Nathuram Godse

Who was Nathuram Godse?

Nathuram Vinayak Godse was the sole assassin of Mahatma Gandhi—the pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India and apostle of non-violence—shooting Gandhi in the chest three times at point blank range on 30 January 1948 in New Delhi. Godse, a Hindu nationalist activist from Pune, Maharashtra, and ex-member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, who resented what he considered was Gandhi's partiality to India's Muslims, 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. Although pleas for commutation were made by India's prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and by Gandhi's two sons on the grounds that a death sentence would dishonour the legacy of a man opposed to all forms of violence, Godse was hanged a week later.