Mahatma Gandhi Assassinated

On this day, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was heading to an afternoon prayer meeting in New Delhi when out of the crowd gathering around him, rushed a man brandishing a Beretta revolver. The man – a Hindu militant called Nathuran Godse – went straight up to Gandhi and shot him three times at point-blank range. As Gandhi fell to the floor, his assassin stood still, neither running away, nor killing himself and, after a moment of dazed silence, he was seized by police to the hysterical cries of ‘Kill him! Kill him!’ from the crowd. Two hours later, Mahatma Gandhi, the Hindu spiritual leader who had contributed so much towards Indian independence, was dead.

Gandhi’s violent death stands in stark contrast to his own non-violent protests, especially in the form of civil disobedience. However, that he was killed in this way highlights the resentment that his beliefs and policies aroused in certain sections of Indian society, and particularly among more extreme Hindus.