When they returned to the Elphinstone Annexe Hotel, they found Manorama waiting for them to pass on Gopal's message. Apte and Nathuram immediately left for Thana.
The gang was regrouping.
On reaching Joshi's home, the four of them requested him for some privacy. Nathuram revealed his plan to the group. Karkare and Gopal looked towards Apte for approval, but realised that something had taken place in their absence. Apte had been dethroned. Their new leader was Nathuram Vinayak Godse.
Apte and Karkare agreed to join Nathuram. Gopal handed the .32 revolver to his brother. His part in the conspiracy to murder Gandhi was over. He was going back to his family and job.
The gang of seven was now reduced to three. Gopal inquired from Joshi what time the next train for Poona would leave. As Joshi said after 10 pm, Gopal made his way to the railway station and then onwards to Poona.
MONDAY, 26 JANUARY 1948
At Birla House, it was Gandhi's day of silence. He held 'talks' with Dr. Gopichand Bhargava, Prafulla Chandra Ghosh, and others, giving his remarks and replies in writing. He followed the same procedure when he attended a session of the CWC.
At the evening prayer meeting, his written speech was read out by Pyarelal which said: 'Today, 26th January, is India's Independence Day.* This observance was quite appropriate when we were fighting for independence, and we had not seen or handled it. Now that we have seen and handled it, we seem to be disillusioned. What are we celebrating today? Surely not our disillusionment! What we are entitled to celebrate is the hope that the worst is over, and that we are on the road to showing the lowliest of India's villagers that independence means his freedom from being a serf, and that he is no longer a slave born to serve the cities and towns of India, but that he is entitled to use city-dwellers for the finished products of his well thought-out labours. He is the salt of Indian earth.'
In Bombay, Nathuram and Apte went to see Dada Maharaj with the hope of persuading him to give them a reliable handgun. Dixit Maharaj was also present at the meeting. At their last meeting Apte had boasted to Dixit Maharaj that they had procured a truckload of weapons and explosives and were going to take it to Kashmir to fight the 'Kabali' invaders from Pakistan. Dixit Maharaj now asked Apte about this shipment to Kashmir. Apte replied that the shipment was ready and they were looking for a revolver for their own defence, since it was very dangerous to travel north of Delhi. Dada Maharaj declined, saying he could not help them. Apte then asked for financial help, but as the Maharaj brothers were disillusioned with the duo they had to leave empty-handed.
Later that morning Apte and Nathuram went to the Silver Bank Company to meet Paranjape. They were to meet Karkare at nine that evening for a final meeting before the three of them made their way to Delhi. With a lot of cash in their pockets Apte and Nathuram decided to spend the afternoon indulging in personal pleasures. Apte had invited Manorama and Nathuram decided to watch a film. Apte planned to use Manorama as an alibi later to prove that he had not been with Nathuram in Delhi at the time of the murder. Apte told Manorama, that as soon as she heard news of Nathuram's actions in Delhi, she should send a telegram to the secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha in Delhi with the message: 'Arriving in Delhi to arrange Godse's defence, Narayan D. Apte'.
That evening, after an early meal, Nathuram and Apte caught a train to Thana. Karkare was waiting for them on the platform. The three crossed the railway tracks and squatted under a lamp in a secluded area of the yard where Nathuram briefed Karkare on their plans. Apte and he were leaving for Delhi by air the next morning. From there they would proceed to Gwalior to procure a handgun from one of Gopal's acquaintances. Gwalior was the capital of the illegal gun trade in India. All kinds of Indian and foreign guns and firearms were freely available. They would then return to Delhi on the morning of the 29th. He asked Karkare to leave for Delhi latest by 27th evening, so he would be there by the 28th night. On 29th morning Karkare was to wait for them near the stone fountain in the Queen's Garden outside the Old Delhi railway station. Karkare promised that he would wait all of Thursday for Godse and Apte. By this time Karkare had run out of money and so Apte gave him three hundred rupees towards his travel and stay in Delhi.
The three then walked back to the main platform and sat at a tea stall till the last local for Bombay came in. Karkare saw the two off and walked back to Joshi's home.
