Nathuram Vinayak Godse IPA: [nət̪ʰuɾam ʋinajək ɡoɖse] was the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi. He was a Hindu nationalist from Maharashtra who shot Gandhi in the chest three times at point blank range at a multi-faith prayer meeting in Birla House in New Delhi on 30 January 1948. Godse was a prominent populariser of the works of his mentor, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who had formulated the Hindu nationalist ideology of Hindutva. Godse was a member of the Hindu Mahasabha, a Hindutva political party, and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindutva paramilitary organisation.