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First attempt to kill Gandhi took place 85 years ago... in Pune

Hindustan Times, Pune | By
Oct 02, 2019 04:23 PM IST

It’s been 85 years since the first attempt to assassinate Gandhi at the spot close to where the Pune Municipal Corporation building is located today at Shivajinagar.

Although, Mahatma Gandhi’s Pune connection is well known- right from his close interactions with his political mentor, Gopal Krishna Gokahle, the Poona Pact that he signed with BR Ambedkar in Yerawada Central Jail or the life-saving surgery he underwent in January 1924 at the government-run Sassoon Hospital, little is known about the first failed murderous attack on him.

The day was June 25, 1934 and Gandhi and Kasturba were on their way to the Pune Municipal Council auditorium where he was to deliver a speech before Congressmen. (In pic) Mahatma Gandhi rests during a train ride to South India.(NITIN SHASTRI/HT PHOTO)
The day was June 25, 1934 and Gandhi and Kasturba were on their way to the Pune Municipal Council auditorium where he was to deliver a speech before Congressmen. (In pic) Mahatma Gandhi rests during a train ride to South India.(NITIN SHASTRI/HT PHOTO)

It’s been 85 years since the first attempt to assassinate Gandhi at the spot close to where the Pune Municipal Corporation building is located today at Shivajinagar.

Gandhi along with wife Kasturba was on a Pune tour as part of his Harijan Yatra. The day was June 25, 1934 and Gandhi and Kasturba were on their way to the Pune Municipal Council auditorium where he was to deliver a speech before Congressmen.

Two similar looking cars were proceeding to the venue and Gandhi was in the second car. The bomb was hurled at the first car which injured the chief officer of the municipal council and two others, while Gandhi escaped unhurt.

In his autobiography ‘Pathik’ late Congressman Kakasaheb Gadgil says: “At the entry of the car, the bomb meant to be dropped on Gandhi’s car was mistakenly hurled at another vehicle. The two policemen and occupants were injured. Mercifully, Gandhi was a bit late (to the hall).”

The meeting went on as scheduled and Gandhi’s brief speech did not make any references about the attack or the attacker. By evening, when Gandhi was returning to Bombay, he asked Gadgil to convey others that he had forgiven the attacker. “If they find the assailants, tell them, I have forgiven.”

Gandhi’s biographer Louis Fischer, says in his book, ‘Mahatma Gandhi – His Life and Times’ that after the attack, Gandhi fasted for seven days as penance for the injuries sustained by many in the attack.

The police record suggests that no formal FIR was lodged and there were also no investigations.

The Pune district administration does not have much to share on this.

Gandhi moved on, just as the rest of Pune did and 14 years later, on January 30, 1948, Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, an orthodox youth from Pune, who was later convicted and sentenced to death on November 8, 1949.

It was the same Pune that had given Gandhi his political guru, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, president of Servants of India Society. Ironically, Pune not only contributed to shaping Mahatma’s thoughts but it also produced attackers who wanted to kill him, and succeeded eventually.

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