Godse killed Gandhi as an RSS man

The backlash against the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30 1948 prompted the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to declare on February 1 that his assassin Nathuram Godse was ldquonever connected in any way withrdquo the organisation During the Gandhi murder trial Godse told the court he left the RSS to join the Hindu Mahasabha as he wanted to fight for the ldquojust rightsrdquo of HindusA myth was thus spawnedThis myth was bolstered by American researcher J A Curran Jr who in 1951 claimed Godse had joined the RSS in 1930 and left it in 1934 to become a member of the Hindu Mahasabha The reason Curran posited was that KB Hedgewar the RSS founder refused to turn his then fledgling outfit into a political organisation Curran did not cite a source for his assertionThe myth of Godse leaving the RSS now became a historical factThe cover of Gandhirsquos Assassin The Making of Nathuram Godse And His Idea of India PicsTwitterJournalist Dhirendra K Jharsquos pageturner Gandhirsquos Assassin The Making of Nathuram Godse And His Idea of India shows that the myth about the killer of the Mahatma was a lie the RSS manufactured to conceal its bloody vision After scrutinising a rich array of documents and biographies of littleknown RSS pracharaks apart from interviewing the relatives of those who played a role in the assassination of Gandhi Jha produces a chronology showing Godse was always an RSS manmdashand died as one tooLet alone leaving the RSS in 1930 Godse joined it only in 1934 when his father shifted to Sangli town It was here Godse came under the influence of K B Limaye a charismatic Brahmin who took the RSS oath in 1932 and was made the chief of its Maharashtra unit in 1934 Limaye groomed Godse to handle the publicity for the RSSUnder pressure to contribute to the family kitty Godse was advised by Limaye to move to Pune which he did in late 1936 or early 1937 He established a tailoring business in partnership with another RSS activist Their business thrived not least because RSS activists got their uniforms stitched by themThe first concrete evidence of Godse joining the Hindu Mahasabha dates to October 1 1938 when he led its activists to protest against the Nizam of Hyderabad crushing the religious rights of Hindus Sent to jail for 12 months Godse organised within its precincts an RSS shakha or camp Jha quotes VG Deshpande another jail inmate saying Godse administered him the RSS oath during incarcerationOn his release from prison Godse neither left nor was he expelled from the RSS for his Mahasabha activism Jha ferrets out a document that shows Godse attended an important RSS meeting on December 1 1939 in Pune as an ldquooriginal memberrdquo Next year he attended the RSS meeting as an ldquoorganiserrdquo which implied he had been promotedSo much for claims that Godse left the RSS in 1930In July 1940 the British Indian government banned members of voluntary organisations from wearing uniforms and conducting parades This diminished the lure of the RSS as drills in khaki shorts had a great attraction for the youth Godse and Narayan D Apte also hanged for his role in the assassination of Gandhi circumvented the ban for they were instrumental in floating the Hindu Rashtra Dal HRD in 1942 The HRD offered young men militaristic training including handling air gunsThe HRD can be perceived as a response to the Hindu Mahasabharsquos 1939 resolution to float a Hindu National Militia Yet the HRD also had the Sanghrsquos imprint Godse is on record stating that the HRDrsquos first camp in May 1942 was attended by ldquoswayamsevaks and their sympathisersrdquo Jha quotes Godsersquos friend L G Thatte thus ldquoThe Hindu Rashtra Dal was formed out of trusted RSS menrdquoFor the HRDrsquos second camp the next year the RSS sent two of its best teachersmdashP G Sahasrabuddhe and D V Gokhale Then again Limaye headed the HRD as well as the Sanghrsquos Maharashtra unit Walter D Andersen and Sridhar D Damle in The Brotherhood in Saffron claim Limaye had ceased to be an RSS member between 1943 and 1945 Jha however shows Limaye was on the list of the RSS organisers during those yearsJha says Godsersquos everyday dress was the RSS uniformmdashkhaki shorts halfsleeved white shirt and black cap In later years he took to wearing dhoti but never exchanged the RSS cap for the Mahasabha one Dada Maharaj a Hindu preacher testified to the police that Godse always wore the RSS uniform during their meetings in 1947Jha shows that the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha had to a great extent an overlapping membership which explains why Godse before he was hanged recited the first four sentences of the RSS prayer His idea of loyalty had him during the court trial protect the RSS from the ineffaceable stain of killing GandhiJharsquos book should come in handy for the legal team of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who faces a defamation suit for saying the Mahatma was killed by an RSS man Armed with Jharsquos breathtaking investigation Gandhi can nail the lie that Godse had left the RSS long before he pumped bullets into the MahatmaThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper