Final Encounter: The Politics of the Assasination of Gandhi

In this chapter on why Godse killed Gandhi, political psychologist Ashis Nandy argues that "Gandhi tried to 'de-inellectualise Indian politics' through a 'process of de-Brahminisation through de-intellectualisation". Gandhi also gave importance to the 'rediscovery of womanhood'. Gandhi was radical precisely because he claimed to be a traditionalist, a Sanatani Hindu, but who went on to upturn the traditional hierarchies and the centre-periphery relations. The danger that Gandhi posed to the greater Sanskritic tradition was in 'making its cultural periphery [the low caste and untouchables, the peasants and the villagers] its centre'. Therefore, [the upper-caste] group revenged itself on him through Godse." -- Makarand Paranjpe