Gandhi continues to be regarded as one of the greatest visions in texts, facts and figures of history to all but few, Godse and Godse’s Children, here on Martyrs Day we trace back the underlying significance of it.
Is death often quoted for remembering the dead or the murderer is an equal participant in the remembrance? The Modern Indian Politics lends its current stature to many significant instances that shaped parliaments, identities and political heroes and villains of Indian discourse. I strongly believe and advocate that the entire political stigma since 1947 is therefore based on the three Gandhi(s) (Mahatma, Indira and Rajiv) and their assassination(s), which if not wholly has substantially formulated the most of it.
Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination is one of the most important markers of history, documented in numerous forms and writings. Perhaps, no non-literary Indian after Vishnu’s Dashaavtaara has contributed for the inspiration of Indian literature as much as Mahatma Gandhi; his murder escalated writers to preserve his teachings and ideas in whatever available form and the news of this murder spread like a plague, where Nathuram Godse became the point of rage.
On 30th of January 1948, Godse plotted for Gandhi’s life at Birla House with Narayan Apte and 6 others holding the latter guilty for appeasing the minorities especially the Muslims. In his justification of the act, Why I Killed Gandhi, Godse is seen as a devout of Gandhi who respected his thoughts on untouchability and Swaraj, but it was the overshadowing of Savarkar’s influence that clouded his ideology.
By the end of his defence on 5th May 1949 at Punjab High Court, Peterhoff, Simia, Godse wrote, “To my mind, there could be only one reason for Gandhiji and his followers to give their consent to the creation of Pakistan and it is that these people were accustomed to make a show of hesitation and resistance in the beginning and ultimately to surrender to the Muslim demands.”
This whole expression captivates the premise of Godse’s utterance of defence akin to what Brutus did in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, but a closer look at this does remind us of the similar fallacies on Brutus’ part as we might find in Godse; an undetectable but crucial assumption that Gandhi’s claims and testimonies regarding this issue needs to be dismissed as hypocritical, idiosyncratic or nonsensical- describing them as meticulous lies or ideas with no reality.
Asghar Wajahat’s ‘Godse @ Gandhi Dot Com’ reiterates an important question how crucial are Gandhi and Godse to each other and if survived what grandeur or downsize would have poured on their parts if the play’s conversation between Gandhi and Godse did actually give a chance to the political players in reality.
Where millions offer their condolences to the Father of the Nation on 30th of January, many celebrate Godse as a martyr and reject Gandhi as the Father of the India we know, they believe him to be Father of Pakistan, describing his assassination as vadh of a demon. In a meeting in Bombay in 1993, ‘Gandhi was even called a traitor’ by Nathuram’s younger brother, who was an RSS Kaaryakarta, although the RSS sides itself from accepting Godse as a Sangh Karyakarta opposed to Godse(s) claim.
The Gandhian vision seems incomplete without addressing the questions of many like Godse that Gandhi himself provides in his study, Godse’s entire identity and those of his followers are based as an antithesis of the Gandhian philosophy.
Image Credits: Youngisthan
Faizan Salik
[email protected]
