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Friday, November 18, 2005

Godse

From my friend Sanket's Blog

Godse's defense speech in court (a must read)

This is the speech given by Nathuram Godse in the court when he was tried for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi
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Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any
superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus were of equal status as to rights, social and religious and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession.
I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners in which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Chamars and Bhangis participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other. I have read the speeches and writings of Dadabhai Nairoji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and modern history of India and some prominent countries like England, France, America and' Russia. Moreover I studied the tenets of Socialism and Marxism. But above all I studied very closely whatever Veer Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the moulding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so,
than any other single factor has done.All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was my first duty to serve Hindudom and Hindus both as a patriot and as
a world citizen. To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores (300 million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and the well being of all India, one fifth of human race. This conviction led me naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanghtanist ideology and programme, which one, I came to believe, could win and preserve the national independence ofHindustan, my Motherland, and enable her to render true service to humanity as well.
Since the year 1920, that is, after the demise of Lokamanya Tilak, Gandhiji's nfluence in the Congress first increased and then became supreme. His activities for public awakening were phenomenal in their intensity and were reinforced by the slogan of truth and non-violence, which he paraded ostentatiously before the country.
No sensible or enlightened person could object to those slogans. In fact there is nothing new or original in them. They are implicit in every constitutional public movement. But it is nothing but a mere dream if you imagine that the bulk of mankind is, or can ever become, capable of scrupulous adherence to these lofty principles in its normal life from day to day. In fact, honour, duty and love of one's own kith and
kin and country might often compel us to disregard non-violence and to use force. I could never conceive that an armed resistance to an aggression is unjust. I would consider it a religious and moral duty to resist and, if possible, to overpower such an enemy by use of force. [In the Ramayana] Rama killed Ravana in a tumultuous fight and relieved Sita. [In the Mahabharata], Krishna killed Kansa to end his wickedness; and Arjuna had to fight and slay quite a number of his friends and relations including the revered Bhishma because the latter was on the side of the aggressor. It is my firm belief that in dubbing Rama, Krishna and Arjuna as guilty of violence, the Mahatma betrayed a total ignorance of the springs of human action.

In more recent history, it was the heroic fight put up by Chhatrapati Shivaji that first checked and eventually destroyed the Muslim tyranny in India. It was absolutely essentially for Shivaji to overpower and kill an aggressive Afzal Khan, failing which he would have lost his own life. In condemning history's towering warriors like Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Gobind Singh as misguided patriots,
Gandhiji has merely exposed his self-conceit. He was, paradoxical, as it may appear, a violent pacifist who brought untold calamities on the country in the name of truth and non-violence, while Rana Pratap, Shivaji and the Guru will remain enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen forever for the freedom they brought to them.
The accumulating provocation of thirty-two years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately. Gandhi had done very well in South Africa to uphold the rights and well being of the Indian community there. But when he finally returned to India he developed a subjective mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on his own way. Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. Either Congress had to surrender its will to his and had to be content with
playing second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him

3 Comments:

Blogger agastyabhrata said...

You might like to read the original text of the speech - please do consult any RSS office nearest to you and ask for "May It Please Your Honor" - I do think this needs to be read along with Hind Swaraj of Gandhi in order that we appreciate the context of Godse.

6:17 AM, November 19, 2005

 
Blogger vaasu said...

Just want to add something..Which is something I personally feel..may be right or wrong..:)

Every country in this world has been ruled by british or let's say some foriegners...If I am not wrong, every country got its freedom by fighting..Even americans fought the war and got freedom.

Ours in the only country which got freedom through non-violence..gandhiji principles...

Have you ever thought why Indians are not agressive in character..Indians just succumb to situations which needs agressiveness..situations which deal with lot of pressure and stress..

Take the game of cricket...or for that matter any game...in education..in politics....We just can't be aggressive..

I feel it's bcos of the way we chose to get our freedom...the way we lived our lives just taking the beatings from british for centuries..

I don't know whether it's good thing or a bad thing....may be we are unique...may be not...

Regards,
Vaasu

10:41 PM, November 19, 2005

 
Blogger Imanpreet said...

Ours in the only country which got freedom through non-violence..gandhiji principles...


This is a statement to which I very much disagree. This just takes away credit from all the other "violent" guys. Bhagat Singh, Bose and all. I was not there when we got freedom, but though Gandhi could have been a major contributor, we just can't consider him to be sole "Father of Free India"


Secondly


Have you ever thought why Indians are not agressive in character..Indians just succumb to situations which needs agressiveness..situations which deal with lot of pressure and stress..

<snip>

I feel it's bcos of the way we chose to get our freedom...the way we lived our lives just taking the beatings from british for centuries..



When were Indians agressive? The Moguls conquered India, how agressive were we? The British just came and took over India, were we agressive then? Are we agressive now?


My understanding of life is too small to debate on these issues. But I believe, that the primary cause of this "non" agressivness is the socio and economic conditions to which Indians have always been exposed. The coming of Moguls and the British only worsend the matters.

4:15 PM, November 20, 2005

 

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