Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh– A Dignified Dialogue
Disclaimer: Our blog posts are written by different members, leaders, and colleagues of Hindus for Human Rights. As individuals, they do not necessarily endorse all our individual statements and positions, and similarly, we as an organization do not necessarily endorse all their individual statements and positions.
We at Hindus for Human Rights see Gandhi's assassination in 1948 at the hand of the Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse as a tragedy. We are deeply worried by attempts to whitewash Godse and other Hindu nationalist icons in contemporary India. We share this fascinating review of a new film on the reimagination of Gandhi surviving the assassination by Godse, written by HfHR members Swathi and Vijay:
In India where history is being revised and rewritten to suit those in power, Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh (2023) is a much needed offering to the masses to understand the polarizing ideologies that shaped and continue to shape the idea of India. This Rajkumar Santoshi film, based on Asghar Wajahat’s play, imagines an alternative reality wherein Gandhi survives the 1948 assassination attempt by Nathuram Godse. In doing so, the film opens up a gamut of ideological arguments for the viewers. These arguments, ranging from the fundamental ideas of Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) to personal values of love, unfold in front of the audience—exposing the humane sides of both the personalities and nudging us to form our opinion of what’s right and wrong.
Dialogue: Rising above egoistic monologues
The core argument of the movie resides in the principle of dialogue: not necessarily to convince each other, but to understand the background of our subjective truths. This space is elevated by a well-choreographed exchange of extreme ideas between Godse and Gandhi, in the meantime giving the audience a glimpse of these two polar world views. Gandhi is shown as calm, non-violent, and iron-willed, but averse to romantic relationships and women. On the other hand, Godse is portrayed as a bigot, ultra-nationalist, and a violent personality, but also shows traits of honesty and empathy (to the character Sushma’s situation).
The interaction between both these individuals, who think of the nation above themselves–both willing to sacrifice themselves for it–brings forth not just their understanding of India but also their shared identity as Indians. The dialogue exposes similarities as well as differences. For instance, both read the same source material–the Bhagavad Gita–but they interpret it very differently, thereby adopting different ideologies. Gandhi is surprised and lets out a disbelieving laugh when Godse tells him the Gita is his go-to inspiration. Gandhi though makes it a point to distinguish the ‘vadh’ (killing) on the battlefield as not being the same as killing unarmed civilians. In the current context of a nation which is seeing increasing mob violence justified by vague references to religious texts, this nuanced understanding of a basic fact can be a great reflection point to every individual who is being mobilized today.
Battle of ideas: Humanizing two ideologues
The fictional re-imagination of Gandhi surviving the three bullets is probably not as significant as the process the movie takes you through, by keeping both Gandhi and Godse at the center of the narrative. In the current polarized world, the right wing would never hear Gandhi with an open mind, the centrists would never do that with Godse, and the leftists would push back on both. The movie allows all these individuals to not only coexist for the 110 minutes of runtime, but also questions the glorifying or ‘godifying’ of them by constantly questioning both their individual beliefs.
By not taking sides, the fictional piece allows the audience to grow and evolve with the narrative and makes both Godse and Gandhi relatable. In the prison, when Godse passionately discusses “Akhand Bharat” and Islamophobia, Gandhi questions if he has even traveled across the geographic areas Godse has portrayed to be part of Akhand Bharat. By just focusing on boundaries and not people, Hindu nationalism and not secularism, Gandhi tells Godse “tumne Hindustan ko hi nahi, Hindu dharm ko bhi chota kar diya” (you’ve not only belittled India, but also the Hindu religion). On the other hand, Godse is seen questioning Gandhi’s consideration of love as a disorder when it comes to his disciple Sushma’s case. Both seem to have been pushed to think outside their ideological boundaries and correct themselves to some extent.
The beauty lies in humanizing these two individuals who today have become the point of contention in the Indian context, specifically with the young minds of the nation who have not had a wider perspective of the independence movement, unlike their previous privileged generations. While going into the theater, you might go chest thumping about your hero, but while coming out you would have for at least once revisited your inclination.
Holding together the ‘Idea of India’
The movie opens with the horrors of partition and showcases riots where Hindu and Sikh mobs are pursuing Muslims to kill. Men are being slashed with swords, a woman in Hijab is being burnt alive, an infant is crying next to his mother. All of these are apt metaphors of the recent riots and lynchings against Muslims and minorities, demolitions of Muslim homes, setting fire to Muslim women’s pursuit of education through the Hijab ban, and endangering citizenship of Muslims through CAA/NRC. When the current right-wing narrative in India is of Hindus being in danger and the atrocities of Muslims on Hindus, such opening sequences are important to show that riots are evil, not the communities involved. This is iterated by Gandhi to Godse as well where he gives counter-examples of violence carried out by Hindu kings over Buddhists and concludes saying it is not a Hindu-Muslim battle but a common phenomena among various religions.
After Gandhi parts ways with the Congress, through the Gram Swaraj Prayog (village self rule experiments), we see how decentralized governance models worked in the nascent independent India, riddled with casteism and structural inequalities. Gandhi unites the oppressed to fight against the middlemen and government officials. This idea of localized governance and grassroots understanding has been waning in all economic, social and political settings.
When allegations of running a parallel government befall Gandhi, we see him being incarcerated for “desh-droh” (treason)—an analogy for imprisoning the government dissenters in contemporary times. Here we see Gandhi being adamant on staying with Godse in the prison cell to understand him. Through the subsequent conversations between the two we learn the importance of holding room for dialogue even when we have strong diametrically opposite views–a space seen shrinking today.
It is these ideas of secularism, grassroot connection, and acceptance that the movie espouses to associate with India.
Growing with Gandhi Godse
While the movie disproves “WhatsApp University” propaganda against Gandhi, such as his involvement in Partition and payment of 55 crores to Pakistan, and shows inclination to Gandhism, it also gives importance to the journey of both the characters. By doing so it highlights the importance of co-learning and unlearning which we today seem to have forgotten in the haste of proving the other one wrong. If Gandhi is questioned by both Godse and his own ‘ba’ on his exploitation of women throughout his life by imposing his own experiments on them to a point where he not only acknowledges but also corrects it, Godse also sees a deep transformation when he saves Gandhi from being shot at. This significant shift of position by both these individuals reminds us of the growing learning curve we all need to aspire for as Indians.
We consider ourselves fortunate to have watched this movie in today’s India, a day prior to Gandhi’s 75th death anniversary, and would highly recommend watching it wherever you are. We are sure many of you might strongly disagree with our take on the movie, but if Gandhi and Godse can coexist for 110 minutes of screen time, we can definitely make this work too!
