Disproving the charge of conspiracy
The Hindu
After Gandhi’s assassination, the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha looked for ways to save themselves from ruin
In his new book, Gandhi’s Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and his Idea of India, Dhirendra K. Jha throws light on a pretrial statement Godse made, which refutes the self-portrait he offered in the courtroom “and the myths which pro-RSS writers created to suppress the real life that the assassin had lived and influences that had worked on him and led him to murder Gandhi.” An excerpt:
What the events would mean ultimately for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha was difficult to predict, but within twenty-four hours of Gandhi’s assassination they were looking for ways that might save them from ruin and salvage some of their standing. The grief of the multitude was unmistakable, and people seemed to have lost their minds. At the heart of the violent reaction lay the sense of grievance nurtured by many people belonging to the depressed castes towards Maharashtrian Brahmins. It was through the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha that a section of Maharashtrian Brahmins had dreamt of achieving the goal of a Hindu Rashtra. The antipathies that emerged after the assassination intensified the popular distrust of the RSS and the Mahasabha. The retaliation on January 31 was intense, beyond what anyone had imagined.