NEW DELHI, JANUARY 30, 1948—Mohandas K. Gandhi was 【A21】______ today by a Hindu extremist whose act plunged India into【A22】______ and fear.
Rioting broke out immediately in Bombay.
The seventy-eight-year-old leader whose people had christened him the Great Soul of India died at 3:45 P.M. (1:15 A M. EST) with his head cradled in the【A23】______ of his sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Mani.
Just half an hour before, a Hindu fanatic, Ram Naturam, had pumped three bullets from a revolver【A24】______ Gandhi’s frail body, emaciated by years of fasting and asceticism.
Gandhi was shot in the luxurious gardens of Birla House in the【A25】______ of one thousand of his followers, whom he was leading to the little summer pagoda where it was his habit【A26】______ make his evening devotions.
Dressed as always in his homespun, sacklike dhoti, and【A27】______ heavily on a staff of stout wood, Gandhi was only a feet from the 【A28】______ when the shots were fired.
Gandhi crumpled instantly, 【A29】______ his hand to his forehead in the Hindu gesture of【A30】______ to his assassin.
Three bullets penetrated his body at close range, one in the upper right thigh, one in the abdomen, and 【A31】______ in the chest.
The shots【A32】______ like a string of firecrackers and it was a moment【A33】______ Gandhi’s devotees realized what had happened. Then they 【A34】______ on the assassin savagely and would have torn him to bits had not police guards intervened with rifles and drawn bayonets.
Over all India the word 【A35】______ like wildfire. Minutes after the flash was received in Bombay rioting broke out, with Hindu extremists 【A36】______ Moslems. A panic-stricken Moslem woman echoed the thoughts of thousands with a【A37】______: “God help us all!”
In Delhi itself, in the quick-gathering 【A38】______ of the night, the news set the people on the march.
They walked slowly【A39】______ the avenues and out of the squalid bazaars, converging on Birla House. There【A40】______ the thousands they stood weeping silently or moaning a wailing.
