30 January 1948: Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
On January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi, the preeminent leader of Indias independence movement and one of historys most influential advocates of nonviolent resistance, was assassinated in New Delhi. The 78-year-old spiritual and political leader was shot three times at point-blank range by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist who opposed Gandhis efforts to promote harmony between Hindus and Muslims in the newly independent and partitioned Indian subcontinent.
The assassination occurred at Birla House, where Gandhi had been conducting multi-faith prayer meetings each evening. Shortly after 5:00 PM, Gandhi emerged for his regular prayer gathering, walking through a crowd of supporters toward the raised lawn where the meeting would take place. As he made his way along the path, Godse stepped forward from the crowd, drew a pistol, and fired three shots into Gandhis chest and stomach. According to witnesses, Gandhi fell to the ground uttering the words Hey Rama (Oh God), before dying within minutes.
The assassination came just ten days after another failed attempt on Gandhis life and represented the culmination of growing extremist opposition to his philosophy of religious tolerance. Gandhi had been working to ease the terrible communal violence that had accompanied the partition of British India into the separate nations of India and Pakistan in August 1947. Godse, who held virulently anti-Muslim sentiments, believed that Gandhi had been too accommodating to Muslims and blamed him for compromising Hindu interests during and after partition.
News of Gandhis murder spread rapidly across India, triggering violent riots in several cities, most notably Bombay. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the nation by radio that evening, declaring a national day of mourning and calling for calm. More than one million people attended Gandhis funeral procession the following day, as the body was carried through the streets of Delhi to the banks of the Yamuna River for cremation according to Hindu tradition.
Godse was tried at a special court convened inside the historic Red Fort in May 1948. He read a lengthy confession in which he described the killing as wholly and exclusively political and held Gandhi responsible for the partition and the communal violence it unleashed. Despite claiming to have acted alone, Godse and co-conspirator Narayan Apte were both convicted and executed by hanging on November 15, 1949. Gandhis philosophy of nonviolent civil disobedience would go on to inspire movements for civil rights and social justice around the world, most notably the American civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr.
