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Me Nathuram Godsey boltoy (I am Nathuram Godse speaking)*** Banned Play****

Me Nathuram Godsey boltoy is a marathi play based on Nathuram Godsey’s autobiography. The play has been banned in Maharashtra (after a few shows), Kerela and God only knows where else. Bootleg copies of the play are circulated but I am yet to get my hands on it. Fortunately, the script of the play is available and has been translated in english.

You can read the script by using the following links.

1. An assassin speaks
2. Gandhi must be stopped
3. The next moment
4. The Assassination!

An assassin speaks

Pradeep Dalvi's controversial play Mi Nathuram Godse Boltoy has once again ruffled feathers. Like it did in 1989, when the playwright was denied permission by the Maharashtra government to stage the drama. After its brief resurrection nine years later, the state government has now banned the play. Read the play and judge for yourself if the ban was justified.

(The stage is dark save for one spotlight, which is focused on Nathuram, who is standing with his back to the audience. Suddenly he turns and starts looking at the faces in the audience, as if he is searching for someone. Ultimately, he jerks his neck indicating denial or negation and looks up. Now he is directly looking at the audience.)

Nathuram: No. All the faces are unknown. Actually 'unknown' is the wrong word to use in this ... All your faces are very fresh to me...fresh and new. They are, of course, new to me, but mind you, they are not unfamiliar.

The youngsters among you, were not even born at that time. You must have read about me as a Hindu fanatic in the history written by the government. The middle-aged amongst you must be very confused clinging to their parents, who in turn were running around to save themselves from the massacre of Brahmins as the outcome of the assassination -- asking: 'Who is the Nathuram? Why are our houses being burnt because of him?"

But the elders among you... You must remember me! You must have heard about me on the radio. Some of you might have read Agrani, the newspaper run by myself and Nana Apte. Some of you might have attended my meetings and heard my speeches. Some of you may be knowing me directly or might have met me, but must be refusing the acquaintance after January 30, 1948.

Do you know how old I am? eighty-eight, nearly 90! Do you think I am lying, because I look young? Do you know, the mystery behind my youth is my death. My death...it was untimely, but it was heartily accepted!

I was born at the beginning of this century on May 19, 1910. My father Vinayakrao was in the postal service, my mother's name was Laxmi.

Vinayakrao was drawing a salary of Rs 15 per month. He used to spend Rs 10 on his family and send Rs 5 to his parents. Vinayakrao and his wife had three sons, none of them survived. They prayed to God, had their fourth son, Nathuram. Nathuram survived because they were destined to suffer for their young son's death and Gandhi was destined to be assassinated.

The rest of my life was very smooth.

I never stole in my childhood, so there was no question of apologising to my father. I never took a vow of celibacy as I was already practising celibacy. I was moving around the refugee camps and helping the destitute with food and clothes. But I did not wander half-naked because the refugees were naked. I never spun yarn, never cleaned my toilet, never observed silence till I was hanged. There was only one common factor in Gandhi's life and mine. We were both the cause of each other's death. He wanted to live for his principles and I was prepared to die for my principles.

But the interesting part of the biography of Nathuram Godse starts on January 30, 1948. After the assassination of Gandhi.

In a sense, I lived only for 655 days -- from January 30, 1948 to November 15, 1949. But January 30 was an outcome of January 13.

The central government had taken a decision -- Pakistan will not be given Rs 55 crores. On January 13 Gandhi started a fast unto death that Pakistan must be given the money. On January 13, the central government changed its earlier decision and announced that Pakistan would be given the amount. On January 13, I decided to assassinate Gandhi.

January 13, 1948

(The editorial room of Agrani. There is the normal chaos that exists in the editorial room of any newspaper. Nana Apte enters.)

Nana: Pandit, where are you? Visu...

Visu: (Enters) Sir.

Nana: Have you composed and assembled the first page? Break the compose. This is a stop press news.

Visu: You want me to recompose the first page? There will not be any issue tomorrow.

Nana: Listen, we just have to reassemble the first page. This is a very important news. It was on the radio.

Visu: But Panditsaab is rewriting the editorial. I have to recompose and print that matter. How can we...

Nana: Where is Pandit?

Visu: He is sitting in the composing section. He is completing the pages and giving them for composing.

Nana: Call him.

Nathuram: Call? Whom?

Nana: I wanted to call you. We have to prepare the front page again.

Nathuram: No need. My new editorial is on the same subject. Visu just get us coffee. (Visu goes)

Nana: Do you know the news I am talking about?

Nathuram: Yes, of course. The Cabinet has changed its decision. It is giving Rs 55 crore to Pakistan. Gandhi has broken his fast.

Nana: You changed your editorial?

Nathuram: Yes. I thought that my previous editorial was nothing but a pack of lies.

Nana: Pack of lies? And written by you? Impossible!

Nathuram: Yes. Tomorrow is January 14, Makar Sankranti. I had written in the editorial, 'Don't celebrate Sankranti tomorrow, don't take sweets, don't behave in a sweet manner. Distribute rifles, bullets, weapons. Don't talk sweet, talk of war. Kill the enemies.''

Nana: It is true, what you had written.

Nathuram: You have not asked me about the title of my new editorial.

Nana: What is that?

Nathuram: Mere talk without actions is futile.

Nana: Meaning...?

Nathuram: It is time for protests in constitutional ways, processions, pickets to come to an end when the establishment resorts to mindless injustices. You can't just warn the government through editorials at such hours. Tell me Nana. What do you mean by people will not tolerate, people will revolt...and so on? Who are these people? Do you mean our readers or those who attend our meetings and listen to our speeches? No, Nana, people also mean you and me, us. If we forget what we write and what we talk then our editorials and brave speeches in the meetings and futile. A man addressing from the dais is also a part of the crowd sitting before him. When we say that the people should revolt, it means that we should revolt!

