Like millions of my fellow-Indians, I was outraged by the recent news that some Hindu
right-wingers are planning to build a temple for Godse all over the country, and
declare January 30th as ‘Shaurya Diwas’ or 'Bravery Day'! This was nothing
short of sedition and utter disrespect for the father of the nation! Gandhi is
a national icon and symbolises this country in more ways than one, and here was
a group that wanted to idolise his assassin!
But first let’s ask why it has taken Godse’s supporters 66
years to decide to deify him. Surely, if it was felt that his act was one of great
heroism, a shrine for Godse would have come up much earlier – if not during the
initial post-independence years of the Congress regime, at least during the
years of the Janata party rule (1977-1979), or during the BJP rule
(1998-2004). So what took them so long to proclaim him a messiah, and why now? The
only answer can be that, it is not so much the glorification of Godse that the
forces, that be, are interested in; rather, by glorifying Godse, they are implicitly
taking a hardline Hindu (read anti-Muslim) stance. And, the answer to why now is of course that the
right-wingers have never had the kind of political clout that they enjoy today.
From his last speech in the court (courtesy: youtube.com, Google
docs), it appears that Godse was a man guided by strong nationalist emotions.
In as much as Godse respected Gandhi for his service to the nation, he felt that
Gandhi’s idea of non-violent struggle had become irrelevant and unworkable, and
the old man simply refused to accept it. Godse also hated Gandhi’s pro-Muslim
stance and was extremely angered by the leader’s submissive acceptance of the country’s
partition. It is another thing that the
Hindu hardliners did not deem Gandhi a true Hindu and strongly disagreed with his
interpretation/practice of the religion (courtesy:
Ramachandra Guha).
Godse abhorred Gandhi’s methods, and saw himself as a
revolutionary who though it was his duty to save the country by eliminating
Gandhi. With Gandhi out of the scene, people could shake off all pretext of
non-violence and take up arms to rid the country of its evils.
The story of Godse and Gandhi is not new. History is strewn with instances of leaders who had to pay for their
political or social reforms with their lives – be it Abraham Lincoln for his
role in the abolition of slavery in the USA or Martin Luther King for his
activism in seeking the removal of racial discrimination for his fellow African-Americans.
These two high-profile assassinations happened in the USA, supposedly the
torch-bearer of human rights and freedom in this world. The question is, has this
country allowed memorials to be built for the assassins of its leaders?
Likewise, will the Indian government allow shrines to be
erected for Dhanu (the suicide bomber assassin of Rajiv Gandhi), and Beant
Singh and Satwant Singh, the assassins of Indira Gandhi.
No doubt, Nathuram Godse firmly believed in the
righteousness of his act. So did the others, and so does every Jihadi! Are we
as a society going to condone their acts and declare these killers, martyrs!
We have known neither Gandhi nor Godse. Our knowledge of
them is only from secondary sources. But, I think we know enough not to bet our
stakes on the guy who takes to the gun to solve the world’s problems. Of
course, I agree that Nathuram Godse’s point of view matters – our constitution
gives all of us the freedom to be heard. But, building temples for him is akin
to explicitly approving murder and murderers!
Finally, Indians are known to have a poor sense of history.
If this propaganda continued, I fear, some years down the line, Godse could
well be positioned as a hero and a martyr who laid down his life to rid the
country of its evil leader, and that is what our children will read in their
history books.
It is ironical that,
today, in our country, anyone can malign Gandhi and go scot-free, but God help
the guys who dare to speak against Godse!
Vande Mataram!
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