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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement, is assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic.
Born the son of an Indian official in 1869, Gandhi’s Vaishnava mother was deeply religious and early on exposed her son to Jainism, a morally rigorous Indian religion that advocated nonviolence. Gandhi was an unremarkable student but in 1888 was given an opportunity to study law in England. In 1891, he returned to India, but failing to find regular legal work he accepted in 1893 a one-year contract in South Africa.
Settling in Natal, he was subjected to racism and South African laws that restricted the rights of Indian laborers. Gandhi later recalled one such incident, in which he was removed from a first-class railway compartment and thrown off a train, as his moment of truth. From thereon, he decided to fight injustice and defend his rights as an Indian and a man. When his contract expired, he spontaneously decided to remain in South Africa and launched a campaign against legislation that would deprive Indians of the right to vote. He formed the Natal Indian Congress and drew international attention to the plight of Indians in South Africa. In 1906, the Transvaal government sought to further restrict the rights of Indians, and Gandhi organized his first campaign of satyagraha, or mass civil disobedience. After seven years of protest, he negotiated a compromise agreement with the South African government.
In 1914, Gandhi returned to India and lived a life of abstinence and spirituality on the periphery of Indian politics. He supported Britain in the First World War but in 1919 launched a new satyagraha in protest of Britain’s mandatory military draft of Indians. Hundreds of thousands answered his call to protest, and by 1920 he was leader of the Indian movement for independence. He reorganized the Indian National Congress as a political force and launched a massive boycott of British goods, services, and institutions in India. Then, in 1922, he abruptly called off the satyagraha when violence erupted. One month later, he was arrested by the British authorities for sedition, found guilty, and imprisoned.
After his release in 1924, he led an extended fast in protest of Hindu-Muslim violence. In 1928, he returned to national politics when he demanded dominion status for India and in 1930 launched a mass protest against the British salt tax, which hurt India’s poor. In his most famous campaign of civil disobedience, Gandhi and his followers marched to the Arabian Sea, where they made their own salt by evaporating sea water. The march, which resulted in the arrest of Gandhi and 60,000 others, earned new international respect and support for the leader and his movement.
In 1931, Gandhi was released to attend the Round Table Conference on India in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The meeting was a great disappointment, and after his return to India he was again imprisoned. While in jail, he led another fast in protest of the British government’s treatment of the “untouchables”–the impoverished and degraded Indians who occupied the lowest tiers of the caste system. In 1934, he left the Indian Congress Party to work for the economic development of India’s many poor. His protege, Jawaharlal Nehru, was named leader of the party in his place.
With the outbreak of World War II, Gandhi returned to politics and called for Indian cooperation with the British war effort in exchange for independence. Britain refused and sought to divide India by supporting conservative Hindu and Muslim groups. In response, Gandhi launched the “Quit India” movement it 1942, which called for a total British withdrawal. Gandhi and other nationalist leaders were imprisoned until 1944.
In 1945, a new government came to power in Britain, and negotiations for India’s independence began. Gandhi sought a unified India, but the Muslim League, which had grown in influence during the war, disagreed. After protracted talks, Britain agreed to create the two new independent states of India and Pakistan on August 15, 1947. Gandhi was greatly distressed by the partition, and bloody violence soon broke out between Hindus and Muslims in India.
In an effort to end India’s religious strife, he resorted to fasts and visits to the troubled areas. He was on one such vigil in New Delhi when Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist who objected to Gandhi’s tolerance for the Muslims, fatally shot him. Known as Mahatma, or “the great soul,” during his lifetime, Gandhi’s persuasive methods of civil disobedience influenced leaders of civil rights movements around the world, especially Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States.
Born the son of an Indian official in 1869, Gandhi’s Vaishnava mother was deeply religious and early on exposed her son to Jainism, a morally rigorous Indian religion that advocated nonviolence. Gandhi was an unremarkable student but in 1888 was given an opportunity to study law in England. In 1891, he returned to India, but failing to find regular legal work he accepted in 1893 a one-year contract in South Africa.
Settling in Natal, he was subjected to racism and South African laws that restricted the rights of Indian laborers. Gandhi later recalled one such incident, in which he was removed from a first-class railway compartment and thrown off a train, as his moment of truth. From thereon, he decided to fight injustice and defend his rights as an Indian and a man. When his contract expired, he spontaneously decided to remain in South Africa and launched a campaign against legislation that would deprive Indians of the right to vote. He formed the Natal Indian Congress and drew international attention to the plight of Indians in South Africa. In 1906, the Transvaal government sought to further restrict the rights of Indians, and Gandhi organized his first campaign of satyagraha, or mass civil disobedience. After seven years of protest, he negotiated a compromise agreement with the South African government.