Nana: You have written all this?

Nathuram: Yes, I have written celebrate Dassera tomorrow, the festival on which war is proclaimed.

Nana: Pandit, we will be arrested.

'Gandhi must be stopped at any cost'

Nathuram: I don't think, our Agrani is the mouthpiece of Hindu religion. When the government does not give importance to Hinduism, the question of being a mouthpiece does not arise. Our restraint is misinterpreted. Our massacre is neglected. They presume that we will bear everything with folded hands. Our anger has lost its fuel to burn, we know only the art of pardoning. They will torture us and massacre us and we will bear it coolly... it has become a law of nature. I don't think they will take cognisance of this mouthpiece of Hinduism. Yes, the government will think seriously while arguing the case in the court.

Nana: Which case?

Nathuram: IPC 302, the assassination of Gandhi.

Nana: Pandit, what are you talking?

Nathuram: Of course Nana, while writing the editorial, I was constantly telling myself -- these are not mere thoughts, they are a prelude to an action!

Nana: I have utmost confidence that Nathuram can never make a mistake, he is always right. But I want to ask you something because a blind follower cannot be a genuine friend...

Nathuram: Gandhi must be stopped at any cost.

Nana: I do agree with you.

Nathuram: And there is only one remedy to stop him. His assassination.

Nana: But don't you think it's a hasty decision?

Nathuram: You are wrong Nana. Assassination is never as easy as picking up a rifle and pulling the trigger, assassination is never an accident. Yes, murder could be an accident but not assassination. In this case of Gandhi, it could never be...

Nana: Are you convinced that it is inevitable?

Nathuram: Of course, it is not only inevitable, but is a delayed action.

Nana: Don't you feel that we would be tampering with an important era of history?

Nathuram: I differ with the word era. It could be a page, a leaf of history. Certainly not an era. Nana, if we don't turn this page today, the rest of the pages of the history of our nation will remain unwritten, blank...

Nana: Listen, Pandit...

Nathuram: Time is eternal, indestructible. You can turn its pages but never, never tear them out. Gandhi has acquired some position in history which nobody can deny, not even Nathuram. The page will be there forever in fact. Sometime in the future, in some storm, the pages will flutter and there will be that same Gandhi's page before the world. I don't refute Gandhi's theory of non-violence. He may be a saint but he is not a politician. His theory of non-violence denies self-defence and self-interest. The non-violence that defines the fight for survival as violence is a theory not of non-violence but of self-destruction.

Nana: I do agree with you Pandit, but don't you think that your decision is risky, dangerous?

Nathuram: But somebody has to do it! You can't afford to wait for somebody else to do it. It will be improper.

Nana: If we picket severely?

Nathuram: We have been doing it. Did it help? The division of the nation was an unnecessary decision. What was the percentage of the Muslim population as compared to the population of the nation? There was no need for a separate nation. Had it been a just demand, Maulana Azad would not have stayed back in India. But because Jinnah insisted and because Gandhi took his side, India was divided, in spite of opposition from the nation, the Cabinet. An individual is never greater than a nation, Nana. But Gandhi has stared considering himself greater than the nation.

Nana: Jinnah wanted to be the prime minister...

Nathuram: But we never opposed a Muslim prime minister. In a democracy you cannot put forward your demands at knife-point. Jinnah did it and Gandhi stabbed the nation with the same knife. He dissected the land and gave a piece to Pakistan. We did picket that time but in vain. The Father of our Nation went to perform his paternal duties for Pakistan.

Nana: The Cabinet consented to that...

Nathuram: The Cabinet also consented to the demand of Rs 55 crores today...

Nana: They are also equally responsible.

Nathuram: Of course, they are responsible! Gandhi blackmailed them with his fast unto death. His body, his threats to die are causing the destruction -- geographical as well as economical -- of the nation. Today, Muslims have taken a part of the nation, tomorrow Sikhs may ask for Punjab. The religions are again dividend into castes, they will demand sub-divisions of the divisions. What remains of the concept of one nation, national integration? Why did we fight the British in unison for independence? Why not separately? Bhagat Singh did not ask only for an independent Punjab or Subhash Chandra Bose for an independent Bengal?

Nana: Pandit, if you will write this, people will get agitated, the government will get agitated, the government will have to bow down.

Nathuram: I had written this before. At the time of Partition, when Suharawady surrendered only due to political pressure, but only Suharawady, not his followers...they went on with the massacre. Gandhi started his fast, the Hindus put their weapons down. I still remember that day. A poor Hindu told Gandhi, 'I am putting down my weapons because I don't want your death on my conscience but I am staying alone with my family in the Muslim area. That night, before leaving Hyderabad I visited his home. The whole household was screaming, weeping, his only eight-year-old son had been killed by the Muslims. He had no weapon to defend himself. He threw his son's body on my lap and said, "Take his blood to your Mahatma. Tell him, if he goes on fast again, he can finish it by drinking not orange-juice but my son's blood." I could not say anything. Gandhi was the Father of my Nation. For a moment, I was tempted to pull out the Muslims from their homes and chop them down. But I controlled myself. Violence for self-defence is justified, otherwise it is an ill-cultured act. I returned to where Gandhi was staying but he had already left by car. Of course, there would have been no point in meeting him... he would only have prayed for both the killer and the victim.

Nana: Pandit, I sincerely feel that we should seek the advice of Tatyarao.

Nathuram: No. Because I am going to assassinate Gandhi even if Tatyarao tells me not to. Then why involve him unnecessarily? I, neither want Tatyarao's involvement nor participation. He has suffered a lot for the nation. Now it is our turn. Tatyarao had once sad, if Gandhi is a political saint, then he should follow in the footsteps of Ramdas Swami. Ramdas Swami was always there to advise Shivaji whenever the need arose, but he never interfered.

