Godse

[Koenraad Elst]

Dear Dr. Thompson,

Thanks for sending all those new visitors to my website.
And sorry to disappoint them that the applause for Godse they expected
wasn't
there.  My serious opinion about Gandhi and Godse is not in that brief
website article (my Dutch book Moord op de Mahatma, Davidsfonds, Leuven
1998, though somewhat maltreated by the publisher, comes closer; I hope to
have a better English version out by summer next year ; for a Hindu judgment
of the murder with which I can largely agree, see the Gandhi chapter in Sita
Ram Goel: Perversion of India's Political Parlance, Voice of India, Delhi
ca. 1986, still in print).  The article merely comments on the different
political fall-out of the Gandhi murder as compared with the murder of
Yitzhak Rabin, both killed because they were held responsible for a "land
for peace" agreement.
    What I do express there is my agreement with Dr. Ambedkar that an
orderly exchange of population would have saved many lives, and my
disagreement with Godse that Partition was Gandhi's fault.  The latter
impression is still alive among the communities most affected by Partition,
and I've noticed openly hostile reactions among Sikhs and Bengalis when the
Mahatma is mentioned.  However, Gandhi could not have prevented Partition
even if he had staked his life for it.  That he failed to try his tested
method of fast unto death to put pressure on Jinnah is indeed something
which can be held against him, at least if one insists on treating him as a
superhuman saint.  Which I don't : decades of informed criticism of Gandhi
from many sides (see e.g. the Muslim-cum-Ambedkarite booklet Gandhi, Saint
or Sinner? by one Fazl-ul-Haq, which presents a list of embarrassing facts)
have brought the man down to the human level where he belongs, and where he
will remain for the sobre historians in coming generations.
    Incidentally, and again in the footsteps of Dr. Ambedkar, I think
Partition was the lesser evil, and the only important issue then was to
minimize the human damage.  In that task, the then leadership failed
miserably, but Gandhi was simply not in charge then; as the guilty men, I
would mention Jinnah, Nehru and especially Mountbatten.
    As for my judgment of the murder, I think that apart from morally wrong,
it was also politically disastrous for India, and it was of course also a
suicidal act for Godse's own political party (Hindu Mahasabha), which never
recovered from the blow.  It is difficult to find in history a man who, with
so small a movement of his index finger, did more harm to the very ideals he
cherished, than Godse.
    As Dr. Thompson summoned me to make a public statement on this matter, I
felt I had to put the above on record.  However, in deference to list rules,
I appeal to all members to let this purely political topic rest.

Yours sincerely,
Koenraad Elst
http://members.xoom.com/KoenraadElst/