Godse had murdered Gandhi as a political enemy, accusing him of being a traitor to Hindus. But India has changed in innumerable ways since 1948, when his life was snuffed out by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu ideologue with a Beretta pistol. Road” in his honor, and some of the biggest government programs of the 21st century bear his name, too. Nearly every town in India’s countryside has a main street named “M.G. Gandhi is still revered far and wide, his name a byword for a certain kind of virtue and action. And a thousand years later, that light will be seen in this country and the world will see it and it will give solace to innumerable hearts.” In his famous, impromptu elegy, Nehru promised that the light brought by Gandhi would “illumine this country for many more years. “The light has gone out of our lives,” Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India, told the weeping masses by radio on Jan. He died as one of the most celebrated men on earth. Gandhi, by then largely known as the mahatma, or “great soul,” had helped lead India into its independent future less than a year before, with millions of Indian nationalists by his side. Gandhi was shot dead by an assassin while on his way to deliver a regular evening prayer.
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