Nana: Pandit, if you are firm, then I promise you...

Nathuram: I want two promises ...

Nana: I promise!

Nathuram: You didn't ask me what promises?

Nana: A shadow has not to ask the body as to where it is going and why it is going? A shadow has just to be with the body, that's all. When I walk, you become my shadow Pandit, now you are walking... I will be your shadow.

Nathuram: This is the first promise I want from you... This time I walk alone...mind you, alone...

Nana: You have trapped me.

Nathuram: But you promised me..! I am going to assassinate him in the open, before the public, because I am going to do it as my duty. If I do it surreptitiously, it becomes a crime in my own eyes. I will not try to escape, I will surrender and naturally I will be hanged.

Nana: Pandit!

Nathuram: One assassination, one hanging. I don't want two executions for one assassination and I don't want your involvement, participation or company.

Nana: Pandit, you want to end our friendship of so many years?

Nathuram: Of course not. At the time of hanging. I will remember my motherland, my parents and my friend -- you, Nana...

Nana: But if I won't be with you, won't you feel lonely at the gallows?

Nathuram: You promised me.

Nana: What is the second promise?

Nathuram: Today I wrote two editorials. I have not put any date on the second editorial as only God knows the date. I want you to print the second editorial in Agrani, the day after Gandhi's assassination.

Nana: I promise you my friend. The first promise accidentally but the second promise out of necessity. (Nathuram is alone on the stage)

Nathuram: I was convinced that though Gandhi is called the Father of the Nation, he delivers his paternal duties not towards India but towards Pakistan. I came to the decision that as a son of the soil, it was my first, foremost and divine duty to assassinate Gandhi.

On January 30, I reached Birla Bhavan at 12 pm. Gandhi was sitting outside on a cot enjoying the sunshine. Vallabhbhai Patel's granddaughter was sitting at his feet. I had the revolver with me. I could have assassinated him easily then, but I was convinced that his assassination was to be a punishment and a sentence against him, and I would execute him. I wanted witnesses for the execution but there were none. I did not want to escape after the execution as there was not an iota of guilt in my mind. I wanted to surrender, but surrender to whom? There was a good crowd to collect for the evening prayers. I decided on the evening of January 30 as the date for Gandhi's execution.

'The next moment I fired at Gandhi'

January 30, 5.00 PM

(Birla Bhavan. DCP Arjundas and a servant appear on the stage.)

Servant: No. Bapuji cannot spare any time now. He will be late for his evening prayers.

Arjun: I know. But I have come because the work is important. In fact it is to do with Bapuji's prayers.

Gandhi: (Enters) Who is it, Mahadevbhai?

Servant: Somebody to see you. I told him, you are getting late.

Gandhi: Who are you?

Arjun: (Salutes) I am DCP Arjundas, Bapuji...

Gandhi: We have met before... Wait a minute, don't tell me ... let me recollect. Yes, when Jawahar had come to Hyderabad, you were with him.

Arjun: (Smiles) Your memory is fantastic. You were very weak at that time.

Gandhi: It is the body that becomes weak. But fasting sharpens of the mind. Why have you come today? For prayers?

Arjun: Yes. I want to request you to let me accompany you for the prayers...

Gandhi: Anybody can attend my evening prayers. How can I refuse you?

Arjun: Okay then. I will be with some of my ...

Gandhi: But not in these uniforms. Not with the revolver in your waistband.

Arjun: But Bapu ...

Gandhi: Why do you need the revolver?

Arjun: For your protection.

Gandhi: If somebody attacks me, you will shoot him with this revolver. Kill at the time of prayers?

Arjun: But Bapuji, if somebody attacks you ...

Gandhi: He is welcome. I don't mind my own killing, but I don't want anybody to die just for saving my skin.

Arjun: Panditji sent me. I am his bodyguard.

Gandhi: Then what are you doing here? Go, guard his body.

Arjun: Panditji said he had spoken to you, Sardar Patel also talked to you, but you are adamant in this matter. Today the intelligence bureau sent this file to Panditji. He has asked me to show it to you. Bapuji, you need protection.

Gandhi: I don't need protection.

Arjun: Bapuji... How can I convince you? Can you see the crowd gathered outside? One of them might be a killer, your killer. All the people attending the prayers are not devotees.

Gandhi: No. Only devotees attend the prayers.

Arjun: But those who threw a bomb here on January 20 were not devotees. The bureau has cracked down on them. Madanlal and Shankar Kistaiyya. They are talking. They are workers of the Hindu Mahasabha. Bapu, that bomb blast was not an accident. It was sabotage, it was an attempt on your life.

Gandhi: The Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League ... I don't differentiate between them.

Arjun: They don't understand it.

Gandhi: You are wrong Arjun: When I started the fast, both Hindus and Muslims put their weapons down.

Arjun: Bapu, a bullet does not differentiate between a commoner and a saint.

Gandhi: But the trigger-puller knows the difference.

Arjun: The refugees are furious. They hold you responsible for their massacre. The Hindu Mahasabha claims you are responsible for Partition. These handful of people are conspiring to assassinate you. It is dangerous to move around among the people at the time of prayers. Can you stop the prayers for a few days?

Gandhi: You want me to stop my prayers? It has never happened before. I did not let it happen. Be it imprisonment, detention, fasting or sickness ... I never let anything stand between me and the prayers. Kasturba was serious when prayer-time approached. I started getting up from her bedside. She held my hand, pressed it. I waited ... Ba slowly slipped into death. I got up and went for my prayers first, and then I mourned for my Ba. And today you want me to discontinue the prayers... for my life?

