January 30, 1948: Mohandas K. Gandhi, whose use of nonviolent resistance to British rule helped to establish the independence of India just 5 months earlier, is assassinated in the national capital of New Dehli. He was 78 years old.
Gandhi was with his grandnieces in the garden of Birla House, the home of a friend, Ghanshyam Birla, a prominent Indian businessman. At 5:17 PM, Gandhi left with his grandnieces, on the way to address a prayer meeting, when Nathuram Godse, a 37-year-old writer, fired three bullets into his chest from a pistol at close range.
Nathuram Godse
According to some accounts, Gandhi died instantly. In other accounts, such as one prepared by an eyewitness journalist, Gandhi was carried into the Birla House, into a bedroom. There he died, about 30 minutes later as one of Gandhi's family members read verses from Hindu scriptures.
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru addressed his countrymen over All-India Radio:
Friends and comrades, 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.
Perhaps I am wrong to say that. Nevertheless, we will not see him again, as we have seen him for these many years. We will not run to him for advice or seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only for me, but for millions and millions in this country.
Godse, a Hindu nationalist with links to the right-wing extremist group Hindu Mahasabha, made no attempt to escape. Several other conspirators were soon arrested as well. They were tried in court at Delhi's Red Fort. At his trial, Godse did not deny the charges, nor express any remorse.
According to Claude Markovits, a French historian noted for his studies of colonial India, Godse stated that he killed Gandhi because of his complacence towards Muslims, holding Gandhi responsible for the frenzy of violence and sufferings during the subcontinent's partition into Pakistan and India. Godse accused Gandhi of subjectivism, and of acting as if only he had a monopoly of the truth. Godse was found guilty and, despite pleas from 2 of Gandhi's sons for commutation of his sentence to life, was executed by hanging at the Ambala Central Jail in Punjab on November 15, 1949.
Gandhi's death was mourned nationwide. Over 1 million people joined the 5-mile-long funeral procession that took over 5 hours to reach Raj Ghat from Birla house, where he was assassinated, and another 1 million watched the procession pass by. Gandhi's body was transported on a weapons carrier, whose chassis was dismantled overnight to allow a high-floor to be installed so that people could catch a glimpse of his body. The engine of the vehicle was not used; instead, 4 drag-ropes held by 50 people each pulled the vehicle.
All Indian-owned establishments in London remained closed in mourning as thousands of people from all faiths and denominations and Indians from all over Britain converged at India House in London.
Gandhi's assassination dramatically changed the political landscape. According to Markovits, while Gandhi was alive, Pakistan's declaration that it was a "Muslim state" had led Indian groups to demand that India be declared a "Hindu state." Nehru used Gandhi's martyrdom as a political weapon to silence all advocates of Hindu nationalism as well as his political challengers. He linked Gandhi's assassination to politics of hatred and ill-will.
Nehru used the assassination to consolidate the authority of the new Indian state. Gandhi's death helped marshal support for the new government and legitimize the Congress Party's control, leveraged by the massive outpouring of Hindu expressions of grief for a man who had inspired them for decades.
In 1971, the Indian government bought Birla House, renamed it Gandhi Smriti, and made it a museum dedicated to his memory.
Temple to Gandhi's memory, at Gandhi Smirti,
showing his footsteps to the spot of his assassination.
Despite his nickname "The Mahatma" (meaning "Great Soul") also being given to the great baseball executive Branch Rickey (and I have no idea what he, a devout Methodist, thought of that), as far as I know, he had nothing to do with sports.
But in 1983, an article titled "Gandhi at the Bat" was printed in The New Yorker, taking place in 1933, 50 years earlier, a completely fictional story that featured him meeting Babe Ruth and "playing for the Yankees."
Gandhi and Nehru, friends, were the founding fathers of the modern Indian nation, which, despite its oppression by the British, came to love the British sports of cricket and field hockey, and now finally seems to be absorbing soccer as well.
Gandhi's wife, Kasturba, had died in 1944. They had 4 sons, and no daughters. Harilal, a lawyer like his father, died less than 5 months after him, from tuberculosis, just 59 years old. Manilal, a journalist, died of a stroke in 1956, at 63. Ramdas was the most involved of Gandhi's sons in the nation's freedom struggle, and, upon his request, Ramdas lit the funeral pyre. He lived until 1969, at 72. Devdas, also a journalist, died in 1957, at 57. The Mahatma's family continues, with Harilal having fathered 5 children, Manilal 3, Ramdas 3 and Devdas 4.
In 1982, Richard Attenborough's film Gandhi was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning 8, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Ben Kingsley, the son of a Yorkshire mother and a Gujarati father. Both Attenborough and Kingsley were knighted.
Nehru's daughter, Indira, married a Member of Parliament, Feroze Gandhi. He was not related to the Mahatma: He had changed the spelling of his surname, Ghandy, in tribute. Indira Gandhi would become Prime Minister of India, as would her son Rajiv Gandhi. Both were, like Mohandas Gandhi, assassinated.
The comedy team of Key & Peele starred in a 2013 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, with Keegan-Michael Key playing Gandhi, and Jordan Peele playing Gandhi's most famous follower, Martin Luther King Jr. One would think they wouldn't have been rivals, but, as Gandhi, Key started with, "You want to battle wits? So who's the better pacifist? I fought the caste system, but you still cannot touch this!" And, as King, Peele said, "I admire the way you broke the British power, but I have a dream that, one day, you'll take a shower!"
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January 30, 1948 was a Friday. Aviation pioneer Orville Wright died on the same day, albeit of natural causes, at age 76, in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio. His brother, Wilbur Wright, had died in 1912, only 45, from typhoid fever.
Baseball and football were out of season. And there were no NHL games scheduled for that day. But there were 2 games played in the Basketball Association of America, the league that would become the NBA a year and a half later:
* The Providence Steamrollers beat the Boston Celtics, 79-69 at the Boston Garden. The Steamrollers played 1 more season and folded. The Celtics survive to this day.
* And in another regional rivalry that didn't last, the Baltimore Bullets beat the Washington Capitols, 95-71 at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore. This version of the Bullets went out of business in 1954, and is not connected to the franchise now known as the Washington Wizards, who were the Baltimore Bullets from 1963 to 1973. These Bullets normally played at the Baltimore Coliseum, but used the Armory on this occasion. Built in 1901 and still standing, it hosted the 1912 Democratic National Convention that nominated Woodrow Wilson for President.
The Capitols went out of business in 1951, and while the American Basketball Association would have a Washington Capitols in the 1970-71 season, the District of Columbia didn't get another NBA team until 1973, when the Bullets moved down Interstate 95.
