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Nathuram Godse fired the three shots that killed Mahatma Gandhi on this day (January 30) 75 years ago, but others too were part of the larger conspiracy. Godse wanted to take sole responsibility for the crime, but both the special court and later, the Punjab High Court rejected his arguments.
Justice G D Khosla, who was part of the three-judge Bench of Punjab High Court that heard the appeals of Godse and the others, profiled each of the convicts in his book, ‘The Murder of Mahatma’. This is what Justice Khosla wrote.
* Nathuram and Gopal Godse: The brothers were the sons of a village postmaster. Nathuram joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at the age of 22 after the failure of his small cloth business. A few years later, he moved to Pune and became secretary of the local branch of the Hindu Mahasabha. Justice Khosla noted that he had learnt most verses from the Bhagavad Gita by heart.
Nathuram became part of the civil disobedience movement in Hyderabad, where Hindus complained of being deprived of their rights by the government of the Nizam. He was arrested for his participation in the protests and imprisoned for some time.
It was during his stay in Pune that Nathruam met Apte, who was a school teacher. Together, Nathuram and Apte founded a Marathi daily newspaper called Agrani. Nathuram used the paper as a platform to voice his disagreements with Gandhi and his outreach to Indian Muslims. He was warned several times by the government for writing incendiary articles.
Nathuram’s younger brother, Gopal, worked with the Hindu Mahasabha for some time, but then joined the army as a member of the civilian personnel. He was later appointed a storekeeper of the Motor Transport Spares Sub-Depot at Kirkee, a military station near Pune.
Gopal was particularly inspired by Vinayak Savarkar and his demand for dividing India. Although Nathuram urged him to not participate in the planning of Gandhi’s murder, he decided to throw in his lot with the plan anyway.
* Narayan Apte: Apte became a school teacher in Ahmedabad after finishing his BSc. A member of the Hindu Rashtra Dal, he went on to join the Indian Air Force in 1943 and was awarded a King’s Commission.
However, after the death of his younger brother, Apte had to resign from the force and return home. He agreed with Godse that peaceful methods would not be able to achieve much in the political arena, but he neither possessed Godse’s religious fervour nor his ebullient enthusiasm, Justice Khosla wrote.
* Vishnu Karkare: Karkare had a difficult childhood. He was sent to an orphanage after his parents failed to take care of him due to a lack of money. Soon, Karkare ran away and started to earn a living by working odd jobs. He later opened his own restaurant in Ahmedabad.
Karkare met Apte and became his close associate after he joined the Hindu Mahasabha. With Apte’s support, he successfully contested the election to the Ahmednagar Municipal Committee.
* Madanlal Pahwa: Pahwa was a troublemaker from an early age, Justice Khosla wrote. He ran away from school to join the Royal Indian Navy but failed to pass the examination. Later, Pahwa joined the army, only to resign after a brief period of service.
He then returned to his home in Pakpattan (now in Pakistan). After large-scale rioting broke out in the city, Pahwa was evacuated to Ferozepur, Punjab. In December 1947, he met Apte and Godse and began organising protests by groups of refugees, who believed that the government was not sympathetic to the Hindu victims of Partition.
