Nathuram Godse

Nathuram Godse was the assassin of Mohandas Gandhi, one of the principal figures in the movement for India's independence from Britain. Godse was a right-wing Hindu Brahmin who blamed Gandhi for his role in supporting the Partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan. His writings explaining his motives for killing Gandhi were subsequently banned by the government of India for many years. Following his assassination of Gandhi, Godse was then tried and executed.

His ties to the Hindu right-wing organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) led to its banning soon after Gandhi's assassination. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to this day deny any connection with Godse and dispute the claim that he was a member.

Godse's primary motivation for the assassination is usually ascribed to Gandhi's January 13, 1948 decision to fast to the death unless the Indian central government reversed a decision to withhold the transfer of 55 crore (550 million) rupees (which was to be paid in accordance with the partition agreements) to the government of Pakistan. The Indian government immediately reversed its decision, and this prompted Godse to assassinate Gandhi on January 30, 1948.

The gun used by Godse was a Beretta 1934 semi-automatic pistol in .380 ACP caliber, serial number 606824.

Pro-Godse wave

Around 2000, when BJP ruling became stronger in India, some pro-Godse wave was created and more are related to his RSS membership (also referred as patriotism by RSS).

Hay Ram movie issues

In 2000, the famous Tamil actor Kamal Haasan produced, directed and starred in the movie Hay Ram, the title supposedly is believed to be Gandhi's final words. The movie initially garnered opposition and controversy from Congress and many Gandhi supporters as it was expected to support and defend Godse's act. Kamal had to convince many politicians and members from the BJP in order to secure the release of his film.

However the film itself was a failure at the box office when it was realeased possibly as critics suggested due to the fact that it incorporated and used three different languages and its indirect method of story telling. However it has received some critical success and has received academic status at Yale University.

Because of the media attention and controversy from the movie, interest also refocused on Gandhi's assassination and interviews with Godse's brother Gopal Godse, who was also convicted and jailed for 18 years were published. The interviews themselves were quite popular and there were also claims that the version published by TIME magazine was censored. Gopal Godse himself has also stated that the movie Hay Ram didn't carry the truth of the act due to pressures from outside sources.

Sarvarkar-Godse relationship

There is lot of controversy over Godse's relationship with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the Hindu nationalist leader and who is called freedom fighter by RSS and BJP. Some of his letters (which is published recently by few magazines) confirms his relationship with Sarvarkar. (See Vinayak Damodar Savarkar for further reading)

Conspiracy theories

Since then, many controversy theories have become popular. Among one is that Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani asked Godse to kill Gandhi due to their pro-brahmin views.