Daily Almanac-January 30, 2010
On January 30, 1948 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was shot and killed while on a nightly public walk in New Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist enraged that the Mahatma had promoted communal peace between India and Muslim Pakistan by fasting until the Indian government made a 550 million rupee payment to Pakistan and paid reparations to Indian Muslims whose homes had been destroyed in the civil unrest following Independence and Partition. It was the last great non-violent protest of Gandhi’s long life. His friend, disciple and Indian Congress leader Jawwharlal Nehru broke the news to the nation in a radio address, “…the light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you or how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation, is no more.”