U.H. Rana, to whom Sanjevi had entrusted Madanlal's confession, was still travelling by train from Allahabad to Bombay—a journey which would take him close to thirty-six hours.
TUESDAY, 27 JANUARY 1948
At Birla House, Gandhi had an important event planned for the day. Set in idyllic surroundings, seven miles south of Delhi, is Mehrauli, historically renowned as the ancient capital of Prithviraj Chauhan. It is the seat of the dargah sharif of Khwaja Syed Qutub-ud-Din Bakhtiar, a Sufi saint, and ranks, second in importance only to the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer. During the riots that had ravaged Delhi, some heinous acts of communal carnage had occurred here too. Every year a religious fair was held during the feast of the peer, which was attended not only by Muslims but, in the true Sufi tradition, even by Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians. As Gandhi had said that holding the urs was a pre-condition to breaking his fast, the Delhi administration had cleaned up the shrine and its surroundings and the vandalised portions of the dargah had been repaired.
Gandhi was to visit the shrine and attend the urs. Sanatani Hindus and militant Sikhs vied with each other to welcome the visitors with flowers and steaming cups of tea from the tea stalls they had set up. Gandhi was accompanied by Abha, Manu and another lady. According to Islamic tradition, women were not allowed inside the sanctum sanctorum. He suggested that they wait outside 'preferably under the protection of a Muslim friend'. But the organisers said that the ladies must accompany Gandhi as they were his daughters. On seeing the damage done to the intricately carved white marble screen around the dargah, Gandhi said, 'I am afraid that Hindu and Sikh shrines in Pakistan must have suffered similar damage.' News had appeared in the press quoting a statement issued by the Pakistan government, that 130 innocent Hindu and Sikh refugees had been slaughtered in Parchinar refugee camp at Peshawar by raiders from across the tribal territory. The actual casualties were much higher. Unlike in the past, the news had not sparked retaliatory attacks on the Muslims in the capital. 'I must say,' Gandhi remarked as he came out of the shrine, 'the response of the Sikhs to my call to non-violent courage has exceeded my expectations.' Speaking about the carnage at Parchinar, Gandhi said, 'I want you all to take a vow that you will never again listen to the voice of Satan and abandon the way of brotherliness and peace. The news from Parchinar has shocked me but you must not allow even such provocations to rekindle in your hearts the sentiments of retaliation and revenge. You should tell yourself and all concerned that they were out not to demand blood for blood but to meet with love even the murderer.'
Talking with his companions on his way back from the shrine, Gandhi expressed his utter disappointment with the way the Security Council of the UNO was dealing with the Kashmir issue. Instead of considering India's complaint and getting the aggression vacated, the stage was being set to ask India to withdraw its troops from Kashmir as a preliminary condition to the holding of a plebiscite which would decide the future of Kashmir. The UNO seemed to have become a body, where falsehood and prevarication enjoyed a high premium. 'Today they are preparing to put Pandit Nehru's government in the dock,' he remarked. 'Unless we are extremely wary, we shall come out with our name tarnished.'
In the afternoon, Gandhi was interviewed by Kingsley Martin, a British journalist. He reiterated his growing conviction that India's struggle for freedom from foreign rule had not really been non-violent at heart, and that the fatal difference between word and deed had been the root cause of all the violence seen in the country soon after Partition. He saw India's passive resistance to have been an expedient, undertaken only because the freedom fighters had had no military strength wit
h which to battle the British Empire. True non-violence, in his view, had to be an attitude of the strong who commanded power but would use it as a matter of dharma, and not because they were powerless.
He recalled, for Martin's benefit, an incident that had occurred in South Africa many years ago. William Hosken, a businessman, had introduced him at a meeting saying, 'Mr. Gandhi is a leader of Transvaal Indians who take recourse to passive resistance, having no franchise, and having no arms. They have taken to passive resistance, which is a weapon of the weak'. Gandhi said that he had, even then, resisted that description: 'Real passive resistance has been miscalled a weapon of the weak. After all, Jesus Christ is the Prince of all passive resisters. Can he, in any sense of the term, be called weak? Soul force, the weapon of the truly non-violent, is actually a weapon of the strong.'
