Nathuram Godse, the man who killed Mahatma Gandhi, was raised by his parents as a girl in his childhood, wore a nose ring and was believed to have oracular powers, writes Manohar Malgaonkar in “The Men Who Killed Gandhi”.
“As a child, Nathuram’s parents and brothers believed that he possessed oracular powers.”
“He would sit before the family goddess, staring fixedly at a spot of soot smeared in the exact centre of a copper tray, and soon fall into a trance,” writes Malgaonkar.
“While in the trance, he would see some figures or writing in the black spot before him, much as a crystal-gazer is supposed to see in his glass ball. Then one or other member of the family would ask him questions, His answers were those believed to be those of the goddess, who spoke through his mouth,” 94-year-old Malgaonkar, an ex-serviceman and a civil servant, writes.
The new edition of the book, first published in 1978, carries hitherto unpublished photographs and documents related to Gandhi’s assassination.
The author says that psychologists may find some explanation for Nathuram’s warped mental processes in the fact that he was brought up as a girl. His left nostril was pierced to take a ‘nath’ or nose ring, Malgaonkar writes.