Book Review of "Why I Assassinated Gandhi"

There's much commotion these days of books being banned and such. While this is not a book in the true sense of the word (it is a statement by Nathuram Godse, given in court as he stood accused of assassinating Mahatma Gandhi), it is perhaps one of the earliest documents that were banned by the government, from being published. (The ban was lifted in 1968).

The Writer is real brother of Nathuram Godse

It has been converted to a book form by his younger brother, who was also imprisoned as a co-conspirator for abetment and was imprisoned for life (released in 1964 after serving 16 years).  

The very easy task is to differentiate between good and bad, malevolent and benevolent but to differentiate between the two goods is quite difficult. The same thing is happening here; both are very intellectual persons so you could not decide who is wrong because both have their own valid issues.

As far as my concern I totally condemn the assassination, there are many ways to express your views. Nathuram Vinayak Godse did dharna in front of Mahatma Gandhi at Birla Temple and he did not give any response to him(Mahatma Gandhi was paying his attention only for one community at that time and totally he was biased for them as mentioned in the book), he should continue his protest, dharna, satyagraha whatever until Mahatma Gandhi being well aware from his thought. He has his own reasons which cannot be ignored especially when the INDIA needs the unity in our society and if these things were happening, it was unfortunate for INDIA but still he had to be more patient.

Book contains the original statement given by Nathuram Godse

This book is an argument by Nathuram Godse justifying killing Gandhi, & as far as arguments go, this is a well-argued one. Even the judge presiding over the trial G.D.Khosla wrote, “I have no doubt that had the audience of that day been constituted into a jury and entrusted with the task of deciding Godse’s appeal, they would have brought in a verdict of ‘not guilty’ by an overwhelming majority”. Godse's statement is that powerful & eloquent that it shook my belief for a while when I put myself in the place of Jury.

Nathuram Godse had his reasons to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi. I can't judge them. Reading this book, it feels that those reasons were pretty logical; but then I haven't read much about Gandhiji. Basically, I don't know if Nathuram Godse was right or not but what I know is that he was a great soul; confident at his convictions and yet at the same time flexible enough to accept the truth even if it possibly shattered all his beliefs on which he based his entire life. The statement, he delivered in court is a great read. The other part which I liked most is the description of his last days. There you get the feel of the gravity of his soul. I don't know if he is right or wrong but regardless of that, I am in awe of that soul after reading the book.

Albeit, I feel that he could introspect a little more on the grounds of humanity. I personally feel the partition was the last resort available for our leaders since Jinnah and Nehru both wanted a large piece of pie left by the Britishers. In my opinion, I think HINDUSTAN has both Hindi+Urdu and it is not fair to deny people their prize. In this case, the fight with Britishers cost both Hindus and Muslims unimaginable lives, bloodshed, sacrifice and what not. Nevertheless, the government could give them equal status, rights, respect and all such things which a common Hindu citizen deserves. Seldom we talk about the synergic potential that India and Pakistan hold in their baskets of trade and agriculture. Partition always takes away resources and makes one vulnerable, like how Pakistan is now dying under the Chinese debts or how Sri Lanka succumbed to Chinese debt trap and leased their island for 99 long years. 

The debate on the partition is as riveting as life on Mars and on the same side as time wasting as waiting for a train in India. But one thing is certain, that India could have more economic potential, power, resources, control over terrorism, unemployment, population, corruption too if there was no Pakistan.