Nathuram Godse's Statement:

"Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history, and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free-thinking, unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any 'ism', political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined RSS wing of anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus were of equal status as to rights, social and religious, and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession."

"I have read the speeches and writings of Dadabhai Naoroji, Vivekananda, Gokhale, Tilak, Aurobindo, and Gandhi. I studied the tenets of Socialism and Marxism. But above all, I studied very closely whatever Veer Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies were most widely divergent and absolutely antithetical to each other. All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was my first duty to serve the Hindudom and the Hindu people, as a patriot and even as a humanitarian, because I felt sure that this was the only way to serve the country. Since the year 1920, when Gandhiji assumed leadership of the Congress, the topmost Congress leaders gave it an unmistakable turn towards Muslim appeasement."

"Gandhi did not care about the interests of Hindus. Muslims started riots on a large scale. Hindu women, children, and men were killed in riots and the Congress and Gandhi silently stood by, perfectly content to let the Muslims indulge in such acts. The result was that the country was divided. Gandhiji conducted his fasts and supported the Muslims and the Congress leaders bowed down before his pressure, but they had to yield to the demand for the partition of India. India was divided with the consent of Gandhiji and the Congress."

"The accumulating provocation of thirty-two years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last, goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately. On coming to this conclusion, I did not feel that I was committing a sin or a crime but that I was removing an obstacle to the freedom of my country. I fired the shots at Gandhiji on 30th January 1948 on the prayer ground in Delhi. If it was an honest mistake, I would not mind at all if I were to be hanged for it. But I believe I am right in what I did. I am not here to make any excuses or ask for mercy, for what I did was for the good of my country and I am not ashamed of it."

"My heart is full of remorse for having to take this step, but my reason is completely satisfied that Gandhiji was the greatest enemy of the Indian people. I have no doubt that if his policies were allowed to continue, they would result in the ruin of the Indian nation."

"It is for this reason that I felt that if he were removed, the Indian people would be saved from further harm. The people, if not immediately, would understand this in due course of time and will thank me for my action."

"I have acted with the knowledge that what I am doing is right and proper. It is true that the ideals of Gandhi appealed to me for a while, but in due course of time, I realized that those ideals could never materialize in the practical world in which we are living. I have no personal malice toward anyone, I only acted for the benefit of the country and the Hindus in particular."

"I do say that my mind was obsessed with the thought that, if Gandhi was not checked, he would bring destruction and calamity to India. That precisely prompted me to make up my mind to kill Gandhi. I bore no personal animosity towards him. In fact, I am a critic of Gandhi's ideology, but not of his person."

"The question before me was how best to counteract this policy of Gandhi and the Congress. I realized that Gandhi was the founder and sustainer of the Congress ideology and that the Congress would go on following his dictates and continue to pursue this policy of appeasement. I concluded that if Gandhiji was removed from our midst, the Congress policy would also cease and a vigorous national revival would be ushered in. Hence, I decided to kill Gandhiji."