The+Assassination+of+Gandhi


 * //Group Washington //**
 * //Liana Akobardiya //**
 * //Imran Khan //**
 * //Pasquarosa, Nicholas //**
 * // Topic the Assassination of Mohandas Ghandhi. //**






 * //Group Washington //**
 * //Liana Akobardiya //**
 * //Imran Khan //**
 * //Pasquarosa, Nicholas //**
 * // Topic the Assassination of Mohandas Ghandhi. //**

 Before addressing the assassination of Mohandas Gandhi, we will give a brief description about the life of this historic figure to give the readers a good understanding of the man responsible for leading and inspiring India to independence from the British. Mohandas Gandhi was born on Oct 2. 1869, he was married at young age of thirteen to a girl of the same age. When he was very young his father had passed away, and his family had sent him to England. His family had sent him to England to study law but he’s interest was the philosophy of non violence. He had gone back to India after he had passed the bar but didn’t find much pleasure in practicing law. He was also unsuccessful practicing so he had worked as an assistant at a law firm for a year in South Africa. When he was in South Africa he has become involved in many projects to end discrimination against the Indian Minorities. After the war his reputation as a leader had gone very high, that just had given him a boost to practice methods for non violent acts. He had practiced sexual abstinence, modern technology.  Gandhi was very loyal to the British Empire. After World War 1, he had organized several non violent protests. During this time, the British Troops had killed Indian peaceful Protestors. Gandhi had returned back to India and was known as the holy man and people had called him a “Mahatma” meaning great soul. He was arrested and served time in prison from 1922 to 1924 for the protests and campaign acts that he started. After he was released, he left politics, and decided to travel India to work amongst the peasants. In 1930 he had written the declaration of independence of India. This had set of the acts of civil disobedience across all of India. The British had invited him to the London Road table conference. Gandhi was very welcomed in England at the conference where they discussed how independently India would deal with the Muslim minority and at that point Gandhi had left politics once again. In 1935 the Government of India Act surrendered a large amount of power to the Indians and the National Indian Congress. After World War II had broken out, India itself had a lot of violence, and many of the leaders had gone to prison. After all of this had occurred the British government wanted to get India off their property. However, the head Muslim leader Muhammed Ali Jinnah had demanded that the Muslims of India had a separate state created for them.  In August 1947 Indian had gained independence and had gone into two countries India and Pakistan, neither of these affirmations had solved the problems and violence that had gone on. The Hindus and Muslims had fought one another to death, others had tried to escape. Gandhi had tried to calm the Country but with no success it had failed. Gandhi had worked very hard to try help, but it all his efforts had brought him to death.  The assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is considered to be one of the most tragic assassinations in history. The assassination took place on January 30th 1948. Nathuram Godse, a Hindu, is the individual behind the assassination. In point blank range, Gandhi was murdered outside of a building where he was meeting with other individuals to prayer. This was one, successful assassination, of the many unsuccessful attempts others had plotted to kill the influential leader. Eventually, Nathuram Godse, and eight partners and conspirators were tried for the death of Gandhi. The group, specifically Nathuram Godse, pronounced that Gondhi was a “political and ethical impostor”, and “curse of India / a force of evil”. Reasoning behind the murder, in Nathuram Godse’s perspective was that Gandhi believed in unity between Muslims and Hindus and the end of the caste system. These thoughts and ideas not only angered individuals such as Nathuram Godse but many other individuals of the time.