In 1914, Gandhi returned to India and lived a life of abstinence and spirituality on the periphery of Indian politics. He supported Britain in the First World War but in 1919 launched a new satyagraha in protest of Britain’s mandatory military draft of Indians. Hundreds of thousands answered his call to protest, and by 1920 he was leader of the Indian movement for independence. He reorganized the Indian National Congress as a political force and launched a massive boycott of British goods, services, and institutions in India. Then, in 1922, he abruptly called off the satyagraha when violence erupted. One month later, he was arrested by the British authorities for sedition, found guilty, and imprisoned.
After his release in 1924, he led an extended fast in protest of Hindu-Muslim violence. In 1928, he returned to national politics when he demanded dominion status for India and in 1930 launched a mass protest against the British salt tax, which hurt India’s poor. In his most famous campaign of civil disobedience, Gandhi and his followers marched to the Arabian Sea, where they made their own salt by evaporating sea water. The march, which resulted in the arrest of Gandhi and 60,000 others, earned new international respect and support for the leader and his movement.
In 1931, Gandhi was released to attend the Round Table Conference on India in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The meeting was a great disappointment, and after his return to India he was again imprisoned. While in jail, he led another fast in protest of the British government’s treatment of the “untouchables”–the impoverished and degraded Indians who occupied the lowest tiers of the caste system. In 1934, he left the Indian Congress Party to work for the economic development of India’s many poor. His protege, Jawaharlal Nehru, was named leader of the party in his place.
With the outbreak of World War II, Gandhi returned to politics and called for Indian cooperation with the British war effort in exchange for independence. Britain refused and sought to divide India by supporting conservative Hindu and Muslim groups. In response, Gandhi launched the “Quit India” movement it 1942, which called for a total British withdrawal. Gandhi and other nationalist leaders were imprisoned until 1944.
In 1945, a new government came to power in Britain, and negotiations for India’s independence began. Gandhi sought a unified India, but the Muslim League, which had grown in influence during the war, disagreed. After protracted talks, Britain agreed to create the two new independent states of India and Pakistan on August 15, 1947. Gandhi was greatly distressed by the partition, and bloody violence soon broke out between Hindus and Muslims in India.
In an effort to end India’s religious strife, he resorted to fasts and visits to the troubled areas. He was on one such vigil in New Delhi when Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist who objected to Gandhi’s tolerance for the Muslims, fatally shot him. Known as Mahatma, or “the great soul,” during his lifetime, Gandhi’s persuasive methods of civil disobedience influenced leaders of civil rights movements around the world, especially Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States.
Gandhi assassinated - Jan 30, 1948 - HISTORY.com
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Thanks TSgt Joe C. for letting us know that on January 30, 1948 the political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, was assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic Nathuram Godse, who objected to Gandhi’s tolerance for the Muslims and fatally shot him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80Eba4fiRU8
"On Jan. 30, 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was murdered by the Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse, who fired three shots at close range as the 78-year-old Gandhi entered a prayer meeting.
“His death left all India stunned and bewildered as to the direction that this newly independent nation would take without its ‘Mahatma’ (Great Teacher),” wrote The New York Times. “The loss of Mr. Gandhi brings this country of 300,000,000 abruptly to a crossroads. Mingled with the sadness in this capital tonight was an undercurrent of fear and uncertainty, for now the strongest influence for peace in India that this generation has known is gone.”
Gandhi had for decades been a leader of India’s independence movement. He preached “satyagraha” (a Sanskrit term loosely translated as “insistence upon truth”), a philosophy of non-violence and civil disobedience. He protested British rule and sought to improve the lives of Indians through frequent fasting and peaceful protesting. In the early 1920s, he led a boycott of British goods and campaign of non-cooperation. In 1930, he protested Britain’s tax on salt by leading a 250-mile Salt March.
Gandhi’s calls for independence grew louder during World War II. In 1942, his demand that Britain “quit India” spurred Britain to make mass arrests of independence leaders, including Gandhi, who spent two years in prison. At the end of the war, Britain began to move toward granting independence; it developed a plan for India to be partitioned into two countries, India and Pakistan, which would become independent in August 1947. The partition, which Gandhi opposed, caused the displacement of millions of Hindus and Muslims and widespread violence between the two communities.