Speaking at his prayer meeting, Gandhi referred to raiders in Kashmir having abducted a number of women and children from Mirpur. 'I must ask the raiders and the government of Pakistan, for the sake of humanity, and for the sake of God, to return all the abducted women with due respect. It is their duty to do so. I have enough knowledge of Islam, about which I have read a good deal. Nowhere does Islam teach people to carry away women and keep them in such disreputable conditions. This is worship of Satan, not of God.'
Vincent Shean, an American author, interviewed Gandhi after the prayer meeting. They talked about the influence of religion and the philosophy of ends and means. Speaking on his objection to the use of force, Gandhi said that his objection to the use of force was not that force could as well be used to support unrighteous wars; it was fundamental. 'I do not know what is intrinsically good. Hence, I do not go by results. It is enough if I take care of the means.' As an example he said that as a nature-curist, he did not believe in the use of sulpha drugs if he got typhoid. Should he abandon his belief? 'I do not know whether it is good for me or humanity to be cured by the use of sulpha drugs; so I refuse to use them .... If evil do seem sometimes to result from good, the inference would be that the means employed were probably wrong. Good action to produce good results must be supported by means that are pure.'
Since it was getting late they decided to continue the interview the next morning.
In Thana, Karkare left Joshi's house that afternoon, reaching Bombay Central station three hours before his train to Delhi was scheduled to leave. Karkare got a seat in the third class compartment and spent the time sitting on the platform waiting for the Frontier Mail.
In Bombay, Godse and Apte boarded their flight to Delhi. They occupied seats almost at the rear of the plane. Apte drew attention to himself by mildly flirting with the air hostess, Lorna Bainbridge. She remembered Apte and his friend because Apte continuously asked for coffee and sweets as a pretext to speak with the strikingly beautiful airhostess.
On reaching Delhi the two drove directly to the Old Delhi railway station and boarded the Grand Trunk Express, which would take them to Gwalior, a princely state which was in the process of being amalgamated into the Indian Union.
The train chugged into the station just before midnight. There were very few passengers alighting from the train at that hour. Outside the station, Nathuram and Apte asked a few tongawallahs if they knew Dr. Parchure's home. One of them, Gariba, agreed to take them there for a fare of one rupee. On the way the reins broke and they had to hail another tonga, being driven by Jumma.
Dr. Dattatreya Sadashiv Parchure sold home-made medicine to purify the blood and cure people of respiratory diseases. There was another reason why he was well-known: he was the founder of the Hindu Mahasabha in Gwalior and the head of a private army of thugs called the Hindu Rashtra Sena. He looked like a sadhu with his flowing beard and long hair but his eyes, from behind very thick lenses, flashed with fanaticism. He was known to be capable of violent anger and for his vicious tongue, a modern day Rasputin. Nathuram was sure that Parchure would be able to get him a weapon, having once met him at a function of the Hindu Mahasabha in Gwalior. The two had also been together at a weapons training camp in the princely state of Alwar a few months back.
At a previous meeting, Godse and Parchure had discussed the possibility of merging the Hindu Rashtra Dal founded by Savarkar (Nathuram was its leading member) and Parchure's Sena, but the talks had floundered over the issue of leadership. Parchure had his own reasons to be angry with the Congress. The Maharaja of Gwalior, Jiyajirao Scindia (the anglicised version of Shinde), had ignored the claim of the Gwalior Hindu Mahasabha and invited a Congress ministry to be formed in Gwalior, thus robbing Parchure of the chance to become the chief minister of Gwalior. This had happened on 24 January and trouble between the Congress and the Mahasabha was at a peak. Parchure had already led a demonstration on the Lai Kothi.
The Parchures were a large clan; all the brothers and their families lived in a large family mansion on Station Road in the Lashkar or Cantonment area of Gwalior.
When Nathuram knocked at the doors of the Parchure Wada after midnight, he was met by Parchure's son Neelkanth, who told them to wait while he informed his father of their arrival. Parchure, who had only a few minutes back retired to his sleeping quarters, was a bit annoyed by this unannounced visit at such a late hour. He came down after a few minutes and ushered Nathuram and Apte into the public room. He asked Nathuram the reason for this unannounced visit. In a surprisingly frank manner, which suggested that Nathuram had absolute faith in Parchure, Nathuram told him that they had decided to murder Gandhi and he required Parchure's help in getting a gun for that purpose. Parchure asked the two to stay the night in his house and promised to do something the next morning.
