The rise of Hindu nationalism is an affront to Mahatma Gandhi’s pacifist legacy, his great-grandson lamented, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the killing of India’s independence hero.

Gandhi’s assassination occurred on January 30, 1948, during a multi-faith prayer where a fanatic named Nathuram Godse shot and killed him, accusing him of being too conciliatory with the Muslim minority.

The killer was executed the following year and remains widely reviled in India, but writer and activist Tushar Gandhi, one of the most famous descendants of the peace icon, saw Godse’s views gaining traction.

“This philosophy has now captured India and the hearts of the Indian people, an ideology of hatred, an ideology of polarization, an ideology of division,” he told AFP at his Mumbai home.

For supporters of this doctrine, “it is only natural that Godse would be their ideal patriot, their idol”, he added.

Tushar Gandhi, 63, attributed the turnaround to the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

He said Modi and his government, in power since 2014, were challenging secular multicultural traditions protected by his family, especially his illustrious ancestors.

Modi’s success “was built on hatred, we have to accept that,” said Tushar, saying the prime minister “knows that what he is doing is lighting a fire that will one day consume all of India.”

Gandhi’s killer is now revered by many Hindu nationalists who campaigned for his act to be reclassified.

A temple in his honor was built near the capital New Delhi in 2015, a year after Narendra Modi was elected. His devotees even campaigned for a city to bear his name.

Godse is a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an active far-right Hindu formation whose members carry out military maneuvers and participate in prayer groups.

Separated from Godse long ago, RSS remained a strong party in the early days of the BJP, which was formed decades ago to bring Hindu interests to the forefront of politics.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modi regularly paid tribute to Gandhi and was unsuccessfully involved in the campaign to rehabilitate the killer of the independence hero.

– “Continue to struggle” –

As for Tushar, he continues to steadfastly defend his heritage, which was built on “honesty, equality, unity and inclusion”.

He notably has authored two books on Gandhi and his wife Kasturba, regularly recalls the importance of democracy at public events and filed legal motions in the Supreme Court to defend his country’s secular institutions.

In his house, a postcolonial-era apartment in a quiet area of ​​Bombay, there are many portraits and busts of his great-grandfather.

There sat a small spinning wheel, a pedal-powered spinning wheel that symbolized the autonomy that Gandhi embodied and defended.

Faced with no plausible opponent, his descendant resigned to see Narendra Modi re-register for a new term, after elections scheduled for next year.

“The crimes are so deep and they are so successful that I have not seen my ideology triumph in India for a long time,” said Tushar.

“But it gave me the determination to keep fighting.”