Friday, September 4, 2015

Nathuram Godse


Nathuram Godse

 

 Nathuram Vinayak Godse (19 May 1910 – 15 November 1949) was a militant Hindu nationalist activist from India, who is known for the      assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. 
He shot Gandhi in the chest three times at point-blank range on 30 January 1948 in New Delhi. Born in Pune, Maharashtra, he had been a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Hindu Mahasabha.
    According to Vinayak Chaturvedi and Thomas Hansen, Nathuram left RSS in the early 1940s to form a militant organization Hindu Rashtra Dal. However, Nathuram's brother Gopal Godse, who was also a co-accused in the Gandhi assassination-- has asserted that Nathuram continued to be a member of the RSS. 
   Nathuram resented Gandhi's accommodating attitude to India'sMuslims and plotted the assassination with Narayan Apte and six others. After a trial that lasted over a year, Godse was sentenced to death on 8 November 1949 and was hanged a week later.

Nathram Godse Last Speech

[On 8 November 1948, Nathuram Godse (19 May 1910-15 November 1949) rose to make his statement in court. Reading quietly from a typed manuscript, he sought to explain why he had killed Gandhi. His thesis covered ninety-pages, and he was on his feet for five hours. Godse's statement, excerpted below, should be read by citizens and scholars in its entirely, for it provides an insight into his personality and his understanding of the concept of Indian nationhood – Editor]

     "Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus are of equal status as to rights, social and religious, and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession.

      I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Vaishyas, Kshatriyas, Chamars and B-----s participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other. I have read the speeches and writings of Dadabhai Naoroji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and modern history of India and some prominent countries like England, France, America and Russia. Moreover I studied the tenets of socialism and Marxism. But above all I studied very closely what Veer (brave) Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the moulding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so, than any other factor has done.



       All this thinking and reading led me to believe that it was my first duty to serve Hindudom and Hindus both as a patriot and as a world citizen. To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores (three hundred million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and well-being of all India, one fifth of the human race. This conviction led me naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanatanist ideology and programme, which alone, I came to believe, could win and preserve the National Independence of Hindustan, my Motherland, and enable her to render true service to humanity as well. Since the year 1920, that is, after the demise of Lokmanya Tilak, Gandhi's influence in the Congress first increased and then became supreme.

      His activities for public awakening were phenomenal in their intensity and were reinforced by the slogan of truth and non-violence, which he paraded ostentatiously before the country. No sensible or enlightened person could object to these slogans. In fact there is nothing new or original in them. They are implicit in every constitutional public movement. But it is nothing but a dream if you imagine the bulk of mankind is, or can ever become, capable of scrupulous adherence to these lofty principles in its normal life from day to day. In fact, honour, duty and love of one's own kith and kin and country might often compel us to disregard non-violence and to use force. I could never conceive that an armed resistance to an aggression is unjust.

      I would consider it a religious and moral duty to resist and if possible, to overpower such an enemy by use of force. (In the Ramayana) Rama killed Ravana in a tumultuous fight and relieved Sita. (In the Mahabharata) Krishna killed Kansa to end his wickedness; and Arjuna had to fight and slay quite a number of his friends and relations, including the revered Bhishma, because the latter was on the side of the aggressor. It is my firm belief that in dubbing Rama, Krishna and Arjuna as guilty of violence, the Mahatma betrayed the total ignorance of the springs of human action. In more recent history, it was the heroic fight put up by Chhatrapati Shivaji that first checked and eventually destroyed the Muslim tyranny in India. It was absolutely essential for Shivaji to overpower and kill an aggressive Afzal Khan, failing which he would have lost his own life. In condemning history's towering warriors like Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Govind Singh as misguided patriots, Gandhi has merely exposed his self-conceit.

      He was, paradoxical, as it may appear, a violent pacifist who brought untold calamities on the country in the name of truth and non-violence, while Rana Pratap, Shivaji and the Guru will remain enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen forever for the freedom they brought to them. The accumulating provocation of thirty-two years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately. Gandhi had done very good work in South Africa to uphold the rights and well being of the Indian community there.

