Mahatma Gandhi Death Anniversary
At the age of 78, Mahatma Gandhi was killed on January 30, 1948, in the grounds of Birla House, a sizable palace in the heart of New Delhi that is today known as Gandhi Smriti. Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a right-wing Hindu paramilitary group and member of the Hindu Mahasabha, was his assassin. Nathuram Godse was a Chitpavan Brahmin from Pune, Maharashtra, and a Hindu nationalist. Nathuram Godse believed that during the partition of India the year before, Mahatma Gandhi had been too accommodative to Pakistan.
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Mahatma Gandhi Assassination
According to witnesses, Mahatma Gandhi had arrived at the top of the stairs leading to the elevated lawn outside Birla House, where he had been holding multifaith prayer gatherings every evening, sometime after 5 o’clock. Nathuram Godse emerged from the group of people flanking Gandhi’s path as he started to go toward the dais and fired three bullets at point-blank range into Gandhi’s chest and belly. Gandhi collapsed on the floor. Mahatma Gandhi was taken back to his room at Birla House, where a representative later appeared to make the announcement of his passing.
Mahatma Gandhi Assassination: Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte hanged
Nathuram Godse was apprehended by crowd participants and turned over to the police. The Mahatma Gandhi murder trial began in May 1948 in Delhi’s famed Red Fort, with Godse as the lead defendant and his accomplice Narayan Apte, as well as six additional people, being considered co-defendants. The trial was completed quickly; this hurry was reportedly caused by Vallabhbhai Patel, the home minister, who wanted “to evade scrutiny for the inability to prevent the assassination.” On November 8, 1949, Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte received a death penalty verdict. Despite Manilal Gandhi and Ramdas Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s two sons, pleading for commutation, they were rejected by Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, the deputy prime minister, and Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, the governor-general of India. On November 15, 1949, Nathuram Godse and Apte were executed at the Ambala prison.
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Mahatma Gandhi Assassination: Other Assassination Attempts on Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi Assassination Attempt on January 20, 1948
- Mahatma Gandhi had first been residing and having his prayer sessions at the Balmiki Temple, close to Gole Market in the northern section of New Delhi.
- Mahatma Gandhi relocated to Birla House, a sizable home on what was then Albuquerque Road in south-central New Delhi, not far from the diplomatic enclave, when the temple was commandeered for housing refugees of the partition.
- Mahatma Gandhi was holding prayer gatherings on a high lawn behind Birla House while residing in two unassuming rooms in the building’s left wing.
- On January 20, 1948, there was a first attempt to murder Gandhi at Birla House. Stanley Wolpert claims that Nathuram Godse and his associates accompanied Gandhi to a park where he was giving a speech.
- A grenade was launched away from the crowd by one of them.
- The audience panicked in response to the loud explosion, which led to a disorderly stampede.
- Mahatma Gandhi was the only speaker on the platform. After the throng had dispersed, a second grenade was supposed to be thrown at Mahatma Gandhi, who was by himself.
- However, the claimed conspirator Digambar Badge lost heart, refrained from launching the second grenade, and fled with the mob.
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Mahatma Gandhi Assassination Attempt on June 25, 1934
- Gandhi was previously the target of a failed assassination attempt on June 25, 1934, in Pune.
- Gandhi and his wife Kasturba Gandhi were in Pune for Gandhi’s speech at Corporation Auditorium.
- They were moving in a pair of automobiles called a motorcade.
- The couple’s vehicle was running late, so the first car arrived at the auditorium.
- Exactly as the first car pulled up to the theatre, a bomb was tossed and detonated nearby.
- The Chief Officer of the Pune Municipal Corporation, two cops, and seven other people suffered grave injuries as a result.
- However, neither an account of the investigation nor any records of the arrests made can be located.
- Pyarelal Nayyar, Gandhi’s secretary, thought that the failure of the attempt was due to a lack of coordination and planning.