The Last Hours of Mahatma Gandhi
By Stephen Murphy
PUNCTUALLY at 3.30am on Friday, January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi awoke to greet the last morning he would ever see.
He was in the tense atmosphere of Delhi, staying in a ground-floor guest room of Birla house, the mansion of industrialist and benefactor G. D. Birla located in Albuquerque Road. Gandhi had arrived in the strife-torn capital of newly independent India on September 9, 1947 from Calcutta, where he had performed a miracle of peace-making. By January 30, almost four months had passed since his 78th, and last, birthday. It was 12 days since the successful end of his fast to bring about a reunion of hearts in Delhi. But 10 days before, there had been an aborted attempt on his life during the evening prayer meeting at Birla House. With the situation in Delhi having stabilised, Gandhi was again looking to the future, but his life was in grave danger - and he knew it.
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