Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi By Nicole Sharma

Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
By Nicole Sharma
Gandhi’s Belief of Non-Violence
“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind”, Mahatma
Gandhi.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869. his actions
inspired the great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore to call him "Mahatma"
("great soul").
Nationalist leader, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi not only led his own
country to independence but also influenced political activists of many
different beliefs throughout the world with his methods and philosophy of
nonviolent confrontation, or civil disobedience.
Gandhi sought ought to practice non-violence and truth in all situations,
and advocated that others do the same. He is known in India as the Father
of their Nation
Gandhi’s Protests
Mahatma Gandhi worked in South Africa. During those years Gandhi's humiliating
experiences of racial discrimination made him distress anxious for change, on behalf of the
Indian community in South Africa. He assumed leadership of protest campaigns and
gradually developed his techniques and beliefs of nonviolent resistance known as
Satyagraha.
In the movie “Gandhi”, there is a scene where it shows that Indians had to wear ID badges
and that infuriated Gandhi, because he felt as if they were being viewed almost like the
South Africans at the time. Therefore, he torched his badge and those who followed him did
the same. When Gandhi did this the police officer beat him in public but Gandhi would not
stop until he was he was physically incapable of anymore.
Gandhi returned to India in January 1915. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre of Amritsar
(1919), in which troops fired on and killed hundreds of innocent nationalist demonstrators,
including women and children, pushed him to direct political protest.
He launched on a policy of noncooperation with the British. He continued civil
disobedience, organizing protests and marches against unpopular British measures, such as
the salt tax , and promoted boycotts on British goods.
Independence and Division of India
and Pakistan
Gandhi was repeatedly imprisoned by the British and resorted to hunger
strikes as a part of his civil disobedience. His final imprisonment came in
1942-44, after he had demanded total withdrawal of the British (the "Quit
India" movement) during World War II.
Gandhi was also tireless in trying to forge closer bonds between the
Hindu and the Muslims.
In August 1947 Indian had gained its independence and had been divided
into two countries, India and Pakistan. This sadden Gandhi. He wanted
one country united with all religions. The Hindus and Muslims were
killing each other, some tried to escape. Gandhi worked very hard to forge
closer bonds between the Hindu and Muslims. But all his hard work
eventually led to his assassination.
Mahatma Gandhi’s Death
The assassination took place on January 30th 1948. In point blank range, Nathuram
Godse shot and killed Mahatma Gandhi as he was walking to his prayer meeting.
Many people were unhappy of the division of India and Pakistan including Mahatma
Gandhi but some blamed Gandhi for the division.
There was a group of Hindu extremists who did not like Mahatma Gandhi because
they believed that Gandhi was more lenient to the Muslims then Jinnah, the leader of
the Muslim League, was to the Hindus. They did not like Gandhi’s philosophy of
unity among all religions, especially not with the Muslims.
Nathuram Godse said that Gandhi was a “political and ethical impostor”, and the
“curse of India, a force of evil”. Nathuram Godse tried to rationalize his wrong
doing because he was against Gandhi’s belief that Muslims and Hindus should be
united and that there should be an end to the caste system. Although Nathuram
Godse without a doubt committed a heinous act, there were many other people that
shared the same ideas as Nathuram Godse.
Interpretation of Media
Sources
The assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is considered to be one of
the most tragic assassinations in history.
The media we chose for this project was a movie, and articles. There seemed to
be misconceptions about why Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi. But it
did pretty well in showing and explaining the different reasons Nathuram could
have had to killed Mahatma Gandhi. After all there is only so much one can say
with certainty unless they were actually there to witness the event, and when
stories are told, people can unintentionally make alterations.
There were many different media sources that spoke about the death of
Mahatma Gandhi, which had their respectable and unscrupulous effects.
Ultimately, the end result was that the world lost a truly inspirational figure and a
great leader.