Nine Hours to Rama

NINE HOURSTO RAMASTANLEY WOLPERT THE BOOKNINE HOURS TO RAMA is a suspense-charged story dramatically focused on the assassination of a great man…The death of Mahatma Gandhi sent a horrified shock throughout the entire world. Perhaps not since the dawn of the Christian era has such a saintly life been so brutally destroyed.How was it possible for a nation’s ‘‘beloved Father” to have been murdered in his own garden? Why should anyone have wanted to kill the modern world’s foremost apostle of non-violence? And why should the deed have been done by one of his own countrymen, and a fellow Hindu at that?The day is January 30, 1948. India is divided and split by strife and religious bitterness. Because Gandhi preaches Brotherhood at an hour when rape, robbery and arson have inflamed passions on both sides of the already partitioned country, he is hated and feared. To the minds of the Society of Nation Saviours, there is only one answer: he must die. Naturam Godse is chosen by lot to be the instrument of fate and it is he who dominates the nine hours of corroding suspense which must elapse before he can carry out his orders. We see him urging his vacillating and jittery companion, Vishnu Apte, to the required pitch of resolution; we see him bound up in his passionate and doomed adoration for the beautiful Rani; we relive his past experiences, including humiliation at the hand of a British officer and gradual involvement in the nationalism that led to his final, tragic act. Above all, we endure his agonizing tenseness as time ticks slowly by and the hour of darkness approaches.Although Natu is the dominating character, there are others of equal fascination: Gopal Das, the upright, incorruptible superintendent of police, convinced that a national disaster is about to occur but unable to convince either his superiors or the intended victim; P. K., the backsliding government minister, intent only on insuring his own future; Guruji, the sinister evil-genius behind the Society; and Gandhi himself, known affectionately to his friends as Bapu and considered by his enemies a traitor to his religion and his country, serene and undisturbed by the rumours of his death. And affording an endlessly changing and interweaving pattern of colour, there is the background of India —the dust, the heat and the ever-present shadow of destruction.This is a terrifying, yet inspiring novel. As the nine fateful hours pass and the brutal, ruthless moment of cataclysm draws nearer, the reader cannot help but associate himself with each character in turn. He knows that the end will be, but it is still a profound and searing shock when these tragically ironic events reach their historic climax. To the memory of Nathan and Frances Wolpert gentlest of souls Natu, Apte and Gandhi are the actual names of the people involved, but all the other characters are fictional and are not intended to represent real individuals, either living or dead. WHY THE BOOK WAS BANNED BY CONGRESSThe book and the film are identified for being banned in Nehruvian India. They were banned individually and not simultaneously. The novel, written by a historian Stanley Wolpert, practised Mahatma Gandhi’s murder as the central plot.Barring Gandhi, his killer Nathuram Godse and Godse’s accomplice Apte, all different character names were fictitious. It tried to imagine circumstances of Godse’s life from the beginning that believably pushed him towards such a violent act. It also showed probable neglect by the Indian government in saving the Mahatma.The Indian government halted the book months after it was published in London. Moreover, clarification on the next day said the book ban also implied ‘possession, purchase, and sales of copies of the book already imported under a ban.’As per the report, ‘official sources were © Copyright, 1962, by Stanley Wolpert.All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in New York by Random House, Inc., and simultaneously in Toronto, Canada, by Random House of Canada, Limited. Manufactured in the United States of America.Republished by Vibhatsu, 2023.Original Cover recreated by Cadzbuddy. CoverTitle PageThe BookDedicationDisclaimerWhy The Book Was Banned by CongressCopyrightStart1234567891011121314151617181920The Author NINE HOURSTO RAMA 1Natu woke with a chill. Instinctively his hand reached out for the cover he had kicked aside. His searching fingers touched the dank concrete of the floor beside him. Then came the piercing wail of a train from the tracks outside, and he remembered. He sat up swiftly, folded back the mattress pad, and probed blindly with both hands over the freshly exposed patch of concrete. Though he shivered, for an instant sweat covered