Janurary 30, 1948, was waiting to be burnt into the memory of the generation which was then young or growing up during the freedom movement in India. The assassin who felled Mahatma Gandhi on the evening of that fateful day was re-enacting the Crucifixion with a murderous sophistication. Even if Gandhi could say very little while he was dying within the next few seconds his “Hey Ram” could well have meant as much as Jesus had said while pleading with God to forgive those who were killing him since they knew not what they were doing. During the few months left for him since Indira became free in August 1947, Gandhi was striving desperately to save partitioned India bleeding from the communal fratricide with frantic appeals for the restoration of peace and harmony. His assassin, who was driven by a mindless fury and hate, was personification of the evil which was waging at the time its biblical war against the good to claim Gandhi as its victim. Looking back upon the dreadful event half a century later, one would be inclined to believe that Bernard Shaw’s moving comment on the killing of Gandhi about how dangerous it was to be good still remains true. The endangered species of history ranges from Jesus to Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, John Kennedy and Martin Luther King, to mention just a few. A nation which was shocked and stupefied by the assassination of Gandhi was hoping that the healing touch which he had been trying to provide to the country torn by the communal fury in the wake of Partition would restore sanity. The depressing message from the recurring communal feuds still being witnessed in many parts of the country makes it appear that the country has to remain hoping for a long time yet. It has to be, for saving the country from the communal darkness which is yet to lift for ushering in the secular dawn in quite a few parts of the country. Recollections of how Gandhi became heart-broken not only at the persisting communal frenzy in the subcontinent even after Partition but also at the lust for power and pelf taking hold of the many whom he had inspired and led during the freedom movement are very revealing. They demonstrate how the political cravings held in check during the freedom movement began to assert themselves quickly when there was no demand any longer on courage and sacrifice. One is led to think that the assassination saved Gandhi from the mounting despair and helplessness he had felt over the craze for power and money taking hold of those whom he was hoping to see as trustees for promoting the welfare of the people. He was perhaps the only freedom fighter who had no longing for taking over as a ruler of the free country he had brought into being. If the country has still its Gandhians, their tribe will have to increase very fast to restore faith in ennobling values and effectively arrest the galling departure from the same. There was an encouraging demonstration that this was not a vain hope in.