Godse's statement in the court.
If opposing views are to be heard, then perhaps Godse’s statement given in court can be read and appraised: Godse shot Gandhiji on Jan 30th, 1948, was tried starting 27th May, and convicted .
Selected Excerpts from Why I killed Gandhi by Nathuram Godse.
‘I used to take part publicly in organized anti-caste dinners in which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Chamars, and Bhangis participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other... I studied the tenets of socialism and Marxism.
In fact, honor, duty, and life of one’s own kith and kin and country might often compel us to disregard non-violence and use force. I could never conceive that 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)
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 condemning history’s towering warriors like Shivaji, Rana Pratap, and Guru Govind Singh as misguided patriots, Gandhiji has merely exposed his self-conceit…
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.
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 blatant in his perverse attitude on the question of the national language of India ..
From August 46 onwards, the private armies of the Muslim League began a massacre of the Hindus ..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 become disloyal and treasonable to the government of which they were a part, the greater was Gandhi’s infatuation for them...
India was vivisected, and one-third of the Indian territory became foreign land to us from August 15,1947…
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 for 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.
Gandhi is being referred to as the Father of the Nation. But if that is so , he had failed his paternal duty in as much 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…
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..
I have no doubt that honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof someday in the future….