A few people know the animosity of the Hindutva fanatics towards Gandhi, which was evident in the attempts on his life before Nathuram Godse’s final attempt. (Chunibhai Vaidya, a leading Gandhian from Gujarat, talked about a total of six attempts. Apart from the details of various attempts mentioned below, he talks about an attempt on his life in September 1946 too.) In fact, the attack in Panchgani was not the first time that they had tried to kill him.*************************************************** The first one had happened in Pune (June 25, 1934) when Mahatma Gandhi was going to the Corporation Auditorium to deliver a speech. Kasturba Gandhi, his wife, was also accompanying him. Incidentally, the car in which the Gandhis were travelling developed some snag and was delayed, whereas the other car which was in their motorcade reached the venue on time, when a bomb was thrown at the car. The explosion caused injuries to some policemen and ordinary people.********************************************* On closer scrutiny, one finds that the attack in Panchagani was the second attempt on Gandhi’s life.*********************************************** The third attempt happened when Gandhi’s talks with Jinnah started in September 1944. When Gandhi was leaving for Mumbai from Sevagram Ashram, a group of fanatic Hindu youth led by Nathuram Godse tried to stop him. Their contention was that Gandhi should not travel to Mumbai to hold talks with Jinnah. Nathuram was again found in possession of a dagger.**************************************************** The fourth attempt on Gandhi’s life (January 20, 1948) involved roughly the same group, namely, Madanlal Pahwa, Shankar Kistaiya, Digambar Badge, Vishnu Karkare, Gopal Godse, Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte. The plan was to attack Mahatma Gandhi and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. In this failed attempt, Madanlal Pahwa placed a cotton ball enclosing a bomb on the wall behind the podium in Birla Bhavan, where Gandhi was staying. The bomb went off without creating any panic, although Madanlal Pahwa was caught. Other members of the group, who were assigned to shoot Gandhi in the ensuing melee, developed cold feet and did not act.***************************************************************************** And the last one happened on January 30 at 5:17 pm when Nathuram Godse approached him and shot him three times in his chest at point-blank range. All those involved in the crime were arrested and tried in a court which attracted a lot of media attention. Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte were sentenced to death by the courts and others were awarded life imprisonment. As far as Savarkar was concerned, he was acquitted and set free due to lack of evidence.