Assassination of Gandhi - The Facts Behind
By Chunibhai Vaidya
The killer of Gandhiji and his apologists sought to justify the assassination on the following arguments:
Gandhiji supported the idea of a separate State for Muslims. In a sense he was responsible for the creation of Pakistan.
In spite of the Pakistani aggression in Kashmir, Gandhiji fasted to compel the government of India to release an amount of Rs. 55 crores due to Pakistan.
The belligerence of Muslims was a result of Gandhiji's policy of appeasement.
Scrutinized in the light of recorded history, these prove to be clever distortions to misguide the gullible. Gandhiji in those days was very active in the rough and tumble of politics. The proposal for partition of the country and violent reaction against it generated tensions which ultimately resulted in sectarian killings on a scale unprecedented in human history. For the ethnic Muslims, Gandhiji was a Hindu leader who opposed the creation of Pakistan on sectarian grounds. Ethnic Hindus looked upon him as an impediment to their plan to revenge the atrocities on Hindus. Godse was a child of this extremist thinking.
The influx of Hindus from Pakistan who were uprooted and who had suffered killings of relatives, abduction and rape of women and looting of their belongings had created an explosive situation. The local Hindus who were outraged by the treatment meted out to their Hindu brethren and the anger of local Muslims against reports of similar outrages on their coreligionists in India made Delhi a veritable witches' cauldron.
This resulted in killings, molestation, torching of houses and properties. This caused deep anguish to Gandhiji. What added poignancy to this was the realization that it happened in India itself just after a unique incident in the history of mankind: doing away of the shackles of a colonial regime by non-violent means.
The author of the play "Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoy", Shri Pradip Dalvi described the order of Maharashtra government banning the staging of the play as an attack on freedom of expression. This is a travesty of truth and perversion of the fundamental right guaranteed by the constitution. The constitution also provides for ban on the abuse of this freedom vide its section 19(2). The implication of what Shri Dalvi and ilk profess requires to be carefully analysed. Under the guise of defending the freedom of expression what they are seeking to do is to advocate the right to murder those who do not agree with them; they seek to spread hatred and violence; they want to propagate the pernicious doctrine that under certain circumstances the murder of the opponent becomes an act of religious sacrifice. It is revolting to find that the heinous murder of one who was a living embodiment of nonviolence, peace and love and who was as defenceless as a naked new born child should be made scaffolding for a neo-fascist doctrine.
Godse is no more but the mindset which gave birth to such distorted philosophy is unfortunately still with us. One can dismiss what he did as an act of a lunatic bigot. Assassination by itself is not as wicked as the attempts to rationalize, justify masquerade it as a religious act. Permitting such plays to be staged amounts to permitting mis-education our children. The only sane response to such insidious propaganda is unequivocal rejection thereof.
Poster Comment:
Hindus
killing
hindus
because
of
muslims
