverishhh]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1751044.stm

[TorryJens]

Mahatma Gandhi, regarded as the father of Indian independence, did not attend the celebrations. Instead, Gandhi - who strived for a united India - spent the day with Indian Muslims in Calcutta.

A Quote from the article link given by dsath !

[Beerinkol]

This is a link to a program in Radio 4 abt British colonialism. This is the 87th episode. The next 3 episodes are related to the same topic as well. This has nothing to do with Godse directly, but would help understand the events that unfolded before partition.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/...isode_87.shtml

[Paul Bunyan]

According to one source , after the state of Pakistan was formed administrative problems started to crop up. Therefore Pakisthan came up with a proposal to link East Pakistan (the present day Bangaladesh ) and west Pakistan . According to the plan a road(you could say an area ) 10 km wide would be linking the east divison with the west. Now the RSS activists feared that if Pakistan requested Gandhi to sanction such a proposal then Gandhi would readily agree and the Mahathma's would be the final word as he was the father of the nation . They knew that Gandhi was pakisthan's best lobby so they had him eliminated through godse. I wonder what would have happened if we had allowed a road to be built across our country. I just can't imagine . Mahathma would have never known the crooked intentions of the Pakistani rulers. Still the assassination will go down in history as the most heinous crime ever committed. And sad too see some hubbers trying to justify his act and trying to show him in good light. And there was loss of lives on both sides. The Hindu brought out a dossier to mark the occasion of India's 50th year of independence. I got a better picture after reading that.

[radikal]

wowwwww good tread rami akka

[TorryJens]

In the Hindu Raashtra daily dated 9/7/1947, Godse had given the following message to the fellow Indians. “Brothers ! Our mother land has been cut into pieces. The eagles have torn her skin into bits. Hindu womens are being raped in the middle of the road. How long can we tolerate this. It’s a shame that lakhs of Hindus live like refugees in their own country. Women being raped burns my heart.”

He warned Gandhiji “Gandhiji ! By approving the Pakistan partition, you have stabbed the nation. Unless you change your activities, you must face harsh consequences. We consider the dividers of our nation as traitors our nation.”

[brraverishhh]

Noakhali, was another place which was badly hit by communal riots. The place was mainly a Hindu area, but there were no protectors there. At first the policemen would come into a village and force the Hindu villagers to surrender whatever arms they possessed by telling them that the Government had made even the possession of swords and knives an offence.

Then the Muslim mobs would swoop down on the defenseless Hindu villages. Accomplices would point out the houses of the richer Hindus. They would be looted and burned and the men killed, the women raped. Hindu women were regarded almost as a kind of perquisite of the Muslim elite.

[TorryJens]

Thanks for all who visited this thread...

One clarification. This thread does not go into whether Gandhi was good or Godse was good.. It just tries to turn back into some black pages of history...
What every one is made to believe is Godse is one devil who killed the divine Gandhi. But as in any case, there is another side of coin which everyone ignores/ overlooks. This thread is an effort to look into the other side of the coin..

[Peptobismol]

Gandhi had been to Noakhali at that time. Karkare another member of Hindu mahasabha met him there and explained the cruelties done to Hindus. But Gandhiji closed his eyes and replied “I haven’t seen any such incidents and my Islamic brothers would have never acted like that.”
Gandhiji after he returned from Noakhali was upset to find communal riots happening in Delhi also. So he started his Fasting till death. This fasting started on 13 January 1948. He had 7 petitions to the Indian Govt and an additional important goal.

What are the 7 petitions....

More to come

[Lt_Apple]

Thanks for all who visited this thread...

One clarification. This thread does not go into whether Gandhi was good or Godse was good.. It just tries to turn back into some black pages of history...
What every one is made to believe is Godse is one devil who killed the divine Gandhi. But as in any case, there is another side of coin which everyone ignores/ overlooks. This thread is an effort to look into the other side of the coin..

Yes Rami, u r right there are 2 sides of a coin. But we often forget who tossed the coin.
There are 3 dimensions to this,
1) The tossing of the coin.
2)Hindu killings on one side.
3)Muslim killings on the other.

Both Hindus and Muslims were killed, raped, looted and lost their homeland? Its a strange paradox that Musharaf's native/birth place is in India while Advani's is in Pakistan.
I wouldn't agree that Gandhi was the only deciding soul who agreed for partition. They were lots of bigger players and it falls down to every one of them as well. Not least of all the 'ruler'. Do you know why the 1946 pre-partition talks failed?
Blaming partition on one person is not fair.

The British knew that religious tensions were flaring, so why did not they deploy adequate troops during partition? After enjoying all the benefits from India for 100s of years, the least they could have done was a proper pull out. Its a shame that they haven't learnt from their past mistakes and are hell bent on doing the same thing in Iraq all over again (under American wings). There is something with labour governments and messing up nations.

Recently i watched an episode of 'We the People' filmed in Pakistan. It was interesting to hear the Pakistani views on partition. One elderly journalist said that leaders from both sides should apologize unconditionally to both sides. However the younger generation seemed not to approve the idea. What is done cannot be reversed and they just want to move on. Don't we all?

[Fegasderty]

DSath .. The views I am just putting here are the views of Godse on partition.. not my views..

[Big A]

Am glad you clarified that Rami.