Himani was the daughter of Nathuram's brother Gopal, who had also served time in prison for Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, and daughter-in-law of freedom fighter "Swatantryaveer" Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's younger brother Narayanrao (aka Balarao), whose son Ashok she was married to. Her maiden name was Asilata Godse.
Himani was associated with the rightist Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha — which was earlier led by Swatatryaveer Savarkar — and radical Abhinav Bharat, whose members have been nabbed by the police for their alleged involvement in the 2008 Malegaon blasts.
A former architect, Himani stopped her practice to become the president of the Hindu Mahasabha and was scathing in her criticism of the "minority appeasement" policies of the Congress and pressed for India to be declared as a Hindu rashtra. She had unsuccessfully contested the 2004 assembly elections from the Kasba Peth constituency in Pune as a Hindu Mahasabha candidate and later in 2009 from the Kothrud constituency in the city.
In an interview to dna earlier this year, Himani had justified moves to construct temples of her uncle Nathuram by Hindu right wing elements as one based on "personal choice," and called for the re-writing of history as the present study of the discipline was loaded in favour of the Gandhi-Nehru family with little mention of other freedom fighters.
She also called for images of other stalwarts of the freedom struggle like Lokmanya Tilak, Savarkar and Vasudeo Balwant Phadke, who had paid a much heavier price while fighting the British than the Mahatma and Jawaharlal Nehru.
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