[Mb-civic] Gandhi and a Murder Sans Mystery

[Michael Butler]

    Gandhi and a Murder Sans Mystery
    By J. Sri Raman
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

     Saturday 02 October 2004

     Who killed Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi? Or the Mahatma (Great Soul) as
India's millions still call him?

     That may sound a somewhat inappropriate first question to ask on the
birth anniversary (October 2) of the tallest leader of India's anti-colonial
freedom struggle. We must ask it, because others have just raised again
questions about the martyrdom of the great man.

     It is no subject, really, for a whodunit. The Mahatma fell to bullets
fired by a fellow-Indian at the venue of a mass prayer meeting in New Delhi.
The fitting end to a non-violent fighter's life came on January 30, 1948. It
came within six months of India's independence that he had striven for. And
of the Partition of the subcontinent (into India and Pakistan) that he had
striven against.

     The assassin, Nathuram Godse, proudly confessed the crime. No mystery
shrouded the motive, either.

     Gandhi had enraged Godse and other Hindu-chauvinist activists by
pleading for India's good relations with Pakistan, now that it had come into
being. By calling upon the rulers of independent India to make the
magnanimous gesture of offering a compensation of 550 million rupees to
Pakistan for losses suffered during the violent Partition. By walking into
riot-torn areas and bringing peace back though his mere presence or
fasts-unto-death that made the rioters drop arms. By continuing to work for
Hindu-Muslim unity, as he had always done.

     Gandhi had enraged a political and ideological camp. One that had paved
the way for the Partition by identifying the nation with the religious
majority. That had undertaken minority-bashing as a sacred mission. A
far-right camp that was to turn fascist in power or in proximity to it.

     Godse's political camp was no closed secret. Until a while before the
assassination, he belonged to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),
misleadingly meaning National Volunteers' Association. Many see no mystery,
too, about the motive behind Godse's formal exit from the RSS on the eve if
the assassination, with which it had been denying any association.

     It did so again recently, when Human Resources Development Minister
Arjun Singh said, in a public speech, that the "greatest achievement" of the
RSS was the murder of the Mahatma. The RSS sprang to self-defense at the
sarcastic observation. It threatened to sue Singh for defamation. This drew
from him the clarification that the atmosphere of hate, an RSS creation, led
to the assassination.

     No journalist in his or her right mind rushes to endorse a minister.
But Singh was right, in this instance. It was a fascist ideology that moved
the finger that, in turn, pulled the trigger. It was fascist violence that
felled a frail giant.

     The ideology lives. So does the RSS, the patriarch of what India's far
right calls its 'parivar' (family). They have continued to kill the Mahatma
or what he stood for. The most outrageous of these assassinations took place
in 2002 in Gandhi's home-State of Gujarat. The RSS and its entourage,
including the infamous Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), have been defending the
state-aided pogrom, which claimed about 3,000 Muslim lives. The RSS even
pulled up former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, ever aloyal member of
the 'parivar,' for daring to suggest that the massacre might have had
something to do with the far right's defeat in the last general election.

     The defeated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has now declared its resolve
to return to its "roots," without the restraints imposed by office. This
amounts to a warning that the Mahatma may die many a death again in the land
he sought to deliver.

  

  -------

   Jump to TO Features for Saturday October 2, 2004   


 © Copyright 2004 by TruthOut.org

 
    By J. Sri Raman
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

     Saturday 02 October 2004

     Who killed Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi? Or the Mahatma (Great Soul) as
India's millions still call him?

     That may sound a somewhat inappropriate first question to ask on the
birth anniversary (October 2) of the tallest leader of India's anti-colonial
freedom struggle. We must ask it, because others have just raised again
questions about the martyrdom of the great man.

     It is no subject, really, for a whodunit. The Mahatma fell to bullets
fired by a fellow-Indian at the venue of a mass prayer meeting in New Delhi.
The fitting end to a non-violent fighter's life came on January 30, 1948. It
came within six months of India's independence that he had striven for. And
of the Partition of the subcontinent (into India and Pakistan) that he had
striven against.

     The assassin, Nathuram Godse, proudly confessed the crime. No mystery
shrouded the motive, either.

     Gandhi had enraged Godse and other Hindu-chauvinist activists by
pleading for India's good relations with Pakistan, now that it had come into
being. By calling upon the rulers of independent India to make the
magnanimous gesture of offering a compensation of 550 million rupees to
Pakistan for losses suffered during the violent Partition. By walking into
riot-torn areas and bringing peace back though his mere presence or
fasts-unto-death that made the rioters drop arms. By continuing to work for
Hindu-Muslim unity, as he had always done.

     Gandhi had enraged a political and ideological camp. One that had paved
the way for the Partition by identifying the nation with the religious
majority. That had undertaken minority-bashing as a sacred mission. A
far-right camp that was to turn fascist in power or in proximity to it.

     Godse's political camp was no closed secret. Until a while before the
assassination, he belonged to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),
misleadingly meaning National Volunteers' Association. Many see no mystery,
too, about the motive behind Godse's formal exit from the RSS on the eve if
the assassination, with which it had been denying any association.

     It did so again recently, when Human Resources Development Minister
Arjun Singh said, in a public speech, that the "greatest achievement" of the
RSS was the murder of the Mahatma. The RSS sprang to self-defense at the
sarcastic observation. It threatened to sue Singh for defamation. This drew
from him the clarification that the atmosphere of hate, an RSS creation, led
to the assassination.

     No journalist in his or her right mind rushes to endorse a minister.
But Singh was right, in this instance. It was a fascist ideology that moved
the finger that, in turn, pulled the trigger. It was fascist violence that
felled a frail giant.

     The ideology lives. So does the RSS, the patriarch of what India's far
right calls its 'parivar' (family). They have continued to kill the Mahatma
or what he stood for. The most outrageous of these assassinations took place
in 2002 in Gandhi's home-State of Gujarat. The RSS and its entourage,
including the infamous Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), have been defending the
state-aided pogrom, which claimed about 3,000 Muslim lives. The RSS even
pulled up former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, ever aloyal member of
the 'parivar,' for daring to suggest that the massacre might have had
something to do with the far right's defeat in the last general election.

     The defeated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has now declared its resolve
to return to its "roots," without the restraints imposed by office. This
amounts to a warning that the Mahatma may die many a death again in the land
he sought to deliver.

  

  -------

   Jump to TO Features for Saturday October 2, 2004   


 © Copyright 2004 by TruthOut.org