Arjun: But your life we need Bapuji.. all of us. That day you waited for some time for Kasturba, now for the sake of all of us wait for some days. If you want, let us pray here... You, Mahadevbhai myself, Panditji, we all will join the prayers... here.

'If it is going to satisfy them that they have penalised a criminal named Mohandas Gandhi, I am prepared to give them my blood'

Gandhi: And what about the people gathered outside? There could be one killer outside among them. But what about the others? They are not killers. I don't want to disappoint them for one Gandhi!

Arjun: But Bapuji...

Gandhi: Jawahar is childish, and Arjundas... you also. You are banking on the revolver that is in your waistband. My killer also has confidence in his revolver. I don't want to participate in your gun war. My weaponless confidence is much mightier than your gun-worn confidence.

Arjun: Maybe the weapons are small, but they do great harm.

Gandhi: That is the misplaced confidence of you gun-toting people. I was in South Africa, where Jawahar was not with me to protect me, the police hit me, imprisoned me. I didn't have a revolver, I had my confidence. Ultimately. I won the war.

Arjun: Bapuji, I am not talking about canes, I am talking about bullets.

Gandhi: I am talking about non-violence, a powerful weapon like non-violence.

Arjun: It is a question of a few days...

Gandhi: It is a question of principle. I am not immortal. I have to die one day. If my blood is going to cool down their anger, if it is going to stop riots and arson, if it is going to satisfy them that they have penalised a criminal named Mohandas Gandhi. I am prepared to give them my blood.

Arjun: Bapu...

Gandhi: I don't differentiate between Ram and Rahim or Krishna or Karim. I am not overwhelmed about the fact that I am a Hindu and I don't repent because I was not born a Muslim. I am I. And I am honest to my principles and to the truth. Arjundas you want me to discontinue the prayers for a few days... but I say, even today, if the killer is waiting outside for me. I am prepared to welcome him with folded hands. He can kill Gandhi, not Gandhism.

Servant: Bapuji...

Gandhi: Aah! Today I am late for the prayers. Arjundas, feel like joining me?

Arjun: But of course!

Gandhi: Come on. Excuse me, please. Keep your revolver here... beside my charkha.

Black out.

(Birla Bhavan. The prayer place is visible: It is a square cement block with greenery in the middle. A small lake is on the left and an arch-shaped, small, wooden bridge on it. Gandhi's sitting place is situated exactly opposite the lake.)

Nathuram: It was 4.45 pm when I reached the gate of Birla Bhavan. The security staff at the gate was scrutinising the crowd entering and I was a little worried about them. I mingled with a small gorup of people and sneaked inside.

It was 5.10 pm when I saw Gandhi and his close associates coming to the prayer place from his room inside. I approached the passage from where he was likely to climb the steps of the lawn, in such a way that I was covered by a few people.

Gandhi climbed the steps and came forward. He had kept his hands on the shoulders of the two girls.

The revolver was in my pocket, I released the safety catch. Though Gandhi was surrounded by people I was looking for an opening.

I wanted just three seconds more. I moved two steps forward and faced Gandhi. Now I wanted to take out the revolver and salute him for whatever sacrifice and service he had made for the nation. One of the two girls was dangerously close to Gandhi and I was afraid that she might be injured in the course of firing. As a precautionary measure I went one more step ahead, bowed before him and gently pushed the girl away from the firing line.

The next moment I fired at Gandhi. Gandhi was very weak, there was a feeble sound like 'aah' from him and he fell down.

Those who were close to me saw the weapon in my hand. They rushed away from the spot. Gandhi had fallen to the ground, I was standing and the crowd had formed a ring around us.

After the firing I raised my hand holding the revolver and shouted, 'Police, police'. For 30 seconds nobody came forward and I scanned the crowd. I saw a police officer. I signalled to him to come forward and arrest me. He came and caught my wrist, then a second man came and touched the revolver... I let it go...

(Black out... Sounds of wireless, Hullo, Victor calling. Victor calling... Gandhi killed in firing. IGP and home minister rushing to Birla Bhavan. Inform the PM).

Why I killed Gandhi ? Godse's Original words

When I was searching for the R'day topics my web search lead me to many interesting subjects. One shock I got is on reading Godse's last official words ... Even the people who had gathered in court room were strongly felt for him. The judge who convicted Nathuram was on record saying that had the public been the jury, Nathuram Godse would have been surely aquitted. - Harish

In the pic (L to R) :Nathuram Godse, Narayan Apte and Vishnu Karkare

Here is his speach ...

" Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus were of equal status as to rights, social and religious and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession. I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners in which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Chamars and Bhangis participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other.

I have read the speeches and writings of Dadabhai Naoroji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and modern history of India and some prominent countries like England, France, America and' Russia. Moreover I studied the tenets of Socialism and Marxism. But above all I studied very closely whatever Veer Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the moulding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so, than any other single factor has done.

All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was my first duty to serve Hindudom and Hindus both as a patriot and as a world citizen. To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores (300 million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and the well-being of all India, one fifth of human race. This conviction led me naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanghtanist ideology and programme, which alone, I came to believe, could win and preserve the national independence of Hindustan, my Motherland, and enable her to
render true service to humanity as well.

