The Men Who Killed Gandhi

Editor of the Hindu Rashtra, Nathuram Vinayak Godse was born in an orthodox Brahmin family on 19 May 1910. As the family had lost their three sons in infancy, his parents, to appease the evil spirits, decided to raise their next son, as a girl, and he was made to wear a nath or nose-ring, hence the name Nathuram. A neighbourhood do-gooder, he was an avid believer in Gandhi’s movement for non-cooperation.

Born in 1911, Narayan Apte was the eldest son of a wellknown historian and Sanskrit scholar. Educated in Poona and Bombay, he joined the Hindu Rashtra as its manager. As the news of Gandhi’s decision to undertake a fast to support the payment of Rs 55 crore to Pakistan flashed on the teleprinter on 13 January 1948 he, along with Nathuram, decided – Gandhi had tobe killed.

Raised in Northcote Orphanage in Bombay, Vishnu Karkare began working in a tea shop when he was just ten years old. After fifteen years of hard work he moved to Ahmednagar and started a tea shop in a disused cowshed and made it a success. The Deccan Guesthouse was famous for its puris and a concoction of chillies which he called the ‘blood-purifying sauce’.

Younger brother of Nathuram Godse, Gopal Godse was a gentle, soft-spoken and self-effacing man who was much influenced by his brother’s fervent zeal for the Hindu cause. During the Second World War, he volunteered for service overseas and was sent with the British column to Iran and Iraq.

A refugee from the Punjab, Madanlal Pahwa joined a firecracker manufacturing unit in Bombay that was also involved in making hand grenades. A thick-set muscular man, he was arrested on 20 January 1948 for throwing a bomb at Gandhiji’s prayer meeting. While on his trip to Delhi to kill Gandhi he had also planned to meet girls his family had arranged for him to see as prospective wives, almost believing that life would go on as usual.