Full newspaper of Calcutta: Hindustan Standard of 31 January 1948, with 8 pages
60.5 x 45.3 cm

There are 2 extra pages (page no.7 and 8) of The Sunday Amrita Bazar Patrika of 1st February 1948 covering news of Gandhi's assassination.

The newspaper comes along with a purpose-built archival fold over portfolio of size 63.5 x 49 cm which is further enclosed in a custom-made archival box with wooden toggles of size 66 x 51 x 5 cm.

Hindustan Standard had the banner headline, "Mahatma Gandhi shot dead", with an interesting strapline, "Long Live Mahatma !", including a large black and white photograph of Gandhi, smaller front page headline at lower bottom that reads:-

"Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated at New Delhi yesterday (Friday) evening while he was walking to the prayer ground. He was shot at four times by a Marathi Youngman. He died at 5.40 pm. Mahatma's funeral procession will leave Birla House at 11 am. Today and the cremation will take place at 4 p.m. at the Jumna Ghat".

75 years ago on 31st January 1948, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known reverently as Mahatma Gandhi, was assassinated. This year also marks the 75th anniversary of Indian Independence day celebration which commenced on 12th March 2021 with Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, a 75-week countdown ending on 15th August 2023.

A day after his assassination, Mahatma Gandhi featured across the front page of practically every major newspaper of the world as the symbol of loss that India would find hard to recover from but of the world as a whole. Gandhi did not just represent India’s nationalist pride, but clearly he was a world phenomenon as is evident from the urgency with which newspapers across the globe reported his death. Gandhi's murder caused widespread grief and shocked the world, as is evident in historic records of the fateful day.

Gandhi was attacked while he was on his way to attend a prayer meeting at Birla House. His killers Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte were convicted and hanged to death on November 15, 1949.