Since the year 1920, that is, after the demise of Lokamanya Tilak, Gandhiji's influence in the Congress first increased and then became supreme. His activities for public awakening were phenomenal in their intensity and were reinforced by the slogan of truth and non-violence which he paraded ostentatiously before the country. No sensible or enlightened person could object to those slogans. In fact there is nothing new or original in them. They are implicit in every constitutional public movement. But it is nothing but a mere dream if you imagine that the bulk of mankind is, or can ever become, capable of scrupulous adherence to these lofty principles in its normal life from day to day. In fact, hunour, duty and love of one's own kith and kin and country might often compel us to disregard non-violence and to use force. I could never conceive that an armed resistance to an aggression is unjust. I would
consider it a religious and moral duty to resist and, if possible, to overpower such an enemy by use of force. [In the Ramayana] Rama killed Ravana in a tumultuous fight and relieved Sita. [In the Mahabharata], Krishna killed Kansa to end his wickedness; and Arjuna had to fight and slay quite a number of his friends and relations including the
revered Bhishma because the latter was on the side of the aggressor. It is my firm belief that in dubbing Rama, Krishna and Arjuna as guilty of violence, the Mahatma betrayed a total ignorance of the springs of human action.

In more recent history, it was the heroic fight put up by Chhatrapati Shivaji that first checked and eventually destroyed the Muslim tyranny in India. It was absolutely essentially for Shivaji to overpower and kill an aggressive Afzal Khan, failing which he would have lost his own life. In condemning history's towering warriors like Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Gobind Singh as misguided patriots, Gandhiji has merely exposed his self-conceit. He was, paradoxical as it may appear, a violent pacifist who brought untold calamities on the country in the name of truth and
non-violence, while Rana Pratap, Shivaji and the Guru will remain enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen for ever for the freedom they brought to them.

The accumulating provocation of thirty-two years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately. Gandhi had done very good in South Africa to uphold the rights and well-being of the Indian community there. But when he finally returned to India he developed a subjective mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on his own way. Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. Either Congress had to surrender its will to his and had to be content with playing second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him. He alone was the Judge of everyone and every thing; he was
the master brain guiding the civil disobedience movement; no other could know the technique of that movement. He alone knew when to begin and when to withdraw it. The movement might succeed or fail, it might bring untold disaster and political reverses but that could make no difference to the Mahatma's infallibility. 'A Satyagrahi can never fail'
was his formula for declaring his own infallibility and nobody except himself knew what a Satyagrahi is.

Thus, the Mahatma became the judge and jury in his own cause. These childish insanities and obstinacies, coupled with a most severe austerity of life, ceaseless work and lofty character made Gandhi formidable and irresistible. Many people thought that his politics were irrational but they had either to withdraw from the Congress or place their
intelligence at his feet to do with as he liked. In a position of such absolute irresponsibility Gandhi was guilty of blunder after blunder, failure after failure, disaster after disaster.

Gandhi's pro-Muslim policy is blatantly in his perverse attitude on the question of the national language of India. It is quite obvious that Hindi has the most prior claim to be accepted as the premier language. In the beginning of his career in India, Gandhi gave a great impetus to Hindi but as he found that the Muslims did not like it, he became a champion of what is called Hindustani. Everybody in India knows that there is no language called Hindustani; it has no grammar; it has no vocabulary. It is a mere dialect, it is spoken, but not written. It is a bastard tongue and cross-breed between Hindi and Urdu, and not even the Mahatma's sophistry could make it popular. But in his
desire to please the Muslims he insisted that Hindustani alone should be the national language of India. His blind followers, of course, supported him and the so-called hybrid language began to be used. The charm and purity of the Hindi language was to be prostituted to please the Muslims. All his experiments were at the expense of the Hindus.

From August 1946 onwards the private armies of the Muslim League began a massacre of the Hindus. The then Viceroy, Lord Wavell, though distressed at what was happening, would not use his powers under the Government of India Act of 1935 to prevent the rape, murder and arson. The Hindu blood began to flow from Bengal to Karachi with some retaliation by the Hindus. The Interim Government formed in September was sabotaged by its Muslim League members right from its inception, but the more they became disloyal and treasonable to the government of which they were a part, the greater was Gandhi's infatuation for them. Lord Wavell had to resign as he could not bring about a settlement and he was succeeded by Lord Mountbatten. King Log was followed by King Stork. The Congress which had boasted of its nationalism and socialism secretly accepted Pakistan literally at the point of the bayonet and
abjectly surrendered to Jinnah. India was vivisected and one-third of the Indian territory became foreign land to us from August 15, 1947. Lord Mountbatten came to be described in Congress circles as the greatest Viceroy and Governor-General this country ever had. The official date for handing over power was fixed for June 30, 1948, but
Mountbatten with his ruthless surgery gave us a gift of vivisected India ten months in advance. This is what Gandhi had achieved after thirty years of undisputed dictatorship and this is what Congress party calls 'freedom' and 'peaceful transfer of power'. The Hindu-Muslim unity bubble was finally burst and a theocratic state was established
with the consent of Nehru and his crowd and they have called 'freedom won by them with sacrifice' - whose sacrifice? When top leaders of Congress, with the consent of Gandhi, divided and tore the country - which we consider a deity of worship - my mind was filled with direful anger.

One of the conditions imposed by Gandhi for his breaking of the fast unto death related to the mosques in DelhiPakistan were subjected to violent attacks he did not so much as utter a single word to protest and censure the Pakistan Government or the Muslims concerned. Gandhi was shrewd enough to know that while undertaking a fast unto death, had he imposed for its break some condition on the Muslims in Pakistan, there would have been found hardly any Muslims who could have shown some grief if the fast had ended in his death. It was for this reason that he purposely avoided imposing any condition on the Muslims. He was fully aware of from the experience that Jinnah was not at all perturbed or influenced by his fast and the Muslim League hardly attached any value to the inner voice of Gandhi.

Gandhi is being referred to as the Father of the Nation. But if that is so, he had failed his paternal duty inasmuch as he has acted very treacherously to the nation by his consenting to the partitioning of it. I stoutly maintain that Gandhi has failed in his duty. He has proved to be the Father of Pakistan. His inner-voice, his spiritual power and his doctrine of non-violence of which so much is made of, all crumbled before Jinnah's iron will and proved to be powerless.

