Assasinated at Prayer Meeting

Chronicle (Levin), 31 January 1948, Page 5

Assasinated at Prayer Meeting

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Tension Runs High

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Received Saturday, 11 a.m. NEW DELHI, January 30. Mr Gandhi is dead. Three shots were fired at him and he was critically injured, his death following almost immediately, • , He was shot by a Hindu assassin as he walked out to open his regv|\ar prayer meeting. The assassin fired three shots from close range, hitting Mr. Gandhi once in the chest apd twice in the body. While women devotees ru§hed tg try and shield Mr. Gandhi in their arms, the police seized the assassin. Mr. Gandhi was hurried into the house of a wealthy Hindu industrialist, Mr. G. D. B.irla, where he diect shortly afterwards at 5.45 p.m. local time. i

A Jlindu physician who was in the prayer meeting crowd pronounced Mr. Gandhi dead and said that one of the bullets had entered his heart. While Mr. Gandhi lay dying, the Prime Minister of India, Pandit Nehru, the DeputyPrime Minister, Mr. Vallaghai Patel, and other Indian Ministers wept at his bedside. Mr. Gandhi died in the lap of his grand-daughter, Ava. He did not speak. The assassin was arrested by the police. He tried to commit suicide by turning his revolver on himseEf, but the shot only grazed his forehead. Ple is: Nathuram Vinayak Gode, aged 36. Only ten days ago a crudely mad'e bomb exploded 15 yards x from Mr. Gandhi as he was addressing a prayer meeting. The B.B.C. correspondent, who was ten yards away from Mr. Gandhi at the time of the assassination, reports that Mr. Gandhi fell back after the shots had been fired and the next thing he saw was a policeman grappling with a heavyset man. As soon as it was realised that Mr. Gandhi was shot a cry of griefvwent up from the crowd. A state of extreme tension exists in New Delhi. Rioting has already brqken opt in Bombay. Police reinforcements have been rushed to the danger aregis, Reuter says that Mr. Gandhi's death has shocked India and is a nafional tragedy. The Governor-General of India, Earl Mountbatten, was first informed of the assassination by a Government House driver, who heard the news on , the radio. All India is mourning Mr. Gandhi's death. The news shccked the whole country wiih atomic force. Story by Eye-Witness An eye-witness told Reuter's New Delhi correspondent: ; "There were about 500 people ; waiting for Mr. Gandhi to be- ■ gip prayers. He walked to the j little wooden platform from i

s, which he speaks, supportmg . j himself with 'his hands on the | shoulders of his grand-daughr ■ | ter. j "A young man, dressed in ! khaki, fired from tfie hip. II iitook place so suddenly that no i one realised what had hap1 pened. ! "Blood showed on Mr, j Gandhi's white cotton dhoti | from the neck to the abdomen. Women devotees collapsed or ' tried to shield Mr. Gandhi in ' their arms. "Members of the crowd overpowered the assailant and held him for several seconds until the police took charge." Born in 1869, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi studied at the University College, London, and was called to the Bar of the Infier Temple. He spent 21 years in South Afrioa and then returned to India, where since 1914 he has been the smrni centre.

Despite the fact that he was icrmed Mahataia Gandhi, he did not come of a priestly caste, bui was a bunia or trader. He has been deseribed as "a synthesis oi saint and revolutionary." At the recent unveiling of a statue of hunself at Karachi he was called "The embodied vuice of 60 years oi India's struggle for freedom." The amazing influence which Mr. Gandhi had over the number of conflicting Sections of over 350,000,000 people in India has no equal in modern and few in ancient history. He held no ofRcial position, yet by the simple but incongruous device of fasting was able to bring about great changes in national policy. The manner in which Mr. Gandhi dominated opinion in Ipdia was shown by the attention he received from the Press of his country. In a straw hut beside a Hindu temple next to the "Banghi colony," in which Delhi's Untouchables live, Mr. Gandhi held court and more Indian newspapers printed lists of his visitors than published the Court Circular from uie Viceroy's House. Mr. Gandhi was opposed to violence and it brought him into disfavour with the terrorists, but this disfavour \yas not shared- by responsible Indian leaders of all sects. From the time Britain announced her intended withdrawal from India, Mr. Gandhi preached npn-violence. He recently fasted ; for 122 hours in an attempt to end the violence, and it was only. broken when he received solemn piedges from the leaders of the several communities that warfare snould cease and the Indians, Hindus, Moslems and Sikhs should live together as brothers. Never before did he emerge so cleariy as1 being the true leader of India.