Let's Kill Gandhi: A Chronicle of his last days, The Conspiracy, Murder, Investigation and Trail

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About Of Author
Tushar A. Gandhi (b.1960) is the great-grandson of Mohandas and Kasturba Gandhi, and the grandson of their second son, Manilal, and wife Sushila. In 1996 he discovered an urn containing the ashes from Gandhi's funeral pyre, forgotten in the strong room of the State Bank of India, Cuttack. He secured permission from the Supreme Court and immersed them in the Triveni Sangam on 30 January 1997.The same year he founded the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, of which he is currently the managing truetee.

In 2005,he commemorated the 75^thanniversary of the Dandi Kooch, by organising a re-enactment of the 241-mile long walk. He walked the entire stretch and was instrumental in getting the prime minister to declare the route from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi a historic heritage route.

Tushar currently lives in Mumbai with his wife Sonal and children Vivan and Kasturi.

From the jacket ON 30 JANUARY 1948 MAHATMA GANDHI. FATHER OF A NEWLY LIBERATED INDIAN NATION. WAS MURDERED BY A HINDU EXTREMIST.
Since then, many lies have been passed off as truths, half-truths have been mixed with true incidents and passed off as whole truths.

'Gandhi was responsible for the partition'; 'Gandhi sheltered Muslims and abandoned Hindus'; 'Killing Gandhi was the only way to save India'; these were, and even today are, some of the statements propagated by Hindu extremists and followers of Godse to justify Gandhi's murder.

This book has been written to put the facts straight. Written by Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar A. Gandhi,' Let's Kill Gandhi!' deals with facts gleaned from a lot of verbal history, from archival material, from the records of the murder trial and investigations, from books written by the defence lawyers and judges, from newspaper reports and from what Tushar grew up hearing in the family.

Nowhere in the history of political murders has such a nexus of human errors, procedural foul-ups and sheer apathy colluded to allow a bunch of bungling amateurs to so easily succeed. This book is a chronicle of a conspiracy that goes beyond Nathuram Godse, Gandhi's murderer. Foreword

On 30 January 1948, Mahatma Gandhi, father of the newly liberated Indian nation was murdered by a Hindu fanatic.

The world remembers Gandhi and pays homage to him on this day but the story of his murder has been forgotten. Every 30 January the heads of the Indian government visit Raj Ghat and lay wreaths at his Samadhi. A siren blares at 11 am, reminding the people of India that Gandhi, the apostle of peace was murdered on that day. But his sacrifices have been forgotten. India today is hundred on that day. But his sacrifices have been forgotten. India today is hurtling down that very path, which led to its division in 1947. if this hate and destruction is not arrested, we will cease to exist as a nation. He is no longer in our midst to save us; his martyrdom will have been in vain.

Since 30 January 1948, various groups have circulated their own, and often unfounded, theories about his murder. Many lies have been passed off as truths; half-truths have been intermingled with true incidents and passed off as whole truths. Nathuram Godse, the murderer's act has been glorified by saying that he did it from a sense of outrage at Gandhi's pro-Pakistani stance to the detriment of Hindus. 'Mahatma Gandhi was responsible for Partition'; 'Mahatma Gandhi was sheltering Muslims and had abandoned Hindus'; 'If Mahatma Gandhi was allowed to live he would harm the cause of the Hindu Rashtra', 'Mahatma Gandhi forced the Indian Government to pay Pakistan Rs. 55 crores'; 'Mahatma Gandhi turned a blind eye to the sufferings of the Hindu refugees and pampered the Muslims who had stayed back at the time of the Partition'; Killing Gandhiji was the only way to save Bharatmata'; these were, and even today are, some of the lies propagated by the followers of Godse and the Hindu far-Right to justify his murder.

But are they True? A generation of Indians has grown up believing them to be true. The silence of the Gandhians, who always turned the other cheek whenever Gandhi was attacked, has strengthened this belief further. Does anyone know that there were four recorded attempts on Gandhi's life before the last two on the 20th and 30 of January 1948? Four of the five failed attempts were made at a time when Pakistan was not even on the agenda of the Muslim League. All the four attacks were made by the extreme Right-wing upper caste Hindus of Poona; three of the four attempts on his life were made y the Narayan Apte-Godse Gang, and Nathuram was caught in two of those attempts.

On 20 January a crude bomb was exploded by a Punjabi refugee, Madanlal Pahwa, during the evening prayer meeting at Birla House. After he was arrested, Madanlal confessed to being a part of a gang conspiring to kill Gandhi. He confessed that the leaders of the gang were from Poona and that one of them was the editor and publisher of Hindu Rashtra and Agranee, Marathi language periodicals published and printed by Godse and Apte. Madanlal led the police to room 40, at Marina Hotel, in Delhi, where the gang leaders had stayed before the failed attempt on the 20th. The police found unclaimed laundry from the room, which bore the initials N. V. G., Nathuram Vinayak Godse. They also found a copy of the then-not-yet released press statement of the secretary of the Delhi Hindu Mahasabha.

	CONTENTS
	Acknowledgements	xi
	Foreword	xv
	Book 1
1.	'He Ram': Another Crucifixion	3
2.	The Murderers	13
3.	The Plot	54
4.	Bungling the Investigation	130
5.	Mentor Betrayed	150
6.	Attempts That Failed	165
	Book 2
7.	The Last Years	179
8.	Violence Erupts	249
9.	Bihar Massacres	323
10.	A Lonesome Mahatma	367
11.	City of the Dead	471
	Book 3
12.	Red Fort Trial	525
13.	Appeals and Execution	714
14.	The Kapur Commission	734
	APPENDICES
I	REX versus Nathuram Godse and Eight accused	917
II	List of Witnesses for the Prosecution and the Date on which they Appeared in Court	922
III	The Prosecution's Version	928
IV	The Approver,Badge's Statement	954
V	Inscription on the Murder Weapon	969
VI	The Establishments Associated with Mahatma Gandhi's Murder	970
	Index	977