Briefly speaking, I thought to myself and foresaw I shall be totally ruined, and the only thing I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred and that I shall have lost all my honour, even more valuable than my life, if I were to kill Gandhiji. But at the same time I felt that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely be proved practical, able to retaliate, and would be powerful with armed forces. No doubt, my own future would be totally ruined, but the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan. People may even call me and dub me as devoid of any sense or foolish, but the nation would be free to follow the course founded on the reason which I consider to be necessary for sound nation-building. After having fully considered the question, I took the final decision in the matter, but I did not speak about it to anyone whatsoever. I took courage in both my hands and I did fire the shots at Gandhiji on 30th January 1948, on the prayer-grounds of Birla House.

I do say that my shots were fired at the person whose policy and action had brought rack and ruin and destruction to millions of Hindus. There was no legal machinery by which such an offender could be brought to book and for this reason I fired those fatal shots. I bear no ill will towards anyone individually but I do say that I had no respect for the present government owing to their policy which was unfairly favourable towards the Muslims. But at the same time I could clearly see that the policy was entirely due to the presence of Gandhi. I have to say with great regret that Prime Minister Nehru quite forgets that his preachings and deeds are at times at variances with each other when he talks about India as a secular state in season and out of season, because it is significant to note that Nehru has played a
leading role in the establishment of the theocratic state of Pakistan, and his job was made easier by Gandhi's persistent policy of appeasement towards the Muslims.

I now stand before the court to accept the full share of my responsibility for what I have done and the judge would, of course, pass against me such orders of sentence as may be considered proper. But I would like to add that I do not desire any mercy to be shown to me, nor do I wish that anyone else should beg for mercy on my behalf. My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism levelled against it on all sides. I have no doubt that honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof some day
in future. " occupied by the Hindu refugees. But when Hindus in

Hitler words just before death

Hitler words just before death

The lightning and the SunOthers have described -- or tried to describe -- far better than I (who was not on the spot) ever could, the last days of the Third German Reich: the irresistible advance of the two frantic invading armies (and of their respective auxiliaries) into the heart of the land, in which years of unheard-of bombardment had left nothing but ruins; the terror of the last and fiercest air raids that disorganized everything, while streams and streams of refugees kept pouring westward (realizing that they had, in spite of all, less to fear from the Americans -- enemies of National Socialism with no faith to put in its place -- than from the Russians, who were fighting in full awareness of their allegiance to the contrary faith); the horror of the last desperate battles, intended to immobilize for a while an enemy that one now knew to be the winner; and the moral breakdown -- the frightening, blank hopelessness, the bitter feeling of having been mocked and cheated -- of millions in whose hearts faith in National Socialism had been inseparable from the certitude of Germany's invincibility: the moral ruins, even more tragic and more lasting than the material ones.World War II's victors hoist the hammer-and-sickle flag over the Reichstag in Berlin. On the afternoon of April 30, 1945, as Soviet troops stormed the Reichstag, Hitler committed suicide in his nearby bunker headquarters.Others have described or tried to describe the horror of the last days of Berlin under the relentless fire of the Russian guns -- Berlin which, seen from above, "looked like the crater of an immense volcano." [These are the words of the well-known German airwoman, Hanna Reitsch, who saw it -- Devi's note.] In the midst of the capital ablaze, stood the broad and yet untouched gardens of the Chancellery of the Reich. There, surrounded by a few of his faithful ones in his bunker, underground, Adolf Hitler, the man against time, lived the apparent end of all his life's work and of all his dreams, and the beginning of his people's long martyrdom. More or less accurate reports have reached the outer world about his last known gestures and words. But nobody has described in all its more-than-human grandeur the last, real, inner phase -- the tragic failure, and yet (considered from a standpoint exceeding by far that of the politician) the culmination -- of his dedicated life. In August Kubizek's biography of him as a young man, there is a passage too significant for me not to quote it nearly in extenso. It is the description of a walk to the Freienberg (a hill over-looking Linz) in the middle of the night, just after the future Fuehrer and his friend had attended together, at the opera, a performance of Richard Wagner's Rienzi. "We were alone," writes Kubizek. "The town had sunk below us into the fog. As though he were moved by an invisible force, Adolf Hitler climbed to the top of the Freienberg. I now realized that we no longer stood in solitude and darkness, for above us shone the stars." "Adolf stood before me. He took both my hands in his and held them tight -- a gesture that he had never yet made. I could feel from the pressure of his hands how moved he was. His eyes sparkled feverishly. The words did not pour from his lips with their usual easiness, but burst forth harsh and passionate. I noticed by his voice even more than by the way in which he held my hands how the episode he had lived (the performance of Rienzi) had shattered him to the depths. "Gradually, he began to speak more freely. The words came with more speed. Never before and also never since have I heard Adolf Hitler speak like he did then, as we stood alone under the stars as though we had been the only two creatures on earth. "It is impossible for me to repeat the words my friend uttered in that hour. "Something quite remarkable, which I had not noticed before, even when he spoke to me with vehemence, struck me at that moment: it was as though another self spoke through him; another self, from the presence of which he was as moved as I was. In no way could one have said of him (as it sometimes happens, in the case of brilliant speakers) that he was intoxicated with his own words. On the contrary! I had the feeling that he experienced with amazement, I would say, that he was himself possessed by that which burst out of him with elemental power. I do not allow myself a comment on that observation. But it was a state of ecstasy, a state of complete trance, in which, without mentioning it or the instance involved in it, he projected his experience of the Rienzi performance into a glorious vision upon another plane, congenial to himself. More so: the impression he had received from that performance was merely the external Impulse that had prompted him to speak. Like a flood breaks through a dam which has burst, so rushed the words from his mouth. In sublime, irresistible images, he unfolded before me his own future and that of our people. "Till then I had been convinced that my friend wanted to become an artist, a painter, or an architect. In that hour there was no question of such a thing. He was concerned with something higher, which I could not yet understand ... He now spoke of a mission that he was one day to receive from our people, in order to guide them out of slavery, to the heights of freedom ... Many years were to pass before I could realize what that starry hour, separated from all earthly things, had meant to my friend." Calmer now, amid the thunder of explosions and the noise of crumbling buildings -- the flames and ruins of the Second World War -- than then, at the top of the Freienberg, under the stars; freed from the temporary wild despair that had seized him at the news of the Russian advance west of the Oder River, Adolf Hitler beheld the future. And that future -- his own and that of National Socialism and that of Germany, which had now become, forever, the fortress of the new faith -- was nothing less than eternity; the eternity of truth, more unshakable (and more soothing) in its majesty even than that of the Milky Way. The Russians could come, and their "gallant Allies" from the West could meet them and rejoice with them upon the ashes of the Third Reich (as Winston Churchill and his daughter Sarah, who were actually to be seen a few days later giggling with Russian officers before the skeleton of the Reichstag); Berlin could be wiped out -- or bolshevized -- and Germany, cut in two or in four, could, for years and years, suffer such an ordeal as no nation in history had yet suffered. In spite of all, National Socialism, the modern expression of cosmic truth, would endure and conquer. National Socialism would rise again because it is true to cosmic reality and because that which is true does not pass. Germany's via dolorosa was indeed the way to coming glory. It had to be taken, if the privileged nation was to fulfill her mission absolutely, i.e., if she was to be the nation that died for the sake of the highest human race, which she embodied, and that would rise again to take the lead of those surviving Aryans who are -- at last! -- to understand her message of life and to carry it with them into the splendor of the dawning Golden Age. Oh, now -- now under the ceaseless fire and thunder of the Russian artillery; now, on the brink of disaster -- how the man against time clearly understood this! Above him and above the smoke of the Russian cannons and of the burning city, above the noise of explosions, millions and millions of miles away, the stars -- those same stars that had shed their light over the adolescent's first prophetic ecstasy forty years before -- sparkled in all their glory, in the limitless void. And the man against time, who could not see them, knew that his National Socialist wisdom, founded upon the very laws of life; his wisdom that this doomed world had cursed and rejected, was and would remain, in spite of all, as unassailable and everlasting as their everlasting dance.

