Remembering Nathuram Godse- Who was Nathuram Godse?

Nathuram Godse was raised in Baramati, Pune, to a Konkani Brahmin family. Driven by nationalist beliefs, he joined the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh).

Godse joined the RSS as a low-level worker and then rose through the ranks to become the editor of Agrani – Hindu Rashtra, a Marathi monthly in which Hindu Mahasabha leader Vinayak Damodar Savarkar had invested. After a conflict with RSS president M.S. Gowalkar, Godse created a breakaway Hindu nationalist organisation named "Hindu Rashtra Dal."

On January 30, 1948, as Gandhi Ji was visiting the then Birla House in New Delhi for a prayer gathering, Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a nationalist, killed Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Godse had fired three bullets from close range at Gandhi's chest, ensuring his death. Godse refused to flee and was apprehended, convicted, and condemned to death. Let us read about the guy who killed Mahatma Gandhi on the 73rd anniversary of his death.

Godse claimed in a statement released after his death sentence on November 8, 1949, that he was dissatisfied with Gandhi's support for the Muslim community and blamed him for India's split and the foundation of Pakistan. "Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would undoubtedly be demonstrated realistic, able to respond, and would be powerful with military forces," Godse remarked of Gandhi's assassination. Without a doubt, my personal future would be shattered, but the nation would be rescued from Pakistan's advances."

On November 15, 1949, he was executed.

Godse's relationship with RSS and Hindu Mahasabha was emphasised in connection with Gandhi's assassination in a commemorative volume released by the Indian National Congress (INC) in 2010 to honour the 125th anniversary of the party's establishment titled Congress and the Making of the Indian Nation. RSS reacted angrily to this, claiming that Godse had quit the organisation in the mid-1930s through a spokesman called Ram Madhav. Godse's family, on the other hand, insists that he never left the RSS. 

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