Mahatma’s Blunders (Why Did Godse Kill Gandhi ?)

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This book 'Mahatma's Blunders' is a critical analysis of a number of misconceived policies from 1920 to 1947, which ended up vivisecting the nation and ruining the lives of 20 million people. By meticulously studying Nathuram Godse's statement, presented in the Trial Court at the Red Fort, New-Delhi on 8th November 1948, and comparing it with facts gleaned from history and books on Indian Freedom Struggle it is a sincere effort to derive the logic behind Godse's criticism of Gandhiji's political strategies and try to answer a more fundamental question, why did Nathuram Godse kill Mahatma Gandhi?

This book 'Mahatma's Blunders' covers the entire life span of Gandhiji's political career, from his early days in South Africa to his contribution to India's Freedom Struggle, right up to his last days. The motive behind writing this book is not to demean the Mahatma nor glorify his assassin but, uncover this myth that Gandhiji was a victim of religious fanaticism.

Anup Sardesai hails from the province of Goa, on the west coast of India. For the last five years, he has carried out extensive research on the religio-political problems in modern India without the help of any institution. This book 'Mahatma's Blunders' is his first book as an author.

"My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism levelled off against it on all sides. I have no doubt, honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof on some day in the future."

Nathuram Godse

On 30th January 1948, at 5.17pm IST, Mohandas Karam-chand Gandhi, popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi or Gandhiji, was brutally shot dead as he was walking towards his prayer ground at the Birla House, Delhi. His assassin, Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a resident of Poona, was arrested at the scene of the crime and sentenced to death by hanging, after a trial that lasted for over a year.

During the course of the trial, Nathuram Godse presented his statement in the Special Trial Court at the Red Fort, New Delhi on 8°' November 1948 where he mentioned a number of blunders committed by Gandhiji which compelled him to take this extreme step. However, this statement was banned by the Government of India the very next day, after it was read with the pretext that it contained distorted facts which demeaned the Mahatma.

Though the Government banned the statement, it needed substantial evidence to justify its actions. Thus, they came up with a mythical 'Hindu Extremism' theory saying that Gandhiji's murder was a result of religious fanaticism. This gave the Government sufficient grounds to ban this statement under Section 153 which gave the Government powers to restrict information from reaching the public citing a threat to communal harmony.

After his release from prison in 1964, Nathuram Godse's brother Gopal Godse, a fellow conspirator in the assassination of Gandhiji approached the courts seeking the lifting of the ban on publishing the statement. In 1968, Gopal Godse, won a hard fought case in the Bombay High Court in which he managed to get the ban lifted on the publishing of this statement. In a landmark 217-page judgement delivered in 1968, the Bombay High Court said, 'We think that the claim of the publisher that `Gandhi's assassination is now a matter of history' ... is fairly justified'

But, even after the ban was lifted, the Government threatened publishers of imprisonment under Section 153 if they dared to publish the statement. Thus, no publisher with a reputation was willing to publish it due to the fear of a backlash from the Congress which was then ruling the country. The ban on this statement for almost 50 years was one of the biggest abuses of 'Freedom of Expression' this country has ever seen.

It was only in 1983, after the Bombay High Court, in another case, ruled that Section 153 cannot be misused against historical research, the first copy of this statement came into the public domain. In 1992, the statement was first published in the form of a booklet which bore the name 'Why I assassinated Gandhi'. Since then, the book has appeared in several Indian languages.

Although much of this statement focuses on the murder itself, there are certain points made by Nathuram Godse where he has criticized Gandhiji's role in India's freedom movement. In his lengthy statement, Godse has methodically surveyed the history of India's freedom movement from 1920 to 1948 and has highlighted a number of misconceived policies of Gandhiji that led to an unmitigated disaster which ruined the lives of over 20 million innocent people on both sides of the border.

Yet, for over six decades, this statement has been mocked by Gandhi protagonists as a bunch of lies. This country, which calls itself the largest democracy in the world and boasts of 'Freedom of Expression' for its citizens, has resorted to a total misuse of state machinery to ban every single book carrying Nathuram Godse's side of the story. Even, people expressing dissenting views on the Mahatma's ideology have been vilified.

The reasons for such actions can be attributed to a section of the Indian political class who have used the country's history as a propaganda tool and willfully misrepresented it to glorify their own leaders. For ages, historical writings for political motives have been a habitual tradition. Unfortunately, post independence Indian historical writing has been degraded to the nadir of crass, self-serving political activism and a determination by these Gandhi protagonists to censor defiant views challenging their Mahatma's ideology.

**Contents and Sample Pages**