Gopal-rao Godse was born in Khed in Pune district. He was the third among the four sons of Vinayak Godse and Lakshmi who survived infancy. Nathuram was his eldest living brother. His primary education began at Karjat in Raigad District, and continued at Ratnagiri. After his father retired, his family settled at Sangli, and he passed the matriculation exam. He worked as a volunteer for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Simultaneously, he worked for the Hindu Mahasabha as well, but without enrolling as a member. He joined the Armed Forces as a storekeeper in 1940. When the World War II broke out, he opted for service on the front, and served in Iraq and Iran till year April 1944. After he returned, he was posted at Khadki and married Sindhu. They had two daughters, Vidyullata and Asilata.
Godse's brother, Nathuram, shot Mahatma Gandhi on 30 January 1948. Gopal helped to plot the assassination and was reportedly present, although he froze and was unable to fire his own gun. Gopal was arrested on 5 February from his house in Pune and was sentenced to 18 years for his part in the assassination. Nathuram was executed by hanging alongside another co-conspirator, Narayan Apte, on 15 November 1949. The three men believed that Gandhi had turned his back on the Indian independence movement, and that his actions led to the Partition of India which in turn led to the inflammation of sectarian strife between Pakistan's Muslims and India's Hindus. In an interview with Rediff.com in 1998, Gopal reiterated that he never regretted Gandhi's killing. He hated what he called Gandhi's "appeasement" of Muslims. According to Godse, what triggered the assassination was a bomb explosion on 20 January 1948 at Gandhi's prayer meeting in Delhi, just 50 meters away from Gandhi. The failed explosion, for which Madan Lal Pahwa was caught, heightened the urgency - the Godse brothers wanted to finish it before the police caught them. Godse claimed that Gandhi never really said "Hey Ram" as he was dying and this was just a ploy of the government to prove that he was, indeed, a staunch Hindu who deserved to be elevated to sainthood. In an interview with Time, he said, "Someone asked me whether Gandhi said "Hey Ram". I said Kingsley did say it. But Gandhi did not. Because that was not a drama." He admitted that at one point, Gandhi was his idol. He credited Gandhi for the mass awakening that he created and that he removed the fear of prison from the minds of Indians. 's murder case. Standing: Shankar Kistaiya, Gopal Godse, Madanlal Pahwa, Digambar Badge. Sitting: Narayan Apte, Vinayak D. Savarkar, Nathuram Godse, Vishnu Karkare
After Gopal was arrested in 1948 for his role in the assassination of Gandhi, Sindhu-tai Godse supported their daughters by working in Gopal's elder brother Dattatraya's workshop, called 'Udyam Engineering'. Later she set up a separate home in Pune and also started a small workshop of her own named 'Pratap Engineering'. Godse was released from prison in October 1964, but was re-arrested a month later under the Defense of India Act and kept in prison for over a year. He was finally released at the end of 1965. Afterwards, he lived largely on the royalties obtained from books he wrote on Mahatma Gandhi and the assassination. He wrote nine books in Marathi and English. Gopal and Sindhutai Godse lived in an apartment in Sadashiv Peth, Pune. He died there on 26 November 2005. Sindhutai Godse died in 2007. At the time of Godse's death in 2005, his daughter Himani Savarkar led a Hindu outfit from Pune. Godse and Savarkar's family continued to be close. Godse's daughter Asilata subsequently married Ashok Savarkar, the son of Savarkar’s younger brother Narayan. The families continue to be close to the Hindu Mahasabha, and Gopal Godse remained its general secretary for a many years after his release from prison.