Godsay’s statement in court during the Trial

Godsay’s statement in court during the Trial

Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus were of equal status as to rights, social and religious and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession. I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners in which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Chamars and Bhangis participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other. I have read the speeches and writings of Dadabhai Naoroji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and modern history of India and some prominent countries like England, France, America and' Russia. Moreover I studied the tenets of Socialism and Marxism. But above all I studied very closely whatever Veer Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the moulding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so, than any other single factor has done. All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was my first duty to serve Hindudom and Hindus both as a patriot and as a world citizen. To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores (300 million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and the well-being of all India, one fifth of human race. This conviction led me naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanghtanist ideology and programme, which alone, I came to believe, could win and preserve the national independence of Hindustan, my Motherland, and enable her to render true service to humanity as well. Since the year 1920, that is, after the demise of Lokamanya Tilak, Gandhiji's influence in the Congress first increased and then became supreme. His activities for public awakening were phenomenal in their intensity and were reinforced by the slogan of truth and non-violence which he paraded ostentatiously before the country. No sensible or enlightened person could object to those slogans. In fact there is nothing new or original in them. They are implicit in every constitutional public movement. But it is nothing but a mere dream if you imagine that the bulk of mankind is, or can ever become, capable of scrupulous adherence to these lofty principles in its normal life from day to day. In fact, hunour, duty and love of one's own kith and kin and country might often compel us to disregard non-violence and to use force. I could never conceive that an armed resistance to an aggression is unjust. I would consider it a religious and moral duty to resist and, if possible, to overpower such an enemy by use of force. [In the Ramayana] Rama killed Ravana in a tumultuous fight and relieved Sita. [In the Mahabharata], Krishna killed Kansa to end his wickedness; and Arjuna had to fight and slay quite a number of his friends and relations including the revered Bhishma because the latter was on the side of the aggressor. It is my firm belief that in dubbing Rama, Krishna and Arjuna as guilty of violence, the Mahatma betrayed a total ignorance of the springs of human action. In more recent history, it was the heroic fight put up by Chhatrapati Shivaji that first checked and eventually destroyed the Muslim tyranny in India. It was absolutely essentially for Shivaji to overpower and kill an aggressive Afzal Khan, failing which he would have lost his own life. In condemning history's towering warriors like Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Gobind Singh as misguided patriots, Gandhiji has merely exposed his self-conceit. He was, paradoxical as it may appear, a violent pacifist who brought untold calamities on the country in the name of truth and non-violence, while Rana Pratap, Shivaji and the Guru will remain enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen for ever for the freedom they brought to them. The accumulating provocation of thirty-two years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately. Gandhi had done very good in South Africa to uphold the rights and well-being of the Indian community there. But when he finally returned to India he developed a subjective mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on his own way. Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. Either Congress had to surrender its will to his and had to be content with playing second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him. He alone was the Judge of everyone and every thing; he was the master brain guiding the civil disobedience movement; no other could know the technique of that movement. He alone knew when to begin and when to withdraw it. The movement might succeed or fail, it might bring untold disaster and political reverses but that could make no difference to the Mahatma's infallibility. 'A Satyagrahi can never fail' was his formula for declaring his own infallibility and nobody except himself knew what a Satyagrahi is. Thus, the Mahatma became the judge and jury in his own cause. These childish insanities and obstinacies, coupled with a most severe austerity of life, ceaseless work and lofty character made Gandhi formidable and irresistible. Many people thought that his politics were irrational but they had either to withdraw from the Congress or place their intelligence at his feet to do with as he liked. In a position of such absolute irresponsibility Gandhi was guilty of blunder after blunder, failure after failure, disaster after disaster. Gandhi's pro-Muslim policy is blatantly in his perverse attitude on the question of the national language of India. It is quite obvious that Hindi has the most prior claim to be accepted as the premier language. In the beginning of his career in India, Gandhi gave a great impetus to Hindi but as he found that the Muslims did not like it, he became a champion of what is called Hindustani. Everybody in India knows that there is no language called Hindustani; it has no grammar; it has no vocabulary. It is a mere dialect, it is spoken, but not written. It is a bastard tongue and cross-breed between Hindi and Urdu, and not even the Mahatma's sophistry could make it