 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, without question was an inspirational and influential individual. His ideas, concepts and thoughts were the ultimate cause to his death. Unfortunately Gandhi believed these concepts would help India. Many individuals of his time agreed and supported his ideas. An eye witness had told his story to the Hindustan Time sand Newspaper and what he had saw and experienced on the day of the assassination Nivedita Khandekar interviewed KD Madan, an 80 year man from New Delhi who actually saw the shooting and remembered the various events that took place that day. Madan was a program officer working for a local radio station that often taped and covered Mahatma Gandhi’s speeches. That fateful day on January 30th was no exception and Madan was getting prepared just a few feet away from Gandhi. He heard a first gunshot ring out as he was prepping his equipment and when he heard the second shot, he immediately knew what was happening. Madan commented on the scene after Gandhi’s body was taken into a nearby room, “As I gathered my equipment, I saw somebody had put up twigs in circle around the spot his body fell and even lit a candle” (Khandekar, Hindustan Times). Upon bringing Gandhi’s body into the room, the Governor General and the Prime Minister entered to assess the scene. A few minutes later, the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru announced the news over the radio at around 5:50pm. He was crying and uttered his famous statement “The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere” (Khandekar, Hindustan Times). Madan has never forgotten that day in time and finished his account by emphasizing that people were weeping and grieving over the crime as if they lost a member of their own family.  Although Gandhi was given the title “Mahatma” or great soul, there are several aspects of Gandhi’s life that the media does a poor job of addressing. As a result, there is a fallacious image of Gandhi as being a saint or even a messiah. In fact, there is a “Gandhi Temple” in Bhatra village where Gandhi is worshipped as a deity. Although Gandhi did a lot of good for India and is one of the heroes of the 20th century, he was certainly not the saint that the media portrayed him to be.  The movie “Gandhi” starts off with a flashback to his life changing event on a train. Gandhi was a victim of racism, as he was forcefully removed from a South African train for being a “non-white” sitting in a first class compartment despite having a ticket. This inspired Gandhi to start a non-violent protest to fight for the rights of all Indians in South Africa. Gandhi felt that Indians had a right to equal treatment, and saw himself on the same level as whites. However, Gandhi was not sympathetic towards the South African blacks and he was disgusted that Indians were placed on the same level as they were (Ahmed 1).  In the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi is quoted as saying ““A general belief seems to prevail in the colony that the Indians are little better, if at all, than the savages or natives of Africa. Even the children are taught to believe in that manner, with the result that the Indian is being dragged down to the position of a raw Kaffir” (Ahmed 1). Based on his own writings, we see the extent of Gandhi’s racism towards South African blacks. These writings show Gandhi’s use of the term "Kaffir," a derogatory term used against South African blacks, and his writings show a strong disgust and condemnation for them. To his defense, we can attribute Gandhi’s racism as being a product of his time, a time where racism against blacks was seen as norm. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Furthermore, Gandhi also displayed prejudice against other low caste Hindus. In the Indian Opinion, On June 2, 1906 Gandhi writes in the Indian Opinion, a newspaper created by himself, "Thanks to the Court's decision, only clean Indians or colored people other than Kaffirs, can now travel in the trains” (Ahmed 1). The term “clean Indians” in his quote refers to upper caste Indian Hindus and thus excludes the rest of the lower caste Indian population. These excerpts of Gandhi’s work are not to malign his character, or to take away from the good that he has done, but to simply shed light on some of the darker aspects of his life and to show that Gandhi was not the saint that the media has portrayed him to be. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> There are many media sources that had reported and spoke out about the murder of Gandhi which sent a ripple of positive and negative effects. It really depends on each person individually and how they take it into account. One thing is certain, the people all over the world mourned this death of a great leader and it was a very trying time for the Indian people. Perhaps having too much media coverage can bear negative consequences; it can remind people of the sadness that had encountered. Furthermore, it can show people then and now of what goes on in the world when people have their own beliefs and fight for peace. But to be neutral with good or bad that it brings, nobody ever really know what happened unless you were there, and we can only use eye witness accounts of the events that took place that day. Ultimately, the end result was that the world lost a truly inspirational figure and a hero.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Works Cited <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ahmed, Talat. "International Socialism: Gandhi: The Man behind the Myths." International Socialism. 24 June 2009. Web. 13 Apr. 2012. <http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=558>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Class Text Book <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">