It was an idea that had its most tragic consequence when Nathuram Godse, a Hindutva ideologue and former RSS activist, assassinated Gandhi in 1948, shooting him in the chest on his way to an evening prayer meeting. Nehru outlawed the organization, claiming “these people had the blood of Mahatma Gandhi on their hands,” one of three occasions on which the group has been banned since Independence.12 But a year later it was allowed to re-form.
