I started reading Offstumped, a blog where people post analysis of Indian politics and day to day activities and if the link is here, it means i like it.
On the discussion page, someone posted a link to Godse's court plea when he was put on trial on the charges of killing Gandhi. It can be downloaded from here : http://www.geocities.com/hindu-rastra/soh.html?menu.html&1
Congress banned Godse's plea as it was very accurate and showed the weaknesses of Congress. Godse was an intelligent man with a clear rationale on why he was killing Gandhi and he justified it very well. Even the judge who presided over the hearing was impressed. The article in the link above was written by a fellow who was also set on trial but got life transportation instead of death. It is to be noted that Godse never denied that he had killed Gandhi. However he denied all the other charges put forth against him. He faught his own defense and won it.
Many historians claim that Godse by killing Gandhi has immortalized him. Godse's defense contains some good analysis of where Gandhi went wrong. But again he is also biased when it comes to it. I would like to look at Gandhi from sociological perspective. Gandhi tried very hard to achieve hindu-muslim unity. In doing so, to win over Muslim's hearts he criticized when Hindus attacked muslims but was completely silent when the opposite happened. Look at it from Gandhi's perspective. Gandhi must have thought that by condemning muslim people, he would surely crete more enmity among muslims. He already had support from hindus, so he can use that. Ofcourse Gandhi was making a mistake. But the blunder was that he kept on repeating the same mistake over and over again. Plus since he was at the top position, i think there was no one to correct him as well. Gandhi made a mistake a judgment but i guess the punishment of a mistake is magnified by its impact and Gandhi due to its god-like status made a huge impact.
Having said that, Gandhi's role for Indian independence can not be undermined. It is sad that he had to face such a death but on the other hand, Godse's question - How else to stop Gandhi?, there is no answer to this question.
Now coming to Hindutva, these religious fundamentalist are repeating the history again. Divisive politics are yet to reach new lows. The same question is still there - How to stop them? Is India looking for another Godse now?
No comments:
Post a Comment