Gauri Lankesh: The voice that defied hate, silenced by a bullet

The evening of 5 September 2017 will be remembered as the day when India lost one of its most courageous voices in journalism. Gauri Lankesh was shot outside her residence in Bengaluru that day. She had just come out of her car, and four shots were fired, three of them which hit her. That is all the time it took for death to nip the life of such a dashing journalist-walking with her keen pen and steadfast bravery.

Gauri Lankesh was an editor and publisher of the Kannada weekly tabloid “Gauri Lankesh Patrike,” in which she regularly took bold stands against influential people who gained from the swelling divisive politics in the nation. She opposed right-wing extremism, caste oppression, and the rising flood of fundamentalism under religious behaviour.

Growing up in a writer-intellectual family, Gauri was naturally a truth-teller. She hailed from a family of writer-editor P. Lankesh and mother Mutthamma, a singer and homemaker. Lankesh was a prominent Kannada writer and journalist with well-known progressive views. Gauri followed his steps and also made her own. The writing became the voice that led the fraternity for secularism and social justice. She never feared becoming controversy herself, even if it meant making enemies. And it did. Over years of her career, she faced innumerable threats-mostly from fringe right-wing groups. Still, that was something Gauri had always had an aversion to back down.

To Gauri, journalism is activism, not mere reporting. She was not waiting for others to take the initiative whether it was in support of Dalits, gender equality or opposition to religious intolerance. Besides, she was involved in political action by actively working with grassroots organisations and progressive movements.

The Night That Changed Everything

She was going home that fateful night of September 5 2017. She had no idea that she was being followed. The shot was quick and planned. It rattled the nation, but for those who knew her, it seemed like an end to years of harassment and oppression. Gauri was making headlines and rattling the establishment as she dared raise her voice where others chose to turn a deaf ear.

Her murder was not an isolated event. In fact, it was just a part of a larger wave of murders of other rationalists such as Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, and M. M. Kalburgi, as they were challenging the other side of the traditional beliefs and extremist religions.

The killing of Gauri thru shadows across the country and that has also justified growing intolerance towards the conflict in India.

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Evidence by proper investigation

A Special Investigation Team has been entrusted to probe the murder of Gauri Lankesh, which spans multiple states and agencies. In one year, they have made good progress. A 26-year-old Parashuram Waghmare was caught and confessed as the shooter. His links with a network of individuals accused of being involved with right-wing extremist groups had led to more arrests.

As the case unfolded, it was discovered that a larger conspiracy related Gauri’s murder to other homicides of rationalists. The principal conspirator was known to be connected with an outfit that had allegedly splintered from extreme groups proposing evil theories meant at smothering dissenting voices.

Gauri’s death remains a fresh wound for most Indians. What her legacy also tells us is that the instinct of fear will try to shut down the voices, but we cannot ever forget the ones who were speaking out for justice and for humanity.

 “I am anti-establishment but not anti-national. Let this be said clearly.” She wrote those words for herself. And those words ring true today as much as they did before.