Nathuram Godse

Nathuram Vinayak Godse (Marathi: नथुराम गोडसे, May 19, 1910 – November 15, 1949) was an Indian Hindutva Nationalist and convicted Criminal who was responsible for the assassination of Mohandas Gandhi.

Nathuram Godse
नथुराम गोडसे
Nathuram Godse at his trial for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi
Born	(1910-05-19)19 May 1910 Baramati, Pune District, Bombay Presidency, Maharashtra, India
Died	15 November 1949(1949-11-15) (aged 39) Ambala Prison, Punjab Province, Dominion of India (present day Haryana, India)
Nationality	Indian
Known for	Assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Group photo of people accused in the murder of Mahatma Gandhi. Standing (L to R): Shankar Kistaiya, Gopal Godse, Madan Lal Pahwa, Digambar Ramchandra Badge. Seated (L to R): Narayan Apte, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Nathuram Godse, Vishnu Karkare

Biography

Nathuram Godse was born at Baramati, Pune District, British India. His father was Vinayak Vaman Rao Godse, his mother was Lakshmi (Godavari before marriage). His father was a fifteen-rupee-a-month employee of the post office. He would drop out of high school and become an activist for the party Hindu Mahasabha

Killing of Mahatma Gandhi

Motive

In his speech in Court, Naturam Godse stated the following as his reasons -

Gandhi's January 13, 1948 decision to fast to the death unless the Indian central government reversed a decision to withhold the transfer of 55 crore (550 million) rupees to the government of Pakistan. The transfer had been specified in the partition agreement, but the Indian government had refused to complete it, complaining of continued Pakistani rebel occupation of disputed parts of Kashmir.

The Indian government immediately reversed its decision to withhold the funds, which infuriated Godse and his fellow Hindu nationals.

Attack

Godse assassinated Gandhi on January 30, 1948, approaching him during the evening prayer, bowing, and shot him three times at close range. Godse was convicted of murdering Gandhi, for which he was executed by hanging.

Related pages

• Hindutva
• Yigal Amir

Other websites

• Godse's deposition in court Archived 2008-05-13 at the Wayback Machine
• A pro-Godse site Archived 2008-05-13 at the Wayback Machine with interviews and links
• Time Magazine's Feb 2000 interview of Gopal Godse Archived 2011-02-20 at the Wayback Machine
• Rediff's Jan 1998 interview of Gopal Godse
• Article discussing pro-Godse play
• Eyewitness to Gandhi assassination Archived 2008-02-03 at the Wayback Machine
• Eyewitness gives VIDEO account of Gandhi Assassination