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.