Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
- Date
- 1948
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- South Asia (India)
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948 in the garden of Birla House in New Delhi, shot three times at point-blank range by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist who blamed him for being too conciliatory toward Muslims and Pakistan during Partition.
Gandhi, then 78, was walking to an evening multi-faith prayer meeting when Godse stepped from the crowd and fired. India's foremost independence leader and global apostle of nonviolent resistance died within minutes. His killing came less than six months after the independence and bloody partition of British India, during which he had fasted to stop communal massacres and pressed the new government to honour financial obligations to Pakistan—stances that enraged Hindu extremists. The assassination shocked the world and briefly stilled the communal violence Gandhi had struggled to contain; it also discredited and led to the temporary banning of Hindu nationalist organisations linked to Godse. Godse and a co-conspirator were tried, convicted, and hanged in November 1949. Gandhi's death elevated him to secular sainthood worldwide, cementing his philosophy of satyagraha as an enduring influence on later civil-rights and anti-colonial movements, from the American South to South Africa.
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Empires active in 1948
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- French Colonial Empire (Second)1830 CE – 1962 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Indira Gandhi Imposes India's Emergency1975–1977
- Indira Gandhi Is Assassinated1984
- Establishment of Apartheid in South Africa1948
- Founding of the People's Republic of China1 October 1949
- Independence and Partition of British India14–15 August 1947
- Construction of the Berlin Wall13 August 1961
Also relevant
- Communist coup in CzechoslovakiaFebruary 1948
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted10 December 1948
Further reading
The wider story
India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy
Magisterial, readable history of the subcontinent since independence.
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