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On This Day: Gandhi assassinated months after leading India to independence
JAN 30, 1948: Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated on this day in 1948 after being shot three times in the chest at point-blank range.
The 78-year-old was killed by Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse, who believed the inspirational advocate of non-violent protest favoured Muslims.
Gandhi - who was himself Hindu, albeit one who had a vision of a religious unity and opposed the partition of India - had been walking to a prayer meeting at the time.
Godse approached him near the Birla House in New Delhi at 5.17pm and fired his Beretta M 1934 three times, killing his victim almost instantly.
Gandhi, who was also known both a Mahatma and Bapa, meaning “high-souled” and “father” respectively, reputedly managed to utter “he ram” (“oh God”) before dying.
Godse, who was later executed despite Gandhi’s family’s insistence that it would be against his wishes, shouted “police” and gave himself up to officers.
A British Pathé newsreel shows the former lawyer’s body adorned in only a humble homespun single-sheet khadi that he began advocating in 1921 as act of defiance.
His death came just five months after India and Pakistan were granted independence by Britain and stunned both of the new countries even after their bloody partition.
Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru told his shocked countyrymen: “Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you or how to say it.
“Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation, is no more.”
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He also stressed that a Muslim hadn’t been the assassin in a bid to stop reprisals and calls to invade Pakistan.
At Gandhi’s funeral, two million people joined the five-mile procession that took five hours to get from Birla House to Raj Ghat, India’s most famous cremation spot.
[On This Day: John F Kennedy assassinated]
In Britain, Indian businesses closed for the day as a sign of respect as thousands of people converged at India House in London.
Separate ceremonies were held around India as his ashes toured towns and villages for 12 days before they were placed in the Ganges River according to Hindu custom.
In death, Gandhi’s philosophy of peaceful resistance inpsired a host of other protest leaders, including Martin Luther’s King’s U.S. Civil Rights Movement.
Gandhi’s political career began in 1893 when he travelled to South Africa – then part of the British Empire - to work as a lawyer after training as a barrister in London.
He found himself considered a second class citizen – poignantly being thrown out of a first-class carriage on a train - and rallied to help fellow Indians.
He encouraged Indians, whose “Indianess” he believed transcended religion and caste, to defy discriminatory laws and suffer punishments without responding violently.
The non-violence he used in protests in South Africa had not yet fully formed the cornerstone of his philosophy, though.
When he returned home in 1915, he actively recruited locals to fight in the First World War in the hope that it would inspire the British to give India independence.
It did not and from then on - even after British troops killed up to 1,000 Indians at the 1919 Amritsar Massacre – he advocated non-violent noncooperation.
He persuaded both Muslims and Hindus in the Indian National Congress to begin a boycott of British goods and campaign of civil disobedience.
It was highly successful, although fearing the protest was about to turn violent, he called it off in 1922 – shortly before he was arrested and jailed for two years.
In 1930, in bid to gain “world sympathy in this battle of right against might”, he led a 240-mile march to the sea to make salt in defiance of tax.
He was eventually jailed again after 60,000 others were arrested.
Despite rattling the British Raj, the protest was not widely supported by the Congress and leaders such as Nehru distanced themselves from him.
Gandhi came to the fore again with his Quit India campaign during World War II when he was jailed for a third time for refusing to support Britain’s fight.
He was released in 1944 after 18 months in jail – during which time Kasturba, his wife of 62 years, died – after he went on hunger strike and then fell ill with malaria.
By this time, the politcal debate was now focused on partition and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Muslim League leader who supported the war, was a new big player.
Gandhi, fearing bloodshed, was unable to persuade Jinnah to keep his community within an independent India even with the option of later plebiscites.
In the end, the subcontinent was divided with tragic effect after Pakistan and India became independent on the 14th and 15th August 1947 respectively.
Violence ensued as 7.2million Muslims went to Pakistan from India while another 7.2million Hindus and Sikhs moved to India from Pakistan in the aftermath.
Between 500,000 and a million people died in the chaos, which has caused strained relations and conflicts between India and Pakistan ever since.
Today, Gandhi remains a hero in India, where his birthday – October 2 – is a national holiday and he is credited with ensuring the country became a secular democracy.
