TRANSCRIPT
Across New Delhi are memorials honouring the ‘Father of the Nation’ – Mahatma Gandhi.
But around 80 kilometres outside India’s capital is a very different kind of monument.
A temple celebrating the man who killed him.
Here, it’s not Gandhi that’s the hero but Nathuram Godse, the Hindu extremist who murdered Gandhi in 1948.
Ashok Sharma is the temple’s founder and a member of the right-wing Hindu nationalist group, Hindu Mahasaba.
“We received donations from the public (to build this), both from supporters of Godse and from those who hate Gandhi. It is not just that we love Godse, we hate Gandhi with a passion because he got 42 lakh Indians killed (during Partition)."
He, and others like him, blame Gandhi for ceding territory to Muslims, during the partition that created India and Pakistan.
They’re admirers of Adolf Hitler and want to see India become an ethno-religious state, for its Hindu majority.
“The first and biggest genocide happened during the partition of India and Pakistan for which Gandhi was responsible. There was no way to punish such a person in the Indian constitution or the Penal Code. Had he not been killed at that time, he would have divided India into one or two more parts.”
Hindu Mahasaba has long been known for its extremist views, including staging re-enactments of Gandhi’s murder.
But their campaign to whitewash Nathuram Godse’s image has carried into the mainstream.
In recent years, several members of India’s ruling party, the BJP, have called Godse a patriot.
In March of this year, a former high court judge and BJP member said he couldn’t choose between Gandhi and his killer, when asked on a TV show.
Analysts say that Gandhi’s refusal to use violence against his political opponents and willingness to give concessions, is what made him a target of right-wing nationalists, both when he was alive and decade after his assassination.
Prof Apoorvanand is a cultural and political commentator from the University of Delhi.
“His ideas of non violence were also detested and resisted by a majority of Indians, I would say. Mainly those who espouse the cause of India as a Hindu nation, or Hindu Rashtra. So Gandhi was never a non controversial figure. Gandhi robbed Hindu men of their manhood, by mesmerising them with the idea of non violence."
Attacks on Gandhi aren’t just about what he may have done in the past, they’re about what his ideals mean in India today: ideals of secularism and non-violence that have increasingly come under strain during the prime ministership of Narendra Modi.
During this year’s general election, Narendra Modi was criticised for alleged hate speech, after he described Muslims as “infiltrators” during a political rally.
Mr Modi denied using hate speech and secured a third term as prime minister.
But his ruling party, the BJP, lost its majority in the parliament.
“The Prime Minister goes on spreading hatred openly against Muslims. You scan his speeches of last two months, three months, open hate campaign against Muslims. He has stopped using even dog whistle. He is very present, open about it that he is instigating Hindus against Muslims, that he is not succeeding, is something which is making him frustrated.”
Before being sworn in for a third term as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi paid respects to Gandhi at a ceremony in New Delhi.
But he has never explicitly condemned the worship of Nathuram Godse, including by those in his own party who consider the convicted murderer a patriot.
Instead, the Modi government’s policies have won them support among right wing nationalists.
Including revoking Kashmir’s special status and constructing a Hindu temple on a site claimed by Muslims.
“We are happy (with the BJP government). They abolished Article 370 and constructed the Lord Shri Ram temple. Moreover, there has been a rise of Hindu sentiment across the country, what could be better than this for us?”
But for most Indians, it is Mahatma Gandhi who will always be India’s moral compass.
These advocates of Gandhian philosophy meet in New Delhi each week, to read his works and discuss his ideas.
Kumar Prashant is the Chairman of the Gandhi Peace Foundation.
“The people that are questioning Gandhi right now, they are different people. The y shot Gandhi because they realised that it is impossible to stop this man by other ways. Then they decided to kill him. But they are foolish people. They don't know that you can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea. Gandhi has become an idea, and after his murder, he has become worldwide idea.”
A non-violent struggle, still standing against hatred.
