Editing Mahatma Gandhi (section)

=== Funeral and memorials ===
[[File:Gandhi funeral (cropped).jpg|thumb|Gandhi's funeral was marked by millions of Indians.<ref name="Gandhi94">{{Cite book |last=Mahatma Gandhi |url=https://archive.org/details/gandhireadersou00gand/page/483 |title=The Gandhi Reader: A Sourcebook of His Life and Writings |publisher=Grove Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-8021-3161-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/gandhireadersou00gand/page/483 483–89]}}</ref>]]

Gandhi's death was mourned nationwide.<ref name="spear-gandhi-1948-preconditions-fast" />{{sfnp|McDermott |Gordon |Embree |Pritchett |2014 |p=344}}{{sfnp|Wolpert|2004|p=358}}<ref name="Brown1991-p380" /> Over a million people joined the five-mile-long funeral procession that took over five hours to reach Raj Ghat from Birla house, where Gandhi was assassinated, and another million watched the procession pass by.<ref name="Gandhi94" /> His body was transported on a weapons carrier, whose chassis was dismantled overnight to allow a high-floor to be installed so that people could catch a glimpse of Gandhi's body. The engine of the vehicle was not used; instead, four drag-ropes held by 50 people each pulled the vehicle.<ref name=ie48 /> All Indian-owned establishments in London remained closed in mourning as thousands of people from all faiths and denominations and Indians from all over Britain converged at [[India House, London|India House]] in London.<ref name=ie48pg5 />

[[File:Cremation at Rajghat.gif|thumb|right|Cremation of Mahatma Gandhi at [[Raj Ghat and associated memorials|Rajghat]], 31 January 1948. It was attended by [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], [[Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma|Louis]] and [[Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma|Edwina Mountbatten]], [[Abul Kalam Azad|Maulana Azad]], [[Rajkumari Amrit Kaur]], [[Sarojini Naidu]] and other national leaders. His son [[Devdas Gandhi]] lit the pyre.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Michaels |first=James |date=31 January 1948 |title=Cremation of Gandhi's body |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1948/01/31/Cremation-of-Gandhis-body/1311719724408/ |access-date=20 February 2023 |website=United Press International |archive-date=4 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004072556/https://www.upi.com/Archives/1948/01/31/Cremation-of-Gandhis-body/1311719724408/ |url-status=live }}</ref>]]

Gandhi was cremated in accordance with Hindu tradition. His ashes were poured into urns which were sent across India for memorial services.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LEEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA76 |title=Life |date=15 March 1948 |page=76 |issn=0024-3019 |access-date=29 March 2024 |archive-date=29 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329133744/https://books.google.com/books?id=LEEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA76#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Most of the ashes were immersed at the [[Sangam at Allahabad]] on 12 February 1948, but some were secretly taken away. In 1997, [[Tushar Gandhi]] immersed the contents of one urn, found in a bank vault and reclaimed through the courts, at the Sangam at Allahabad.<ref name="Guardian-2008-ashes" /><ref name="Kumar2006" /> Some of Gandhi's ashes were scattered at the source of the [[Nile River]] near [[Jinja, Uganda]], and a memorial plaque marks the event. On 30 January 2008, the contents of another urn were immersed at [[Girgaum Chowpatty]]. Another urn is at the [[Aga Khan Palace|palace]] of the [[Aga Khan]] in [[Pune]] (where Gandhi was held as a political prisoner from 1942 to 1944<ref>{{cite book |last=Desai |first=Ian |title=Books Behind Bars: Mahatma Gandhi's Community of Captive Readers |date=2011 |url=https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230316782_12 |work=The History of Reading, Volume 1: International Perspectives, c.1500–1990 |pages=178–191 |editor-last=Towheed |editor-first=Shafquat |access-date=29 June 2021 |place=London |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |doi=10.1057/9780230316782_12 |isbn=978-0-230-31678-2 |editor2-last=Owens |editor2-first=W.R. |archive-date=29 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329133746/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230316782_12 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Bakshi |first=S. R. |date=1982 |title=Gandhi and Bhagat Singh |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=43 |pages=679–686 |issn=2249-1937 |jstor=44141310}}</ref>) and another in the [[Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine]] in Los Angeles.<ref name="Guardian-2008-ashes" /><ref name="GWPM" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Mahatma – Life Chronology |website=[[Sabarmati Ashram|Gandhi Ashram]] |url=https://gandhiashramsabarmati.org/en/the-mahatma/life-chronology.html |access-date=29 March 2024 |url-status=live |archive-date=23 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231223063304/https://gandhiashramsabarmati.org/en/the-mahatma/life-chronology.html}}</ref>

The Birla House site where Gandhi was assassinated is now a memorial called Gandhi Smriti. The place near Yamuna River where he was cremated is the [[Raj Ghat and other memorials|Rāj Ghāt]] memorial in New Delhi.<ref>{{cite book |last=Margot Bigg |title=Delhi |publisher=Avalon |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-61238-490-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/moonhandbookstaj0000bigg |page=[https://archive.org/details/moonhandbookstaj0000bigg/page/14 14] |url-access=registration}}</ref> A black marble platform, it bears the epigraph "Hē Rāma" ([[Devanagari]]: ''हे ! राम'' or, ''Hey [[Rama|Raam]]''). These are said to be Gandhi's last words after he was shot.<ref name="Misra">{{cite book |last=Misra |first=R.P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kp6x7zDLhfMC |title=Rediscovering Gandhi |publisher=Concept Publishing Company in collaboration with Gandhi Smriti & Darshan Samiti |year=2007 |isbn=978-81-8069-375-5 |series=Gandhian studies and peace research series |page=102 |language=mt |access-date=6 August 2023 |issue=v. 1 |archive-date=6 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230806123136/https://books.google.com/books?id=kp6x7zDLhfMC |url-status=live }}</ref>