      But when he finally returned to India, he developed a subjective mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on in his own way. Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. Either Congress had to surrender its will to his and had to be content with playing second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him. He alone was the judge of everyone and everything; he was the master brain guiding the Civil Disobedience movement; no other could know the technique of that movement. He alone knew when to begin it and when to withdraw it. The movement might succeed or fail, but that could make no difference to the Mahatma's infallibility. 'A Satyagrahi can never fail' was his formula for his own infallibility and nobody except himself knew what a Satyagrahi is.

     Thus the Mahatma became the judge and the jury in his own case. These childish insanities and obstinacies, coupled with a most severe austerity of life, ceaseless work and lofty character made Gandhi formidable and irresistible. Many people thought that his policies were irrational, but they had either to withdraw from the Congress or place their intelligence at his feet to do with as he liked. In a position of such absolute irresponsibility, Gandhi was guilty of blunder after blunder, failure after failure, and disaster after disaster. Gandhi's pro-Muslim policy is blatantly illustrated in his perverse attitude on the question of the national language of India. It is quite obvious that Hindi has the most prior claim to be accepted as the premier language.

In the beginning of his career in India, Gandhi gave a great impetus to Hindi, but as he found that the Muslims did not like it, he became a champion of what is called Hindustani. Everybody in India knows that there is no language in India called Hindustani; it has no grammar; it has no vocabulary. It is a mere dialect; it is spoken, not written. It is a tongue and a crossbreed between Hindi and Urdu, and not even the Mahatma's sophistry could make it popular. But in his desire to please the Muslims he insisted that Hindustani alone should be the national language of India. His blind followers, of course, supported him and the so-called hybrid language began to be used. The charm and the purity of the Hindi language were to be prostituted to please the Muslims. All his experiments were at the expense of the Hindus.

   From August 1946 onwards, the private armies of the Muslim League began a massacre of Hindus. The then Viceroy, Lord Wavell, though distressed at what was happening, would not use his powers under the Government of India Act of 1935 to prevent the rape, murder and arson. The Hindu blood began to flow from Bengal to Karachi with little retaliation by the Hindus. The Interim Government formed in September was sabotaged by its Muslim League members right from its inception, but the more they became disloyal and treasonable to the government of which they were a part, the greater was Gandhi's infatuation for them.

   Lord Wavell had to resign as he could not bring about a settlement and was succeeded by Lord Mountbatten. King Stork followed King Log. The Congress, which had boasted of its nationalism and secularism, secretly accepted Pakistan literally at the point of the bayonet and abjectly surrendered to Jinnah. India was vivisected and one-third of the Indian Territory became foreign land to us from 15 August 1947. Lord Mountbatten came to be described in the Congress circles as the greatest Viceroy and Governor-General this country ever had.


        The official date for the handing over of power was fixed for June 30, 1948, but Mountbatten with his ruthless surgery gave us a gift of vivisected India ten months in advance. This is what Gandhi had achieved after thirty years of undisputed dictatorship and this is what the Congress party calls 'freedom' and 'peaceful transfer of power'. The Hindu-Muslim unity bubble was finally burst and a theocratic state was established with the consent of Nehru and his crowd and they have called it 'freedom won by them with sacrifice' - whose sacrifice? When top leaders of Congress, with the consent of Gandhi, divided and tore the country - which we considered a deity of worship - my mind was filled with direful anger.

      One of the conditions imposed by Gandhi for his breaking of the fast related to the mosques in Delhi occupied by the Hindu refugees. But when Hindus in Pakistan were subjected to violent attacks he did not so much as utter a single word to protest and censure the Pakistan Government or the Muslims concerned. Gandhi was shrewd enough to know that while undertaking a fast unto death, had he imposed some conditions on the Muslims in Pakistan, here would have been found hardly any Muslims who could have shown some grief if the fast had ended in his death. It was for this reason that he purposely avoided imposing any conditions on the Muslims.

   He was fully aware from past experience that Jinnah was not at all perturbed or influenced by his fast and the Muslim League hardly attached any value to the inner voice of Gandhi. Gandhi is being referred to as the Father of the Nation. But if that is so, he has failed in his paternal duty in as much he has acted very treacherously to the nation by his consenting to the partitioning of it. I stoutly maintain that Gandhi has failed in his duty. He has proved to be the Father of Pakistan. His inner-voice, his spiritual power, his doctrine of non-violence of which so much is made of, all crumbled against Jinnah's iron will and proved to be powerless.

