Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi

"Assassination of Gandhi" redirects here. For other uses, see Assassination of Indira Gandhi and Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.

Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
A memorial marks the spot in Birla House (now Gandhi Smriti), New Delhi, where Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated at 5:17 PM on 30 January 1948.
LocationNew Delhi, India
Date30 January 1948
17:17 (IST)
TargetMahatma Gandhi
Attack type
Assassination, murder by shooting
WeaponsBeretta M 1934 semi-automatic pistol
Deaths1 (Gandhi)
PerpetratorsNathuram Godse
Narayan Apte
Dattatraya Parchure
Vishnu Karkare
Madanlal Pahwa
Gopal Godse
AccusedDigambar Badge (granted immunity)
Shankar Kistaiya (acquitted on appeal)
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (acquitted)
ConvictionsMurder
SentenceGodse and Apte: Death by hanging
Other conspirators: Life imprisonment

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948 at age 78 in the compound of The Birla House (now Gandhi Smriti), a large mansion in central New Delhi. His assassin was Nathuram Godse, from Pune, Maharashtra, a Hindutva activist,[1] a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu paramilitary organization[2] as well as a member of the Hindu Mahasabha.[3][4][5][6]

Sometime after 5 PM, according to witnesses, Gandhi had reached the top of the steps leading to the raised lawn behind Birla House where he had been conducting multi-faith prayer meetings every evening. As Gandhi began to walk toward the dais, Godse stepped out from the crowd flanking Gandhi's path, and fired three bullets into Gandhi's chest and stomach at point-blank range.[7][8] Gandhi fell to the ground. He was carried back to his room in Birla House from which a representative emerged sometime later to announce his death.[8][A]

Godse was captured by members of the crowd—the most widely reported of whom was Herbert Reiner Jr, a vice-consul at the American embassy in Delhi—and handed over to the police. The Gandhi murder trial opened in May 1948 in Delhi's historic Red Fort, with Godse the main defendant, and his collaborator Narayan Apte, and six more, deemed co-defendants. The trial was rushed through, the haste sometimes attributed to the home minister Vallabhbhai Patel's desire "to avoid scrutiny for the failure to prevent the assassination."[9] Godse and Apte were sentenced to death on 8 November 1949. Although pleas for commutation were made by Gandhi's two sons, Manilal Gandhi and Ramdas Gandhi, they were turned down by India's prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, deputy prime minister Vallabhbhai Patel and the Governor-General Chakravarti Rajagopalachari.[10] Godse and Apte were hanged in the Ambala jail on 15 November 1949.[11]

  1. ^ Hardiman 2003, pp. 174–176.
  2. ^ Nash 1981, p. 69.
  3. ^ Hansen 1999, p. 249.
  4. ^ Cush, Denise; Robinson, Catherine; York, Michael (2008). Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Taylor & Francis. p. 544. ISBN 978-0-7007-1267-0. Archived from the original on 12 October 2013. Retrieved 31 August 2013. The apotheosis of this contrast is the assassination of Gandhi in 1948 by a militant Nathuram Godse, on the basis of his 'weak' accommodationist approach towards the new state of Pakistan.
  5. ^ Markovits 2004, p. 57.
  6. ^ Mallot 2012, pp. 75–76.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference guardian31011948 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b Stratton 1950, pp. 40–42.
  9. ^ Markovits 2004, pp. 57–58.
  10. ^ Gandhi 2006, p. 660.
  11. ^ Bandyopadhyay 2009, p. 146.


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