CBC Digital Archives

India: The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi

India is the world's largest democracy and its second most populous, but for decades its image was mainly that of a poor nation with a rich history. Shaken by periodic religious strife and still largely a rural and agricultural country, India has nevertheless emerged in the new millennium as an increasingly important global player. From its colonial origins to the bright lights of Bollywood, CBC Digital Archives presents a collection of clips about India past and present.

His was a life sworn to non-violence, but Mohandas Gandhi's death was the opposite: he was shot to death on his way to daily prayers. Gandhi became a world-renowned figure for his unwavering efforts to achieve India's independence from its colonial master, Great Britain. In this news report from CBC Radio, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee pays tribute to Gandhi and a BBC reporter gives an eyewitness account of Gandhi's last moments. Gandhi's voice is heard in a rebroadcast of a 1947 speech on the atomic bomb, and CBC correspondent Matthew Halton says the assassination may set India on fire. 
• Mohandas K. Gandhi was born in the Indian province of Gujarat in 1869. After studying in London and working as a lawyer in South Africa, where his political activism began, he began advocating for Indian nationalism in the early 1920s. By 1948, the year of his death, his dream of an independent India had been achieved, though he was disappointed by the religious division represented by the concurrent creation of Pakistan.
Medium: Radio
Program: CBC News Roundup
Broadcast Date: Jan. 30, 1948
Guest(s): Clement Attlee, Mohandas Gandhi
Reporter: Matthew Halton
Duration: 9:32

Last updated: March 29, 2012

Page consulted on December 5, 2012

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