Who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 1948?

Nathuram Godse assassinated Mahatma Gandhi on 30 January 1948.

Godse was a Hindu nationalist activist and the editor of the Marathi newspaper Agrani, later renamed Hindu Rashtra. He opposed Gandhi’s efforts to promote Hindu-Muslim reconciliation and objected to aspects of Gandhi’s role in post-Partition politics.

Godse shot Gandhi during the leader’s walk to a prayer meeting at Birla House in New Delhi. He was arrested immediately, tried, and sentenced to death. Godse and Narayan Apte were executed in 1949 after their convictions were upheld.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was also tried in the wider assassination case but was acquitted for lack of legally sufficient evidence. This distinction matters: Savarkar was a prominent ideological influence in Hindu nationalist politics, but Godse was the person who fired the fatal shots.