mahatma gandhi-book-killing
Gandhi's assassins loved spy books
BY MRITYUNJAY BOSE
MUMBAI: That Mahatma Gandhi's assassins loved detective novels is a little known fact. A book on the plot to kill the Father of the Nation unravels different aspect of the psyche of the two main conspirators – Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte.
The book 'The Men Who Killed Gandhi' penned by Manohar Malgonkar – which also contains several unpublished documents and photographs, puts the whole story together that led to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948.
"Nathuram Godse was an avid reader of detective novels, his favourite author being Erle Stanley Gardner. Apte, on the other hand, showed a marked preference for Agatha Christie. But their familiarity with crime in fiction had taught them nothing of the ways of criminals in real life. To the end, they remained rank amateurs, shockingly incompetent in almost everything they did. Nathuram even kept an account book in which he meticulously put down all the sums of money they paid to their accomplices. Instead of trying to cover their tracks, they seemed if anything to go to special trouble to leave a well-blazed trail," Malgonkar writes in the book re-printed recently.
The book also dwells on what had been the last words of Gandhiji – after Godse pumped in bullets on the Apostle of Peace.
Writes Malgonkar: "No one noticed whether Gandhi's face bore a smile as he faced his assailant. But Gurbchan Singh, a Sikh businessman from Panipat, who was a devotee of Gandhi and who was only a few steps behind him as he fell, deposed that Gandhi's last words were 'Hai Rama!' (Vishnu) Karkare, on the other hand, who stood within a few feet of Gandhi and saw him as bullets struck him swore to the author that all Gandhi uttered was a cry of pain, a guttural rasp, 'Aaaah!"
However, he reasons: "It is, of course, possible that both are wrong, and that what they heard, or say they heard, was conditioned by the one man's veneration for Gandhi and the other man's contempt. Then again it is possible that both are right, and the invocation 'Hai Rama' uttered with his last breath may have sounded to Karkare like a cry of pain."
On the attack on January 20, the books says that after Madanlal Pahwa, a refugee of Pakistan, was arrested, he clearly said 'Phir Ayega' (They will come again) – however, police failed to prevent the assassination.
On this attempt what Gandhi had to say was interesting. "The boy is bahadur (brave warior)….bacche hain, abhi yeh samajhte nahin. Maroonga tab yaad karange, ke boodha theek kehta tha (They are like children. They don't understand. After I am gone, they will realize that what the old man used to say was right)."
The book also traces the history of the 9-mm Beretta that was used to kill Gandhi. "The Beretta had traveled halfway across the world to serve its fateful destiny. Manufactured in Italy in 1934, it had been taken to Abyssinia by one of Mussolini's officers. From him it was 'liberated' by an officer of the 4th Gwalior Infantry, which regiment had been sent to Abyssinia as part of the force, which accepted the surrender of Italians. But since the battalion's return to Gwalior the pistol changed hand several times.
Interesting records published in the book include copies of the Air-India tickets used by Godse and Apte to make the trip from Bombay to Delhi and back for the assassination and even their bills at Hotel Marina in Connaught Place where they stayed while carrying out their mission. It also carries an extensive timeline between 1948-1949 – from the time the conspiracy is hatched till the judgement in the case. It also mention with dates and time how they shuttled between Poona (now Pune), Bombay (now Mumbai) and Delhi – and also shows pictures of buildings where they stayed or went to.
(This report was first published in The Maharashtra Herald, Pune)
BY MRITYUNJAY BOSE
MUMBAI: That Mahatma Gandhi's assassins loved detective novels is a little known fact. A book on the plot to kill the Father of the Nation unravels different aspect of the psyche of the two main conspirators – Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte.
The book 'The Men Who Killed Gandhi' penned by Manohar Malgonkar – which also contains several unpublished documents and photographs, puts the whole story together that led to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948.
"Nathuram Godse was an avid reader of detective novels, his favourite author being Erle Stanley Gardner. Apte, on the other hand, showed a marked preference for Agatha Christie. But their familiarity with crime in fiction had taught them nothing of the ways of criminals in real life. To the end, they remained rank amateurs, shockingly incompetent in almost everything they did. Nathuram even kept an account book in which he meticulously put down all the sums of money they paid to their accomplices. Instead of trying to cover their tracks, they seemed if anything to go to special trouble to leave a well-blazed trail," Malgonkar writes in the book re-printed recently.
The book also dwells on what had been the last words of Gandhiji – after Godse pumped in bullets on the Apostle of Peace.
Writes Malgonkar: "No one noticed whether Gandhi's face bore a smile as he faced his assailant. But Gurbchan Singh, a Sikh businessman from Panipat, who was a devotee of Gandhi and who was only a few steps behind him as he fell, deposed that Gandhi's last words were 'Hai Rama!' (Vishnu) Karkare, on the other hand, who stood within a few feet of Gandhi and saw him as bullets struck him swore to the author that all Gandhi uttered was a cry of pain, a guttural rasp, 'Aaaah!"
However, he reasons: "It is, of course, possible that both are wrong, and that what they heard, or say they heard, was conditioned by the one man's veneration for Gandhi and the other man's contempt. Then again it is possible that both are right, and the invocation 'Hai Rama' uttered with his last breath may have sounded to Karkare like a cry of pain."
On the attack on January 20, the books says that after Madanlal Pahwa, a refugee of Pakistan, was arrested, he clearly said 'Phir Ayega' (They will come again) – however, police failed to prevent the assassination.
On this attempt what Gandhi had to say was interesting. "The boy is bahadur (brave warior)….bacche hain, abhi yeh samajhte nahin. Maroonga tab yaad karange, ke boodha theek kehta tha (They are like children. They don't understand. After I am gone, they will realize that what the old man used to say was right)."
The book also traces the history of the 9-mm Beretta that was used to kill Gandhi. "The Beretta had traveled halfway across the world to serve its fateful destiny. Manufactured in Italy in 1934, it had been taken to Abyssinia by one of Mussolini's officers. From him it was 'liberated' by an officer of the 4th Gwalior Infantry, which regiment had been sent to Abyssinia as part of the force, which accepted the surrender of Italians. But since the battalion's return to Gwalior the pistol changed hand several times.
Interesting records published in the book include copies of the Air-India tickets used by Godse and Apte to make the trip from Bombay to Delhi and back for the assassination and even their bills at Hotel Marina in Connaught Place where they stayed while carrying out their mission. It also carries an extensive timeline between 1948-1949 – from the time the conspiracy is hatched till the judgement in the case. It also mention with dates and time how they shuttled between Poona (now Pune), Bombay (now Mumbai) and Delhi – and also shows pictures of buildings where they stayed or went to.
(This report was first published in The Maharashtra Herald, Pune)
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