Briefly speaking, I thought to myself and foresaw that I shall be totally ruined, and the only thing I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred and that I shall have lost all my honour, even more valuable than my life, if I were to kill Gandhiji. But at the same time I thought that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely be practical, able to retaliate and would be powerful with the armed forces. No doubt, my own future would be totally ruined, but the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan. People may even call me or dub me as devoid of any sense or foolish, but the nation would be free to follow the course founded on the reason, which I consider necessary for sound nation-building.

   After having fully considered the question, I took the final decision in the matter, but I did not speak about it to anyone whatsoever. I took courage in both my hands and I did fire the shots at Gandhiji on 30th January 1948, on the prayer-grounds in Birla House. I do say that my shots were fired at the person whose policy and action had brought rack and ruin and destruction to millions of Hindus. There was no legal machinery by which such an offender could be brought to book and for this reason I fired those fatal shots. I bear no ill will towards anyone individually, but I do say that I had no respect for the present government owing to their policy, which was unfairly favourable towards the Muslims. But at the same time I could clearly see that the policy was entirely due to the presence of Gandhi.

  I have to say with great regret that Prime Minister Nehru quite forgets that his preaching and deeds are at times at variance with each other when he talks about India as a secular state in season and out of season, because it is significant to note that Nehru has played a leading role in the theocratic state of Pakistan, and his job was made easier by Gandhi's persistent policy of appeasement towards the Muslims. I now stand before the court to accept the full share of my responsibility for what I have done and the judge would, of course, pass against me such orders of sentence as may be considered proper. But I would like to add that I do not desire any mercy to be shown to me, nor do I wish that anyone should beg for mercy on my behalf.

  My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism levelled against it on all sides. I have no doubt that honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof someday in future."
Nathuram Godse was hanged a year later, on 15 November 1949; as per his last wishes, his family and followers have preserved his ashes for immersion in the Indus River of a re-united India.



 

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Lokmanya Tilak

लोकमान्य टिळक..... 

"स्वराज्य हा माझा जन्मसिद्ध हक्क आहे आणि तो मी मिळवणारच"

Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Bal Gangadhar Tilak (or Lokmanya Tilak,  pronunciation ); 23 July 1856 – 1 August 1920), born as Keshav Gangadhar Tilak, was an Indian nationalist, journalist, teacher, social reformer, lawyer and an independence activist. He was the first leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities called him "Father of the Indian unrest." He was also conferred with the honorary title of "Lokmanya", which literally means "accepted by the people (as their leader)".

  Tilak was one of the first and strongest advocates of "Swaraj" (self-rule) and a strong radical in Indian consciousness. He is known for his quote in Marathi, "स्वराज्य हा माझा जन्मसिद्ध हक्क आहे आणि तो मी मिळवणारच" ("Swarajya is my birthright, and I shall have it!") in India. He formed a close alliance with many Indian National Congress leaders including Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Aurobindo Ghose and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Tilak being a strong vocal advocate of Swaraj, did not see eye to eye with Mahatma Gandhi on the means of achieving independence.

He was against Gandhi's policy of Total-ahimsa and advocated to use force wherever 

While Gandhi fondly administered the title of ‘Maker of Modern India’ on Tilak, the British labelled him as the ‘Father of Indian Unrest’. The people of India remember him as ‘Lokmanya’ or ‘widely accepted by the people as the leader’. A teacher and journalist by profession, Tilak initiated his political life as a Maratha propagandist but soon developed into a prominent nationalist. He was the first ever leader to advocate the need for ‘Swaraj’ or ‘Self Rule’. His strong political opinions and revolutionary ideas raised an alarm in the Indian consciousness and made people realize the need for free India, where every religion and race would be treated equally. In his long career as a social reformer and freedom fighter, his slogan ‘Swaraj is my birth right and I shall have it’ inspired millions of Indians. He is best remembered for his defiance of the British rule and fostering the idea of extremist nationalism.

