Gandhi's Legacy: Saint, Politician, or Both?
Assessing Gandhi's complex legacy — his assassination, his failures, and the ongoing debate about nonviolence in an era of new challenges.
Assassination and Its Aftermath
On January 30, 1948 — less than six months after independence — Gandhi was shot dead by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist who blamed Gandhi for being too accommodating toward Muslims and for insisting that India pay Pakistan its share of British India's assets. Gandhi was 78 years old.
The assassination shocked the world but also revealed deep fissures in Indian society. Godse and his supporters believed Gandhi's vision of Hindu-Muslim unity was naive and that his fasts had pressured India into concessions to Pakistan. This strand of Hindu nationalism never disappeared — and its modern descendants continue to have a complex, sometimes hostile relationship with Gandhi's legacy.
