Images from Mahatma Gandhi Memorial

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or Mahatma Gandhi, as he was fondly known by people the world over, is revered as the Father of the Nation in India. The soul that demonstrated to the world at large that the greatest of the powers at that time could be moved to veer round to your point of view through means of sheer non-violence was dealt a violent blow during a scheduled prayer meeting at Birla House in New Delhi. The assassin fired at Gandhi in quick succession three shots at point blank range. We have brought you images of the place  where Mahatma Gandhi attained martyrdom on Friday, the 30th January 1948. A memorial stone has been erected at the exact location where Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead. We have also brought images of the personal articles used by Mahatma Gandhi during his lifetime. 

Here is an eyewitness account of the fateful evening of January 30, 1948, a passage from The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi:

As Gandhiji passed along the cordoned lane through the prayer congregation, he took his hands off the shoulders of the two girls (Abha and Manu), to acknowledge the namaskars of the prayer congregation. All of a sudden someone from the crowd roughly elbowed his way towards them. Manu Gandhi, thinking that he was coming forward to touch Gandhiji's feet, remonstrated saying something about it being already late for the prayer and tried to stop the intruder by thrusting back his hand. He violently pushed her back, causing the notebook, the spittoon, and the mala, which she was carrying in her hands, to fall down. As she stooped down to pick up the scattered things, he planted himself in front of Gandhiji and fired in quick succession three shots at point blank range.The last words Gandhiji uttered were "Hey Ram". A spreading crimson spot appeared on the white clothes, the hands which had been raised in namaskar to the gathering slowly came down. The limp body softly sank to ground. Gandhiji breathed his last at 5.17 p.m. 

Birla House, where the assassination took place, is now known as Gandhi Smriti and is a museum dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi. It is situated on Tees January Marg in New Delhi, India. It is the location where Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life before his assassination on January 30, 1948. The place now houses the Eternal Gandhi Multimedia Museum established in 2005.

Feroz Shah Kotla

Feroz Shah Kotla was the core of the city of Ferozabad, established in 1354 as an imperial capital by the Sultan Feroz Shah Tughlaq. Ferozabad, one of the seven cities founded by various rulers at different times in the history of Delhi, was an extensive city. According to the historian Shams Siraj Afif, who lived during Feroz Shah's reign, the buildings of the city stretched in the north as far as the palace or hunting lodge constructed by Feroz Shah on the Northern Ridge (known today as Pir Ghaib). To the south the city extended to site now marked by the Purana Qila or Old Fort. It also grew to be quite populous, and might have contained a population of some 150,000.

The earlier sites of substantial settlement in Delhi had been further south - Lal Kot/ Qila Rai Pithora (now the area around the Qutub Minar), Siri a little to its north-east, and Tughlaqabad in the hills to the south-east. Ferozabad was not only much further north than these three early settlements, it was also the first of the capitals  to be built on the bank of the river Yamuna.

Feroz Shah Kotla was the grand and opulent royal citadel of the city. Visitors such as the invader Timur, as well as contemporary chroniclers have left behind glowing descriptions of its buildings. None of the costly stones and gilded and painted features described by them exists today. Apart from the vagaries of time, mankind  itself has also been responsible for this ruin. In later centuries, building materials were plundered from here for construction work for the cities to the south (Din Panah and Shergarh) and to the north (Shahjahanabad). Ironically, material for the construction of Ferozabad itslef had come from the older cities of Siri, Jahanpanah, and Lal Kot.