Gopal Godse

Gopal Vinayak Godse ( _mr. गोपाळ विनायक गोडसे) (c. 1919 - November 26, 2005), was the brother of Nathuram Godse and one of the accused in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948. He was the last one to survive and lived his last days in Pune, Maharashtra, India.

Gopal Godse's brother, Nathuram Godse shot Gandhi and was executed by hanging with co-accused Narayan Apte on November 15, 1949. Gopal was arrested on 5th of February from his house in Pune and was sentenced to 18 years for his part in the assassination. The three men believed that Gandhi had turned his back on the Indian Independence Movement, and that his actions led to the Partition of India which in turn led to the inflammation of sectarian strife between Pakistan's Muslims and India's Hindus. In an interview in 1998 he reiterated that he never regretted Gandhi's killing. He hated what he called Gandhi's "appeasement" of Muslims.

According to Gopal what triggered the assassination was a bomb explosion on 20 January 1948 at Gandhi's prayer meeting in Delhi, just 50 meters away from Gandhi. The failed explosion for which Madan Lal Pahwa was caught, heightened the urgency-the Godse brothers wanted to finish it before the police caught them.

Gopal was a Hindu nationalist. He said that Gandhi never really said "Hey Ram" as he was dying and this was just a ploy of the government to prove that he was, indeed, a staunch Hindu who deserved to be elevated to sainthood. In an interview with Time Magazine he said, "Someone asked me whether Gandhi said, "Hey Ram". I said Kingsley did say it. But Gandhi did not. Because that was not a drama."

He has admitted that at one point, Gandhi was his idol. He credited Gandhi for the mass awakening that he created and that he removed the fear of prison from the minds of Indians.

Gopal was born in Khed (now Rajgurunagar) in Pune district. His primary education began at Karjat in Raigad District, and continued at Ratnagiri. After his father retired, his family settled at Sangli in Maharashtra, and he passed the matriculation exam.

He worked as a volunteer for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Simultaneously, he worked for the Hindu Mahasabha as well, but without enrolling as a member.

When the World War II broke out, he joined the defense services as a storekeeper in the Indian Army Ordnance Corps in 1940. He opted for service on the front, and served in Iraq and Iran till April 1944.

After he returned, he was posted at Khadki and got married to Sindhu. They have two daughters, Vidyullata and Asilata. After Gopal was arrested, Sindhu supported her daughters by working in Gopal's older brother, Dattatraya's workshop called 'Udyam Engineering'. Later she set up a separate home and also started a small workshop of her own named 'Pratap Engineering'.

Godse was released from prison in October 1964, but was re-arrested a month later under the Defense of India Act and kept in prison for over a year. He was finally released at the end of 1965. He has written two books "Gandhi hatya ani mee" (Gandhi's Assassination and Me) "Panchavanna Kotinche Bali" (The sacrifice of fifty-five crores).

‡ – "According to (supposedly) a copy of the FIR here [http://www.kiranbedi.com/gandhifir1.htm] and its translation [http://www.kiranbedi.com/gandhifireng.htm] , Gandhi uttered "Ram, Ram" after being shot."

List of Accused

List of People accused in the attempt and assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
* Nathuram Vinayak Godse
* Narayan Dattatraya Apte
* Vishnu Ramkrishna Karkare
* Madanlal Kashmirilal Pahwa
* Shankar Kistaiya
* Gopal Vinayak Godse
* Digambar Ramchandra Badge
* Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
* Dattatraya Sadashiv Parchure
* Gangadhar Dandavate
* Gangadhar Jadhao
* Suryadeo Sharma

External links

* [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9941A3E2-A809-4472-A277-996278C3BEC1.htm Gandhi assassination plotter dies] Report from the Al Jazeera website
* [http://ngodse.tripod.com/godse14feb2000.htm Gopal Godse, co-conspirator in Gandhi's assassination and brother of the assassin, looks back in anger--and without regret. An excerpt from a TIME Magazine's Website interview]