The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi - Trial and Verdict 1948-49

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This monograph on the Mahatma Gandhi assassination case trial, specially brought out by The Hindu Group of Publications as a part of the History Series, details the conspiracy behind the brutal killing of the Mahatma; how the accused organised it since December 1947; their depositions before the Special Court of Mr. Atma Charan and their defence, including Nathuram Godse's own arguments; the prosecution case argued by Chief Prosecution Counsel C.K. Daphtary; the verdicts of the Special Court and the East Punjab High Court; the findings of the J.L. Kapur Commission (1966-69); and some later developments.

This volume is exceptional. On the landmark anniversary - the 150th - of Gandhi's birth, it profiles his death. Odd? On the contrary. Let me explain. No one chooses to be born. One's birth is, in a manner of speaking, less about oneself than about others. Take Gandhi's own account, spare and terse, of his birth. He talks of where he was born, his parents, his grandfather and others further up in the Gandhi chain. It is all about the circumstances of his birth with which he seems to have been only accidentally connected. Similarly, about his marriage. In his times, he neither chose to be married, nor did he 'choose' the girl he married. Kasturba, likewise, had no role in the arrangements.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1860-1948) is by universal consent the greatest Indian of the modern era. His birth preceded the founding of The Hindu by nine years; and the newspaper of record, which was born in, and shaped by, the freedom struggle, reported, analysed, and commented on his life's work, chapter by chapter, over more than half a century. The Hindu grasped the significance of Gandhiji's vision, methods, and politics sooner than most other Indian newspapers. The first editorial on the public activities of this one of-a-kind Indian barrister in South Africa appeared on August 20, 1896. In turn, the long-sighted politician and master communicator fed the newspaper with news of the struggles of the people of Indian origin in South Africa, enabling it to publish some exclusives.

The bond - mission-based and often emotionally charged was special and consequential. It was hardly affected by the newspaper's occasional differences with Gandhiji's tactics or its mild editorial demurrals while commenting on his 'merciless logic' or his habit of 'imposing on his following conditions the rigour of which is greater than it can bear' (to quote from an editorial of September 4, 1920). This special relationship continued through the ebb and flow, the ups and downs of the freedom struggle as it progressed towards Independence.

**Contents and Sample Pages**