Got this amazing fwd!
It is my humble request to all the readers to read this piece because it has that rare part of our history that is so important but is shunned all the time and is treated as a taboo.
I've maintained the original format of the mail.
WHY I KILLED GANDHI!!!
NATHURAM GODSE 'S ADDRESS IN COURT*
*Gandhiji Assassin: Nathuram Godse's Final Address to the Court*.
Nathuram Godse was arrested immediately after he assassinated Gandhiji,
based on a F. I. R. filed by Nandlal Mehta at the Tughlak Road Police
station at Delhi .
*The trial, which was held in camera, began on 27th May
1948 and concluded on 10th February 1949. He was sentenced to death..*
An appeal to the Punjab High Court, then in session at Simla, did not find
favourable and the sentence was upheld.
*The statement that you are about to
read is the last made by Godse before the Court on the 5th of May 1949**. *
*Such was the power and eloquence of this statement that one of the judges,
G. D. Khosla, later wrote, "I have, however, no doubt that had the audience
of that day been constituted into a jury and entrusted with the task of
deciding Godse's appeal, they would have brought a verdict of 'not Guilty'
by an overwhelming majority"**
*
*WHY I KILLED GANDHI*
"Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu
religion, Hindu history, and Hindu culture.
*I had, therefore, been
intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole.
* As I grew up I developed a tendency
to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms,
political or religious.
*That is why I worked actively for the eradication
of untouchables and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined
RSS wing of anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus were of
equal status as to rights, social, and religious and should be considered
high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a
particular caste or profession. *
I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners in which
thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Chamars and Bhangis
participated. *We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each
other. I have read the speeches and writings of Ravana, Chanakiya, Dadabhai
Naoroji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and
modern history of India* and some prominent countries like England , France
, America , and Russia . Moreover I studied the tenets of Socialism and
Marxism. But above all *I studied very closely whatever Veer Savarkar and
Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have
contributed more to the molding of the thought and action of the Indian
people during the last thirty years* or so, than any other single factor has
done.
All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was my first duty to
serve Hinduism and Hindus both as a patriot and as a world citizen. *To
secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores
(300 million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and the
well-being of all India , one fifth of human race. This conviction led me
naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanghtanist ideology and program,
which alone, I came to believe, could win and preserve the national
independence of Hindustan , my Motherland, and enable her to render true
service to humanity as well. *
*Since the year 1920, that is, after the demise of Lokamanya Tilak,
Gandhiji's influence in the Congress first increased and then became supreme
*. His activities for public awakening were phenomenal in their intensity *and
were reinforced by the slogan of truth and non-violence* which he paraded
ostentatiously before the country. No sensible or enlightened person could
object to those slogans. In fact there is nothing new or original in them.
They are implicit in every constitutional public movement. But it is nothing
but a mere dream if you imagine that the bulk of mankind is, or can ever
become, capable of scrupulous adherence to these lofty principles in its
normal life from day to day.
In fact, honour, duty, and love of one's own kith and kin and country might
often compel us to disregard non-violence and to use force. *I could never
conceive that an armed resistance to an aggression is unjust*. I would
consider it a religious and moral duty to resist and, if possible, to
overpower such an enemy by use of force. *[In the Ramayana] Rama killed
Ravana* in a tumultuous fight and relieved Sita.. [In the Mahabharata] , *
Krishna** killed Kansa *to end his wickedness; and Arjuna had to fight and
slay quite a number of his friends and relations including the revered
Bhishma because the latter was on the side of the aggressor. It is my firm
belief that in dubbing Rama, Krishna , and Arjuna as guilty of violence, the
*Mahatma betrayed a total ignorance* of the springs of human action.
*In more recent history, it was the heroic fight put up by Chhatrapati
Shivaji that first checked and eventually destroyed the Muslim tyranny in
India* . It was absolutely essentially for Shivaji to overpower and kill an
aggressive Afzal Khan, failing which he would have lost his own life. In
condemning history's *towering warriors like Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru
Gobind Singh as misguided patriots, Gandhiji has merely exposed his
self-conceit. * He was, paradoxical as it may appear a violent pacifist who
brought untold calamities on the country in the name of truth and
non-violence, while Rana Pratap, Shivaji, and the Guru will remain enshrined
in the hearts of their countrymen for ever for the freedom they brought to
them.
The accumulating provocation of thirty-two years, culminating in his last
pro-Muslim fast, at last goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of
Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately. *Gandhi had done very well
in South Africa to uphold the rights and well-being of the Indian community
there. But when he finally returned to India he developed a subjective
mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right
or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his
infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and
carry on his own way. *
Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. *Either Congress had
to surrender its will to his and had to be content* with playing second
fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive
vision, *or it had to carry on without him.*
*He alone was the Judge of everyone and every thing*; he was the master
brain guiding the civil disobedience movement; no other could know the
technique of that movement. He alone knew when to begin and when to withdraw
it. The movement might succeed or fail, it might bring untold disaster, and
political reverses but that could make no difference to the Mahatma's
infallibility. 'A Satyagrahi can never fail' was his formula for declaring
his own infallibility and nobody except himself knew what a Satyagrahi
is. *Thus,
the Mahatma became the judge and jury in his own cause. These childish
insanities and obstinacies, coupled with a most severe austerity of life,
ceaseless work and lofty character made Gandhi formidable and irresistible.
*
Many people thought that his politics were irrational but they had either to
withdraw from the Congress or place their intelligence at his feet to do
with as he liked. *In a position of such absolute irresponsibility Gandhi
was guilty of blunder after blunder, failure after failure, disaster after
disaster. Gandhi's pro-Muslim policy is blatantly in his perverse attitude
on the question of the national language of India .* It is quite obvious
that Hindi has the most prior claim to be accepted as the premier language.