Gandhi continued to preach non-violence, which angered many Hindu nationalists who felt that Hindus needed to protect themselves from Muslim attacks. As Gopal Godse, brother and co-conspirator of assassin Nathuram Godse, explained before his death in 2005, Hindu extremists believed Gandhi’s calls for nonviolence were “part of a plot to allow Hindus to be slaughtered by Muslims.”
The Godse brothers and a team of conspirators carried out a failed bombing attack against Gandhi on Jan. 20, 1948. Ten days later, their second assassination attempt succeeded. Nathuram Godse and Narayan Dattatraya Apte were sentenced to death, while the other conspirators received prison sentences.
Image: Mahatma Gandhi, shown here in 1946, was assassinated on Jan. 30, 1948.
The Times’ obituary of Gandhi stated: “As was perhaps inevitable in the case of one who was the center of violent controversies for more than half a century, there were others who had very different views about the Indian leader, even contending that he was no better than a scheming demagogue. But, whatever view history may eventually take, there can be no contradiction of the statement that the emaciated little man in shawl and loin cloth made himself the living symbol of India in the minds of most Americans.”
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Orlando Illi LTC (Join to see) LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Jeff S. CPT Jack Durish MSgt Robert C Aldi SFC Stephen King MSgt Danny Hope SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SGT Gregory Lawritson Cpl Craig Marton SP5 Mark Kuzinski Maj Marty Hogan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80Eba4fiRU8
"On Jan. 30, 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was murdered by the Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse, who fired three shots at close range as the 78-year-old Gandhi entered a prayer meeting.
“His death left all India stunned and bewildered as to the direction that this newly independent nation would take without its ‘Mahatma’ (Great Teacher),” wrote The New York Times. “The loss of Mr. Gandhi brings this country of 300,000,000 abruptly to a crossroads. Mingled with the sadness in this capital tonight was an undercurrent of fear and uncertainty, for now the strongest influence for peace in India that this generation has known is gone.”
Gandhi had for decades been a leader of India’s independence movement. He preached “satyagraha” (a Sanskrit term loosely translated as “insistence upon truth”), a philosophy of non-violence and civil disobedience. He protested British rule and sought to improve the lives of Indians through frequent fasting and peaceful protesting. In the early 1920s, he led a boycott of British goods and campaign of non-cooperation. In 1930, he protested Britain’s tax on salt by leading a 250-mile Salt March.
Gandhi’s calls for independence grew louder during World War II. In 1942, his demand that Britain “quit India” spurred Britain to make mass arrests of independence leaders, including Gandhi, who spent two years in prison. At the end of the war, Britain began to move toward granting independence; it developed a plan for India to be partitioned into two countries, India and Pakistan, which would become independent in August 1947. The partition, which Gandhi opposed, caused the displacement of millions of Hindus and Muslims and widespread violence between the two communities.
Gandhi continued to preach non-violence, which angered many Hindu nationalists who felt that Hindus needed to protect themselves from Muslim attacks. As Gopal Godse, brother and co-conspirator of assassin Nathuram Godse, explained before his death in 2005, Hindu extremists believed Gandhi’s calls for nonviolence were “part of a plot to allow Hindus to be slaughtered by Muslims.”
The Godse brothers and a team of conspirators carried out a failed bombing attack against Gandhi on Jan. 20, 1948. Ten days later, their second assassination attempt succeeded. Nathuram Godse and Narayan Dattatraya Apte were sentenced to death, while the other conspirators received prison sentences.
Image: Mahatma Gandhi, shown here in 1946, was assassinated on Jan. 30, 1948.
The Times’ obituary of Gandhi stated: “As was perhaps inevitable in the case of one who was the center of violent controversies for more than half a century, there were others who had very different views about the Indian leader, even contending that he was no better than a scheming demagogue. But, whatever view history may eventually take, there can be no contradiction of the statement that the emaciated little man in shawl and loin cloth made himself the living symbol of India in the minds of most Americans.”
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Orlando Illi LTC (Join to see) LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Jeff S. CPT Jack Durish MSgt Robert C Aldi SFC Stephen King MSgt Danny Hope SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SGT Gregory Lawritson Cpl Craig Marton SP5 Mark Kuzinski Maj Marty Hogan
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