"In the wake of Gandhi’s murder, the violent repercussions were felt by organizations such as the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS and particularly the Brahmin community of Maharashtra. Within a few hours of the assassination, the details of the murderer and his caste too miraculously trickled down to different parts of the country. While the press in India did not divulge too many details about the wave of communal violence that erupted the very night of the murder, the New York Times of 31 January 1948 reported through its journalist Robert Trumbull that ‘communal riots quickly swept Bombay when news of Mr. Gandhi’s death was received. The Associated Press reported that fifteen persons were killed and more than fifty injured before an uneasy peace was established’. The death toll in the hometown of Nathuram and Apte, Poona, stood at around fifty. The office of the Hindu Rashtra was obviously set on fire. ... Scholar Maureen L.P. Patterson who was researching on the aftermath of Gandhi’s murder on the Maharashtrian Brahmins, especially the Chitpawans to which sub-caste Nathuram and even Savarkar belonged, notes that she was refused access to relevant police files when she began her research in the 1950s. ‘Even today,’ she says, ‘scholars cannot get access to Maharashtra’s archival material for period since independence. So, the definitive study is yet to come.’ Consequently, the exact numbers of the Brahmin casualties might have been lost in history forever."