Since the Modi government came to power in 2014, a cult has quietly developed in India – the cult of Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin. Thanks to the assertions by the BJP’s Members of Parliament that Godse was a patriot, in the past few years, a temple was consecrated in his name. Though the district administration refused to allow permission to build his temple, members of the Hindu Mahasabha laid the foundation for his temple and set up Godse’s statue.
On January 30, the Hindu Mahasabha recreated a grisly new ritual – ‘recreating’ Gandhi’s assassination. A woman wearing saffron clothes shot Gandhi’s effigy, filled with blood, in remembrance of Nathuram’s grotesque deed. Minions of the saffron IT mill disseminated a video of the event to acolytes across the nation who gleefully shared it on social media. From being a fringe movement, the Godse cult has come to occupy primetime.
Yet, much about Godse remains shrouded in mystery. The RSS, of which he was undoubtedly a member for much of his adult life, has disowned him whenever it was inconvenient for them to count him as one among its ranks. But it’s a claim that has then been hotly contested by Godse’s family members. The RSS has chosen not to propagate his life-story as it has in the case of its other ‘heroes’ such as V D Savarkar. Consequently, few, if any, know that Nathuram wasn’t even his given name.
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