We had a great holiday in Himachal Pradesh last summer. Vaishali and myself visited Dalhousie, Dharamshala, Manali, Spiti Valley and ended with Kalpa in Kinnaur district. In Kalpa our hotel had a large verandah where guests invariably spent their evenings talking to one another. On day two we met an interesting Israeli couple. When you meet an Israeli the discussion invariably veers to the Israel - Palestine issue. Vaishali and the Israeli guy were for Ahimsa - peace, be good to the Palestinians and they will let you live in peace. On the other hand the Israeli women and me were of the view that we abhor violence but will not hold ourselves back if the other side is out to kill us.

Three hours of arguments got us nowhere. The discussion then, moved to India, the Hindu Muslim problem. The Israeli said, Vaishali you people claim to be the land of Ahimsa, then how is it that, the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, was murdered. He added, 'We would understand if he were killed by a Muslim but he was killed by a fellow Hindu'. Could you tell us why was he killed? We were stumped! I had the answers but did not know from where to start.

Here it is for you. The article has five chapters. One talks of the Law of Causation in Vedanta, two contains excerpts from the book 'May it Please Your Honor' by Nathuram Godse, three tells you about Gandhi's turnaround on the issue of partition between 1940-47 and why did he select Nehru as his successor, four has Sri Aurobindo's views on Gandhi / Ahimsa and five leaves you with food for thought - relates the past to the present.

The books referred to are Vedanta Treatise by Swami Parthasarthy, The History and Culture of the Indian People published by the Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan (this is the basic reference book), Sardar by Shri Rajmohan Gandhi, The Tragic Story of Partition by Shri Seshadari, Veer Savarkar by Shri D Keer and May it Please your Honor by Shri Nathuram Godse.

This article is dedicated to the Israeli couple who inspired me to put this piece together, Sardar Patel who united India as none other could have, Pandit Nehru for setting up the Indian Institutes of Technology, Indira Gandhi for her role in the liberation of Bangladesh, Rajiv Gandhi for initiating the telecom revolution in India with the assistance / guidance of Shri Sam Pitroda, Shri L K Advani for redefining the way Hindus see themselves and lastly to the Indian Scientists for giving us Pokaran I and II - India's nuclear bombs.

At the outset let me state two things. One, that violence is not a solution to the world's problems. However, when we look at the world around us, now or before there is so much of it everywhere. If I have to survive keep gun dry is my motto. Two, I have been very honest in expressing reasons for Gandhi's death. In today's charged atmosphere some of you might wonder whether it is the right thing to do. To my mind hiding the truth only compounds problems.

Friends it is my belief that we must understand the reasons for events, for people behaving the way they do rather than run away from reality under the pretext of maintaining superficial harmony. Sooner or later the anger is bound to result in brutal action, the more one tends to suppress the greater the impact of subsequent action. If we do not explain to people the reasons for an event of this magnitude they would stand confused - be victims of misinformation and be unable to understand the present or empathize with feelings / behavior of others. It is not my nature to dismiss the actions of people without trying to understand why they have done what they have done. If we dismiss people's actions without two-way communication it hardens attitudes and alienates them further.

Friends sorry for a long article but you might agree that finding answers to a complex topic needs lot of research and explanation to help you know the Truth. Also there are two versions on the site. One is the full article and two an abridged version. This is the complete article.

The article has the following chapters.

1. Law of Causation contains the laws of destiny and karma as enunciated by Swami Parthasarthy in his book Vedanta Treatise. Next I have explained these laws in the context of Gandhi's killing.
2. Defence against charge sheet contains excerpts from Godse's book May it Please your Honor.

1. Introduction gives you the backgrounds of the 9 accused in the Gandhi murder case.
2. 2.1 is Answer to Charge sheet.
3. 2.2 is Gandhi's Politics x-rayed.
4. 2.3 is a continuation of 2.2.
5. 2.4 is Gandhiji and independence.
6. 2.5 is Frustration of an Ideal.
7. 2.6 is Climax of Anti-National Appeasement.

3. Turnaround tells you about Gandhi's attitude towards the Khilafat Movement, Moplah Rebellion, murder of Arya Samaj leader Swami Shraddhananda, Partition, World War II, and Subhash Bose. Next it gives you reasons Why Gandhi chose Nehru in preference to Patel, as his successor / Prime Minister.
4. The chapter gives you Sri Aurobindo's views on Gandhi / Ahimsa. It contains excerpts from a book India's Rebirth by Sri Aurobindo.
5. Food for Thought is a brief summary of the above along with a correlation to current events. It also raises some questions with suggested solutions.