Why Nathuram Godse saw Gandhi as the greatest enemy of Hindus

(This video is by Epified.)

Also read: Was Nathuram Godse the only killer of Mahatma Gandhi?

We love history in black-and-white. For, it makes a story pursue a linear pattern, without being utterly complicated and morally untenable. In the process, we get a hero who can do no wrong - and a villain no right. When I asked this question to Amish Tripathi recently, he emphasised how this wasn’t the case in our ancient past.

He reminded how Yudhisthira, after losing his brothers and wife one by one on his way to heaven, found Duryodhana and his brothers enjoying spoils up there.

So, in the long term, the "virtuous" Pandavas weren’t as upright as they seemed. And the "villainous" Kauravas weren’t as bad as they were projected!

Also read: Are we allowed to forgive Godse?

Today, maybe the result of rigid Victorian values inflicted on India, we have left behind the multi-layered approach of looking at history and its protagonists. The best manifestation of this black-and-white mentality is the way we treat Mahatma Gandhi, who evokes as much admiration as he courts derision and contempt - he is either projected as a saint or a wily politician.

Even an otherwise pragmatic commentator like Ramachandra Guha falls for this simplistic caricature in his book, Gandhi Before India, as he resurrects Gandhi as a Mahatma who would never have sex with anyone other than his wife; and that he should be “recognised as being among apartheid’s first opponents”. Read more.