popular. But in his desire to please the Muslims he insisted that Hindustani alone should be the national language of India. His blind followers, of course, supported him and the so-called hybrid language began to be used. The charm and purity of the Hindi language was to be prostituted to please the Muslims. All his experiments were at the expense of the Hindus. From August 1946 onwards the private armies of the Muslim League began a massacre of the Hindus. The then Viceroy, Lord Wavell, though distressed at what was happening, would not use his powers under the Government of India Act of 1935 to prevent the rape, murder and arson. The Hindu blood began to flow from Bengal to Karachi with some retaliation by the Hindus. The Interim Government formed in September was sabotaged by its Muslim League members right from its inception, but the more they became disloyal and treasonable to the government of which they were a part, the greater was Gandhi's infatuation for them. Lord Wavell had to resign as he could not bring about a settlement and he was succeeded by Lord Mountbatten. King Log was followed by King Stork. The Congress which had boasted of its nationalism and socialism secretly accepted Pakistan literally at the point of the bayonet and abjectly surrendered to Jinnah. India was vivisected and one-third of the Indian territory became foreign land to us from August 15, 1947. Lord Mountbatten came to be described in Congress circles as the greatest Viceroy and Governor-General this country ever had. The official date for handing over power was fixed for June 30, 1948, but Mountbatten with his ruthless surgery gave us a gift of vivisected India ten months in advance. This is what Gandhi had achieved after thirty years of undisputed dictatorship and this is what Congress party calls 'freedom' and 'peaceful transfer of power'. The Hindu-Muslim unity bubble was finally burst and a theocratic state was established with the consent of Nehru and his crowd and they have called 'freedom won by them with sacrifice' - whose sacrifice? When top leaders of Congress, with the consent of Gandhi, divided and tore the country - which we consider a deity of worship - my mind was filled with direful anger. One of the conditions imposed by Gandhi for his breaking of the fast unto death related to the mosques in Delhi occupied by the Hindu refugees. But when Hindus in Pakistan were subjected to violent attacks he did not so much as utter a single word to protest and censure the Pakistan Government or the Muslims concerned. Gandhi was shrewd enough to know that while undertaking a fast unto death, had he imposed for its break some condition on the Muslims in Pakistan, there would have been found hardly any Muslims who could have shown some grief if the fast had ended in his death. It was for this reason that he purposely avoided imposing any condition on the Muslims. He was fully aware of from the experience that Jinnah was not at all perturbed or influenced by his fast and the Muslim League hardly attached any value to the inner voice of Gandhi. Gandhi is being referred to as the Father of the Nation. But if that is so, he had failed his paternal duty inasmuch as he has acted very treacherously to the nation by his consenting to the partitioning of it. I stoutly maintain that Gandhi has failed in his duty. He has proved to be the Father of Pakistan. His inner-voice, his spiritual power and his doctrine of non-violence of which so much is made of, all crumbled before Jinnah's iron will and proved to be powerless. Briefly speaking, I thought to myself and foresaw I shall be totally ruined, and the only thing I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred and that I shall have lost all my honour, even more valuable than my life, if I were to kill Gandhiji. But at the same time I felt that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely be proved practical, able to retaliate, and would be powerful with armed forces. No doubt, my own future would be totally ruined, but the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan. People may even call me and dub me as devoid of any sense or foolish, but the nation would be free to follow the course founded on the reason which I consider to be necessary for sound nation-building. After having fully considered the question, I took the final decision in the matter, but I did not speak about it to anyone whatsoever. I took courage in both my hands and I did fire the shots at Gandhiji on 30th January 1948, on the prayer-grounds of Birla House. I do say that my shots were fired at the person whose policy and action had brought rack and ruin and destruction to millions of Hindus. There was no legal machinery by which such an offender could be brought to book and for this reason I fired those fatal shots. I bear no ill will towards anyone individually but I do say that I had no respect for the present government owing to their policy which was unfairly favourable towards the Muslims. But at the same time I could clearly see that the policy was entirely due to the presence of Gandhi. I have to say with great regret that Prime Minister Nehru quite forgets that his preachings and deeds are at times at variances with each other when he talks about India as a secular state in season and out of season, because it is significant to note that Nehru has played a leading role in the establishment of the theocratic state of Pakistan, and his job was made easier by Gandhi's persistent policy of appeasement towards the Muslims. I now stand before the court to accept the full share of my responsibility for what I have done and the judge would, of course, pass against me such orders of sentence as may be considered proper. But I would like to add that I do not desire any mercy to be shown to me, nor do I wish that anyone else should beg for mercy on my behalf. My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism levelled against it on all sides. I have no doubt that honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof some day in future.