Childhood & Early Life 
Bal Gangadhar Tilak was born in a Chitpavan Brahmin family as Keshav Gangadhar Tilak on July 23, 1856 in Ratnagiri. His father, a school teacher and a Sanskrit scholar, played an influential role in Tilak’s early life. 
Much of his early education was attained at home. Though highly intelligent, he was extremely mischievous and as such abhorred by his teachers.  
Since young, he singled out everywhere, due to his independent views and strong opinion. He did not compromise on his opinion for anyone and thus was quite different from other boys of his age. 
 In 1877, he completed his university studies from Deccan College in Pune, thus becoming one of the few Indians to receive modern college education. He attained a BA degree in mathematics.

Career

·         Immediately after completing his education, he became a mathematics teacher in a private school in Pune. However, following ideological differences with his colleagues, he took up journalism as profession. 

·         Appalled by the western education system and its demeaning nature of treating Indian students, he decided to put an end to the turmoil by setting up a society that would assist in educating people about Indian culture and national ideals.  

·         Along with Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, Mahadev Ballal Namjoshi and Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, he founded the Deccan Education Society. The society aimed at teaching young Indians about nationalist ideas by emphasizing on Indian culture. It intended to impart quality education to Indian youth. 

·         In 1885, Deccan Education Society founded the New English School for secondary education and Fergusson College for post-secondary studies. He served as a professor of mathematics in the latter.  

·         Once the Deccan Education Society started educating masses about the Indian culture and nationalist ideas, he initiated two newspapers, namely ‘Kesari’ and ‘Maratha’ that aimed at raising the political consciousness in people. While ‘Kesari’ was published in Marathi, ‘Maratha’ was in English. 

·         Through his weekly newspaper, he openly criticized the British rule. Furthermore, he even spoke against Indians who worked on the western line of beliefs. He strongly condemned any kind of political, social and economic reform that was of advantage for the West.  

·         In 1890, he joined the Indian National Congress but did not stand by it all through. He was blatantly critical of the moderate attitude that the INC took towards the fight for self-governance.  

·         He aimed at widening the popularity of the national movement by introducing mass celebration of Hindu festivals. In 1894, he initiated the Ganesh Utsav making it a public event. A year later, he founded the Shivaji Fund Committee to celebrate the birth anniversary of Shivaji Maharaj. 

·         In 1896 when a Bubonic plague hit Bombay and spread to other parts of the state taking an epidemic status, harsh measures were adopted by the British to control the same. Through his newspaper, he condemned the British efforts tagging them as acts of dictatorship and subjugation.  

·         In 1897, he was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. Returning from the prison, he gained a cult status as a martyr and a national hero. 

·         In 1905, he started Boycott and Swadeshi movement. While the former aimed at boycotting anything connected to the West from foreign good to foreign clothes, the latter professed use of Indian-produced goods and services. 

·         Two years later at the annual session of the Congress, differences broke out between the moderates and the radicals and led to the emergence of two new groups. 
  
·         In 1908 he defended Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose – revolutionaries who threw a bomb on a carriage at Muzzafarnagar, in order to kill the Chief Presidency Magistrate. He was prosecuted on charges of sedition and inciting terrorism and was sentenced to jail for a period of six years. It was while being imprisoned that he penned his magnum opus, Srimad Bhagavadgit Rahasya - his take on the most sacred book of the Hindus 

·         In 1914, after being released from prison, he did not give up on his political activities and immediately launched the All India Home Rule League.

·       Two years later, he rejoined the Indian National Congress. Despite numerous efforts, he met with almost no success in uniting the moderate and radical units of the Congress and later turned to self-rule, advocating to the same to villagers and farmers.

 

Personal Life & Legacy  

 

  •  Tilak, who was always adamant about his opinion and views, mellowed down after being released from prison in 1914 due to suffering from diabetes.  


       He finally breathed his last on August 1, 1920. 

      Though long gone, Tilak’s legacy continues to thrive in the hearts and minds of millions of people. His Marathi newspaper, Kesari is published till date as a daily instead of a weekly.  

     
    He founded the Deccan Education Society, which runs till date with respected institutions like the Fergusson College still being a part of the education society.  

    The Swadeshi movement which he initiated became quite a rage during the 20th century in the Independence Movement and was adopted by eminent leaders like MK Gandhi.

      In 2007, the Government of India released a coin to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of this great freedom fighter. 

      The yearly celebration of Ganesh Utsav and the birth anniversary of Shivaji which he started on a grand scale is celebrated with much pomp and show even today.
 




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