In the beginning of his career in India , Gandhi *gave a great impetus to
Hindi but as he found that the Muslims did not like it, he became a champion
of what is called Hindustani.. Everybody in India knows that there is no
language called Hindustani;* it has no grammar; it has no vocabulary. It is
a mere dialect, it is spoken, but not written. It is a bastard tongue and
cross-breed between Hindi and Urdu, and not even the Mahatma's sophistry
could make it popular. But in his desire *to please the Muslims he insisted
that Hindustani alone should be the national language of India .* His blind
followers, of course, supported him and the so-called hybrid language began
to be used. The charm and purity of the Hindi language was to be prostituted
to please the Muslims. All his experiments were at the expense of the
Hindus.
>*From August 1946 onwards the private armies of the Muslim League began a
massacre of the Hindus. The then Viceroy, Lord Wavell, though distressed at
what was happening, would not use his powers under the Government of India
Act of 1935 to prevent the rape, murder and arson. The Hindu blood began to
flow from Bengal to Karachi with some retaliation by the Hindus. The Interim
Government formed in September was sabotaged by its Muslim League
member right from its inception,
*but the more they became disloyal and treasonable to the government of
which they were a part, the greater was Gandhi's infatuation for them.* Lord
Wavell had to resign as he could not bring about a settlement and he was
succeeded by Lord Mountbatten. King Log was followed by King Stork. *The
Congress which had boasted of its nationalism and socialism secretly
accepted Pakistan literally at the point of the bayonet and abjectly
surrendered to Jinnah. India was vivisected and one-third of the Indian
territory became foreign land to us from August 15, 1947.*
Lord Mount batten came to be described in Congress circles as the greatest
Viceroy and Governor-General this country ever had. The official date for
handing over power was fixed for June 30, 1948, *but Mount batten with his
ruthless surgery gave us a gift of vivisected India ten months in advance.
This is what Gandhi had achieved after thirty years of undisputed
dictatorship and this is what Congress party calls 'freedom' and 'peaceful
transfer of power'. The Hindu-Muslim unity bubble was finally burst and a
the ocratic state was established with the consent of Nehru and his crowd
and they have called 'freedom won by them with sacrifice' - whose sacrifice?
When top leaders of Congress, with the consent of Gandhi, divided and tore
the country - which we consider a deity of worship - my mind was filled with
direful anger. *
One of the conditions imposed by Gandhi for his breaking of the fast unto
death related to the mosques in Delhi occupied by the Hindu refugees. But
when Hindus in Pakistan were subjected to violent attacks he did not so much
as utter a single word to protest and censure the Pakistan Government or the
Muslims concerned. Gandhi was shrewd enough to know that while undertaking a
fast unto death, had he imposed for its break some condition on the Muslims
in Pakistan , there would have been found hardly any Muslims who could have
shown some grief if the fast had ended in his death. It was for this reason
that he purposely avoided imposing any condition on the Muslims. He was
fully aware of from the experience that Jinnah was not at all perturbed or
influenced by his fast and the Muslim League hardly attached any value to
the inner voice of Gandhi. Gandhi is being referred to as the Father of the
Nation.
*But if that is so, he had failed his paternal duty in as much as he has
acted very treacherously to the nation by his consenting to the partitioning
of it. I stoutly maintain that Gandhi has failed in his duty*.
*He has proved to be the Father of Pakistan*. His inner-voice, his spiritual
power and his doctrine of non-violence of which so much is made of, all
crumbled before Jinnah's iron will, and proved to be powerless. Briefly
speaking, I thought to myself and foresaw I shall be totally ruined, and the
only thing I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred and
that I shall have lost my entire honor, even more valuable than my life, if
I were to kill Gandhiji. *But at the same time I felt that the Indian
politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely be proved practical, able
to retaliate, and would be powerful with armed forces. No doubt, my own
future would be totally ruined, but the nation would be saved from the
inroads of Pakistan . *People may even call me and dub me as devoid of any
sense or foolish, but the nation would be free to follow the course founded
on the reason which *I consider to be necessary for sound nation-building. *
After having fully considered the question, I took the final decision in the
matter, but I did not speak about it to anyone whatsoever. I took courage in
both my hands and I did fire the shots at Gandhiji on 30th January 1948, on
the prayer-grounds of Birla House. *I do say that my shots were fired at the
person whose policy and action had brought rack and ruin and destruction to
millions of Hindus. There was no legal machinery by which such an offender
could be brought to book and for this reason I fired those fatal shots. I
bear no ill will towards anyone individually but I do say that I had no
respect for* the present government owing to their policy which was unfairly
favorable towards the Muslims. But at the same time I could clearly see that
the policy was entirely due to the presence of Gandhi.
*I have to say with great regret that Primes Minister Nehru quite forgets
that his preaching's and deeds are at times at variances with each other
when he talks about India as a secular state in season and out of season,
because it is significant to note that Nehru has played a leading role in
the establishment of the theocratic state of Pakistan,* and his job was made
easier by Gandhi's persistent policy of appeasement towards the Muslims. I
now stand before the court to accept the full share of my responsibility for
what I have done and the judge would, of course, pass against me such orders
of sentence as may be considered proper. *But I would like to add that I do
not desire any mercy to be shown to me, nor do I wish that anyone else
should beg for mercy on my behalf. My confidence about the moral side of my
action has not been shaken even by the criticism leveled against it on all
sides. I have no doubt that honest writers of history will weighs my act and
find the true value thereof some day in future.* ?
NOW YOU DECIDE HOW HISTORY SHOULD JUDGE ME?
JAI HIND |
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