| This is an excerpt from the defense of Nathuram | | | | based on birth alone. I openlyjoined anti-caste |
| Godse, the one who shot Gandhi. Hedenied the | | | | movements and maintained that all Hindus were of |
| charge that he was a madman, and didn't deny that | | | | equal status as torights, social and religious and should |
| he had killed Gandhi. | | | | be considered high or low on merit alone and |
| Here he speaks from the standpoint of an Indian | | | | notthrough the accident of birth in a particular caste |
| nationalist, who was opposed to | | | | or profession. I used publicly to takepart in organized |
| Gandhi's conciliatory policies towards the Muslims in | | | | anti-caste dinners in which thousands of Hindus, |
| India. We see a few remarksinsisting that he was in | | | | Brahmins, Kshatriyas, |
| favor of eliminating the caste system (he was a | | | | Vaisyas, Chamars and Bhangis participated. We broke |
| Brahmin (from thehighest caste in India), which class | | | | the caste rules and dined in thecompany of each |
| was the subject of violence on the part of other | | | | other…. |
| Hindus in the wake of Gandhi's assassination), his | | | | All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was |
| characterization of Gandhi has aleader, and his | | | | my first duty to serve Hindudomand Hindus both as a |
| criticisms of some of Gandhi's ideas: non-violence, the | | | | patriot and as a world citizen. To secure the freedom |
| national languageof India, anti-Hindu violence, and the | | | | and tosafeguard the just interests of some thirty |
| partition of India. | | | | crores (300 million) of Hindus wouldautomatically |
| Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively | | | | constitute the freedom and the well-being of all India, |
| came to revere Hindu religion, | | | | one fifth of humanrace. This conviction led me |
| Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been | | | | naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanghtanist |
| intensely proud of Hinduism as awhole. As I grew up | | | | ideologyand programme, which alone, I came to |
| I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered | | | | believe, could win and preserve the |
| by anysuperstitious allegiance to any isms, political or | | | | nationalindependence of Hindustan, my Motherland, |
| religious. That is why I worked activelyfor the | | | | and enable her to render true service tohumanity as |
| eradication of untouchability and the caste system | | | | well.Why I killed Gandhi? |