Mahatma Gandhi Death Anniversary: Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948, at the age of 78, on the grounds of Birla House, a substantial palace in the centre of New Delhi known as Gandhi Smriti. His killer was Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a member of the Hindu Mahasabha and a right-wing Hindu paramilitary group. 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.
January 2023 Current Affairs Quiz
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 every evening, sometime around five o’clock, he had begun organising multifaith prayer gatherings. 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.
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 home minister Vallabhbhai Patel is said to have pushed for a speedy conclusion of the trial in order “to evade scrutiny for the inability to prevent the assassination.” Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte were found guilty of capital crimes on November 8, 1949. Despite Manilal and Ramdas Gandhi, the two sons of Mahatma Gandhi, pleading for commutation, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, the deputy prime minister, and Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, the governor-general of India, rejected their request. On November 15, 1949, Nathuram Godse and Apte were executed at the Ambala prison.
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.
Mahatma Gandhi Assassination Attempt on June 25, 1934
- On June 25, 1934, at Pune, there was an unsuccessful attempt to kill Gandhi.
- 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.
- As a result, the Pune Municipal Corporation’s Chief Officer, two police officers, and seven additional people suffered severe injuries.
- 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.