The reason Mahatma Gandhi was shot this day, in 1948, by a Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse, was that Gandhi's tolerance for Muslims was unacceptable to the assassin.
Godse and his ilk felt that Gandhi was somehow responsible for the partitioning of India into India and Pakistan.
They felt that Gandhi and the new leaders of Independent India – which was barely six months old then – had betrayed the people who wanted a united India with Hindus and Muslims together. They felt that Gandhi’s continued talk of ‘ahimsa’ (non-violence) weakened the people’s power to show anger.
With some eerie premonition, just two days prior to his assassination, Gandhi said, “If I am to die by the bullet of a mad man, I must do so smiling. There must be no anger within me. God must be in my heart and on my lips”.
The mad man later defended himself in court with these words: "...it was not so much the Gandhian Ahimsa teachings that were opposed to by me and my group, but Gandhiji, while advocating his views, always showed or evinced a bias for Muslims, prejudicial and detrimental to the Hindu Community and its interests.
“I have fully described my point of view hereafter in detail and have quoted numerous instances, which unmistakably establish how Gandhiji became responsible for a number of calamities which the Hindu Community had to suffer and undergo."
Very often, the cause of an assassin seems paramount, only to himself. His focus would be only on what he thinks is unjust. And his biggest weapon would be ‘anger’.
And we can see here that Godse was so wrapped up in anger - seeing Gandhi being tolerant towards the demands of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan – that he failed to see the larger picture of all those bigger powers at play, or of those extenuating circumstances that overwhelm individual influence. Even if the individual is as great as Gandhi.
In Richard Attenborough’s Oscar winning movie ‘Gandhi’, there is a scene at Jinnah’s house, where the Indian leaders discuss resistance to a new British law. It legislates arresting, without warrant, anyone possessing material considered seditious.
Gandhi says, “Our resistance must be active and provocative. I want to embarrass all those who wish to treat us as slaves…. I want to change their minds. Not kill them for weakness we all possess.”
His suggestions seem completely defiant, yet absolutely necessary. He wants to mark the day the law comes into effect as a special day. “Make that a day of prayer and fasting.”
Jinnah asks, “You mean a general strike?”
Gandhi replies, “I mean a day of prayer and fasting. Of course, no work will be done. No buses. No trains. No factories. No administration. The country would stop.”
His attitude of non-violent resistance, as we can see here, exasperated the British to such extremes that they had to give in.
He showed us that peaceful resistance and peaceful coexistence are both possible. And that one can protest against injustice without resorting to arms.
His preaching and his practice of love for humanity is worthy of emulation at a pragmatic level in everyday application.
“Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding,” Gandhi said. And shunning these two, and bettering our understanding, is the greatest tribute we can give to his memory.
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