Author: Gopal Godse
Translator(s): S T Godbole
Publisher: Surya Prakashan
Year: 1989
Language: English
Pages: 527
ISBN/UPC (if available): N/A
Description
On the 5th of February 1918, I went to my native village, Uksan, some ten miles away from Kamshet, a small station on the Pune-Bombay rail-way, when immediately I was arrested and taken to Bombay by a Police squad of the Bombay Police Force, which has arrived there earlier that very day. The charge leveled against me was that I was associated with the assassination of Gandhi.
This case was heard before a special Court in the Red fort Delhi. According to the law of the land, it is the accuser who has to shoulder the responsibility of proving the charge or charges made against the accused, beyond any doubt. The accused, in his own right, may prefer to remain tight-lipped or may deny the charges against him.
So my submission was that I was not even distantly connected with Gandhiji's assassination-which, of course, was not on oath. The prosecution proved the charges against me convincingly. I was, there fore, convicted and sentenced to life-transportation on the 10th of February 1949 and was subsequently released on the 13th of October 1964.
The assassination of Gandhiji, which must form the last chapter of the story of his life, happens to be, at the same time, an important part of the recent history of India. It will lose the status of history, in the true sense of the term, if it is written in a distorted manner; if dropped altogether, the life-story of Gandhiji will necessarily suffer from incompleteness.
The Marathi book was titled Gandhi Hatya, Ani Mee and published in the year 1967. The Delhi Administration banned the book two months later. The Maharashtra High Court at Bombay declared the ban illegal on 6-8-1968. It has taken over twenty years to apprise the English reader of the details of the subject. Prof S T Godbole has done the laborious work of translation. M/s Surya Prakashan have undertaken the task of the publication.
REVIEWS
If The Congress Wants To Accept Partition it can do so only by Treading over my dead Body.
-Mahatma Gandhi
If Devotion to One's Own Country amounts To a Sin, I Admit, I have Committed That Sin. If it is meritorious, I humbly Claim The Merit There of.
-Nathuram Godse
Contents
BEFORE I BEGIN
Could The Assassination Be Forestalled?
When Probably Was The Conspiracy Hatched?
The Psychological Background of Nathuram's Action
The Fatal Day!
Nathuram ! O' Ram
The Nemesis
Let My Ashes Fall Into The Indus (The Sindhu)!
Accused No 8 - Vinayak Damodar
The Pangs of Separation
Destination Red Fort
The Enveloping Darkness
Groping In The Gloom!
Cimmerian Darkness
Mental Suffocation
Gasping For Breath
Light At Last
The Epilogue
Author As a Now
Nathuram Godse's Will
Gist of Statement
Pictures