1949: The Assassin Who Bowed Before He Fired: Nathuram Godse Hanged for the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi
Nathuram Godse stepped out of the crowd at a Delhi prayer meeting, bowed low as though to touch Gandhi's feet, then drew a pistol and fired three shots into him at point blank range on 30 January 1948. He made no attempt to run. Witnesses said he stood waiting to be arrested, convinced Gandhi's tolerance of Muslims during Partition had betrayed Hindus and weakened the new nation.
Godse and his collaborator Narayan Apte, along with six co-conspirators, were tried over eight months. Both men were sentenced to death, and hanged together at Ambala jail on this day in 1949. Apte's neck broke and he died at once; Godse, by most accounts, choked slowly on the rope for some fifteen minutes.
Godse never denied the killing or sought mercy for it. "I did not hate Gandhi," he told the court, "I revered him... then performed my moral duty and killed Gandhi."