In Bombay, that afternoon, Rana finally reached his destination after travelling through more than half of India. By the time he reached Bombay the three members of the gang had already escaped. Rana went directly to Jimmy Nagarvala's home, and spent a pleasant evening with him over drinks and dinner. He briefed Nagarvala about the investigation but decided to keep Madanlal's statement to himself. After a couple of drinks, the two called Sanjevi in Delhi, assuring him that they were on the job and would keep him informed about any progress in the investigations. Nagarvala then informed Sanjevi about what he thought was the real conspiracy— kidnapping. Nagarvala claimed that there was a core group of twenty persons, each assisted by twenty dedicated volunteers, who were involved, and he would soon expose the entire plot and arrest all the major conspirators. Nagarvala warned Sanjevi to be extra careful about protecting Gandhi.
WEDNESDAY, 28 JANUARY 1948
At Birla House, Gandhi was engrossed in chalking out a blueprint for the future of the Congress. He was giving the finishing touches to a new constitution for the organisation. It was almost as if he was drawing up a testament for the party he had nourished and converted from a debating society of urban intellectuals into an all-encompassing national party.
He had meetings with R.R. Diwakar, Acharya Jugal Kishore and members of the Congress's Constitution Sub-committee. Then followed talks with Rajendra Prasad, Pandit Nehru, and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur. Now that freedom had been won for India, Gandhi wanted the people to turn their attention to constructive activities. In them he saw a rationale and the means for a government to be run well, keeping as its compass, the welfare of the people, and by putting the controls in the hands of constructive workers.
Continuing his interview with Vincent Shean, Gandhi said that the functions of the government could not be carried on without using force; he reiterated his conviction, that a man who wants to be good, and to do good in all circumstances, must not hold power. Is all government to stand still then? Shean wanted to know. Gandhi, always practical in thought and deed, replied, 'No. He, the man of nonviolence, can send persons to the government who represent his purpose and will. If he goes there himself, he exposes himself to the corrupting influence of power. But my representative there holds, as it were, a power of attorney only during my pleasure. If he falls prey to temptation, he can be recalled. But I cannot recall myself! All this req
uires a high degree of intelligence on the part of the electorate. There are organisations of constructive work. I do not want to send their workers to Parliament. These workers I want to stay outside and keep Parliament under check. The constructive workers will do so by educating and guiding the voters.'
Shean, who had read the Bhagvad Gita, asked, 'The whole of it is in defence of a righteous war. The Second World War was fought as a righteous war. Yet, violence is more rampant after it. What do you think?' Gandhi replied, 'See what is happening in India, in Kashmir. Yet, I have faith. If I live long enough, my followers will see the futility of it [employing force], and come round to my way.' He explained that, though the Gita was presented in the physical setting of a battlefield, the righteous war in its text referred to the eternal duel between right and wrong that constantly went on within the human heart. The thesis of the Gita was neither violence, nor non-violence: it advocated right, detached action pursued with right means, leaving the fruits of every action to the care of Almighty God.
The call of duty kept him going, but Gandhi seemed to be troubled by pre-sentiments as well. In a letter to a Gujarati friend, Gandhi said, 'I am still knocking about in a dark world. I do not intend to stay here for long. Whatever has to be decided will be decided within the next four days.'
At his prayer meeting that evening, the conversation steered towards South Africa, where Gandhi's social and political career had begun long decades ago, and where Indians were still fighting for their rights. He said, 'In South Africa, our people are fighting. In India, we have no laws depriving the people of the right of owning land or living wherever they please. That is so in South Africa. Indians there struggle to safeguard their rights and defend the honour of India. Their struggle has taken the form of satyagraha. The Indians are few in number, but if they are true satyagrahis, their victory is certain. I shall ask the government of South Africa not to be too severe with the satyagrahis who carry on their legitimate struggle with such decency. The government should understand their grievances, and come to a settlement with them.'
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