Biography | Mahatma Gandhi — The Prayer Lawn at Birla House, 5.17 p.m.

People look for the last chapter at Raj Ghat.

The shots were fired in this garden.

Ghanshyamdas Birla built the twelve-bedroom house in 1928, on what was then Albuquerque Road. Gandhi moved into a ground-floor suite on 9 September 1947, after leaving Calcutta, and stayed 144 days.

Each evening he walked from the rooms to a raised lawn behind the house for a multi-faith prayer meeting.

On 30 January 1948 he left his room a little after five, walking with his hands on the shoulders of Abha Gandhi and Manu Gandhi. On the lawn, Nathuram Godse stepped out of the crowd and fired three shots at close range into his chest and abdomen.

Official memorial timing puts the moment at 5.17 p.m. The first information report at Tughlak Road police station recorded the occurrence later that afternoon.

The house is now Gandhi Smriti, at 5 Tees January Marg. Concrete footprints mark the last walk from the room to the lawn. A column stands on the spot of the shooting.

The cremation ground at Raj Ghat is a separate pin. This one is the garden.

Photo: Whispyhistory, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons