Narayan Dattatraya Apte (1911 – 15 November 1949) was an Indian assassin and recruiting officer for the

Royal Indian Air Force The Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF) was the aerial force of British Raj, British India and later the Dominion of India. Along with the British Indian Army, and the Royal Indian Navy, it was one of the Armed Forces of British Indian Empire. The ...

. He was executed by hanging for planning the assassination of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

Family

Apte was born in a Chitpavan Brahmin family. His father Dattatreya Apte was a Sanskrit scholar and a historian. Narayan had 3 sisters and 4 brothers. As was the norm, his marriage was arranged; to Champa Phadtare, the daughter of an influential family from Pune. The marriage was said to have been a "perfect match" for each other. Champa later had a son with him.

Life

Like the rest of his family, he developed a passion to learn and become a scholar. He graduated from

Bombay University University of Mumbai is a public state university in Mumbai. It is one of the largest university systems in the world with over 549,000 students on its campuses and affiliated colleges. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. It was est ...

in 1932 with a Bachelor’s degree in Science. After three years of unemployment he was taken in as a tutor in Mission High School in Ahmednagar. He aspired to become a master in the field of education. Soon enough, he gave the "Bachelor of Education" degree exam and passed. He started a shooting club in Ahmednagar which eventually gained a lot of publicity and was duplicated in places like

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

. In 1939, he joined the

Hindu Mahasabha Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha (), simply known as Hindu Mahasabha, is a Hindu nationalism, Hindu nationalist political party in India. Founded in 1915 by Madan Mohan Malviya, the Mahasabha functioned mainly as a pressure group advocating th ...

. With the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the then president of the Hindu Mahasabha,

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (28 May 1883 – 26 February 1966 ), was an Indian politician, activist and writer. Savarkar developed the Hindu nationalist political ideology of Hindutva while confined at Ratnagiri in 1922. The prefix "Veer" (mea ...

ordered the party members to help the British in any way possible. Apte shot up the ranks to be a recruiter in the Poona region and a Flight Lieutenant of the

. With the recruitment scene in Poona being very poor, Narayan had a lot of time on his hands. He eventually started working closely with

Nathuram Godse Nathuram Vinayak Godse (19 May 1910 – 15 November 1949) () was an Indian Hindu nationalist and political activist who was the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi. He shot Gandhi in the chest three times at point blank range at a multi-faith praye ...

in the Hindu Mahasabha. At this juncture, Savarkar launched the Hindu Rashtra Dal which was intended to be a radical wing of the Mahasabha. Its aims included disrupting Congress meetings. In 1944, Godse broached the topic of starting a newspaper called "Agranee" encompassing the ideals of the Dal and the Mahasabha. Apte became the manager of this paper and wore his uniform of a recruiter in World War 2. The newspaper seemed to be failing miserably, however, Savarkar managed to keep it alive by constantly sending generous donations. The content was highly rabid and infringed the Bombay Press Act. Just before the government issued orders to close it down, they renamed the paper to the "Hindu Rashtra". The last issue of "Hindu Rashtra" was published on 31 January 1948. On 14 January 1948, he along with Godse took a train from Pune to Mumbai. After three days, they would fly to Delhi to assassinate

. On 20 January, Apte, Badge, and Kistayya drove to Birla House for planning the murder of Gandhi. Godse was suffering from severe headaches thus he stayed back. By 27 January, Apte was no longer the leader of the murder plan. It was decided that Godse would be the one to kill Gandhi. On 30 January, Apte stood at Godse's side until shots were fired at Gandhi by Godse. Apte eluded arrest for two weeks before he was arrested in Mumbai.

Execution

Apte was tried and found guilty of Gandhi's murder in 1949. Apte along with Godse was hanged on 15 November 1949.

Family

Life

Execution

See also

References

Further reading