Early life and career
Gauri Lankesh was born in a Kannada Lingayat family [2] on 29 January 1962. Her father was the poet-journalist P. Lankesh, who established the Kannada-language weekly tabloid Lankesh Patrike . [3] She had two siblings, Kavitha and Indrajit. [4]
Gauri started her career as a journalist with The Times of India in Bangalore. Later, she moved to Delhi with her husband, Chidanand Rajghatta. Shortly after, she returned to Bangalore, where she worked as a correspondent for the Sunday magazine for nine years. At the time of her father's death in 2000, she was working for the Eenadu's Telugu television channel in Delhi. By this time, she had spent 16 years of her life as a journalist. [5]
Lankesh Patrike
When their father P. Lankesh died, Gauri and her younger brother Indrajit visited Mani, the publisher of Lankesh Patrike, and told him that they wanted to cease the publication. Mani convinced them against the idea. Gauri then became the editor of Lankesh Patrike, while Indrajit handled the publication's business affairs. [5]
Beginning in 2001, differences developed between Gauri and Indrajit over the paper's ideology. These differences became public in February 2005, when a report about a Naxalite attack on policemen, approved by Gauri, was published in the magazine. On 13 February, Indrajit (who was the paper's proprietor and publisher) withdrew the report, alleging that it favored the Naxals. On 14 February, Indrajit filed a police complaint against Gauri, accusing her of stealing a computer, printer, and scanner from the publication's office. Gauri filed a counter-complaint, accusing Indrajit of threatening her with a revolver. On 15 February, Indrajit held a press conference, where he accused Gauri of promoting Naxalism through the paper. Gauri held a separate press conference where she denied the accusation and stated that her brother was opposed to her social activism. [6] Gauri subsequently started her own Kannada weekly called Gauri Lankesh Patrike. [7]
Political views and ideology
Gauri was a staunch critic of right-wing Hindutva politics. [4] [8] In 2003, she opposed the Sangh Parivar's alleged attempts to Hinduise the Sufi shrine Guru Dattatreya Baba Budan Dargah located at Baba Budan giri. [9] In 2012, while participating in a protest demanding a ban on communal groups in Mangalore, she stated that Hinduism was not a religion but a "system of hierarchy in society" in which "women are treated as second-class creatures". [10] She endorsed a minority religion tag for the Lingayat community and headed the Komu Souharda Vedike, a communal harmony platform for the oppressed communities. She was also of the view that the followers of philosopher Basavanna were not Hindus. [7]
Gauri was known for advocating freedom of the press. [4] She had written about the wrongdoings of the Indian National Congress leader, D. K. Shivakumar, a close associate of the former Chief Minister of Karnataka, S. M. Krishna. [11] [5] She was opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and ended her 35-year-old friendship with Prakash Belawadi when the latter became a media advisor to the BJP during the 2014 Indian general election. [12] In November 2014, the Congress-led Karnataka government appointed Gauri as a member of a committee aimed at convincing the Naxalites to give up violence and surrender. However, a delegation of BJP leaders accused her of being a Naxalite sympathiser and demanded her removal from the committee. The chief minister Siddaramaiah rejected the demand. [13]
Gauri was openly critical of the caste system. [4] In 2015, some Brahmins accused her of criticising the novelist S. L. Bhyrappa and Brahminism during the 81st Kannada Sahitya Sammelana (Kannada literary conference) held at Shravanabelagola. [14] At the conference, Gauri remarked that the non brahmin- Dalit author Perumal Murugan was criticised by right-wing Hindu groups for depicting a childless Hindu couple who indulged in consensual sex rituals outside of marriage to have children in his book One Part Woman . She then pointed out that the Brahmin novelist S. L. Bhyrappa had also depicted the similar Niyoga practice in his novel Parva , a retelling of the Hindu epic Mahabharata . She clarified that she was supportive of both these writers, and asked why the Hindu groups who were offended by Perumal Murugan were not offended by Bhyrappa. [15] On 19 February 2015, protesters from the Hassan Zilla Brahmin Sabha ("Hassan district Brahmin Association") organised a rally against her, urging the police to register a First Information Report against her. [14]
Defamation conviction in 2016
On 23 January 2008, Gauri published an article titled "Darodegilada BJP galu" in her newspaper. The article criticised the BJP leaders Pralhad Joshi, Umesh Dushi, Shivanand Bhat, and Venkatesh Mestry. [16] The article stated that the three BJP workers had cheated a jeweller of ₹100,000 (equivalent to ₹140,000orUS$1,700 in 2023). [17] It also stated that the jeweller sought payment from Member of Parliament Joshi and threatened to approach the police should Joshi refuse to help him. [18] Gauri later claimed that the article was based on "sources within the BJP". [17]
Joshi and Dushi filed separate defamation suits against Gauri. [16] In Dushi's case, she was a co-accused with Devanand Jagapur, the writer of the article. [18]
Gauri stated that she was being targeted for her left-leaning political views, as the BJP leaders did not sue other local dailies who had published the same allegations. [17] Gauri moved the case to the High Court, seeking dismissal of the case against her. However, in 2016, the High Court refused to dismiss the case and gave instructions for the hearing to be continued in the lower court. The High Court granted a four-week stay on the case, however, and directed the lower court to complete the trial within six months. [19]
In October 2016, the second Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Court at Hubli issued an arrest warrant for Gauri after she failed to appear before the court and did not respond to earlier warrants. The police detained her and produced her before the court on 1 October 2016. She was released on bail after furnishing a personal bond of ₹25,000 (equivalent to ₹36,000orUS$430 in 2023). [19]
On 27 November 2016, the second JMFC court concluded that Gauri had failed to provide any substantial evidence for her criticism of the BJP leaders and found her guilty of defamation. The court imposed a fine of ₹5,000 (equivalent to ₹7,200orUS$86 in 2023) on her in each case. Besides the total fine of ₹10,000 (equivalent to ₹14,000orUS$170 in 2023), the court also sentenced her to six months imprisonment. [16] Her co-accused, Devanand Jagapur, was acquitted by the same court. [20] The same court granted her anticipatory bail, however, which made her avoid prison time. [16]
Gauri stated that the BJP leaders had managed to cover their tracks by reaching a compromise with the jeweler; she refused to disclose her source for the corruption allegations against them. [17] She also described the court verdict as a temporary setback and declared that she would challenge it in the higher court. [16]
Death
On 5 September 2017, Gauri died after being shot by three unidentified men at her house in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Bangalore. The men fired at least seven bullets at her at around 8 p.m. as she was unlocking the main door of her house after returning from her office. [28] One of the killers, who was waiting for her near her house, fired the first shots at her, while the two others, who are suspected to have followed her from her office, joined the initial shooter thereafter. The killers were wearing helmets and escaped on a two-wheeler Honda Dio after the murder. [29] Three of the bullets pierced Gauri's head, neck, and chest, killing her instantly. [28] [30]
Reactions
The murder was condemned by several people and organisations, including the Indian National Congress and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The Congress leader and Karnataka Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy compared the murder to that of Narendra Dabholkar and M. M. Kalburgi. Controversial statements by BJP MLA D. N. Jeevaraj and Sri Ram Sena chief Pramod Muthalik were widely criticized. [31] [32] The state police chief, R. K. Dutta, refused to suggest any possible suspects without investigation. BJP leaders criticised the Congress-led state government for allegedly failing to protect the lives of Gauri and other writers like Kalburgi. [33] Protests over her death took place all across India, including a rally in Bangalore a week after the funeral attended by more than 25,000 people. [29] [34]
Gauri was given a state funeral with a gun salute on 6 September, after her body was kept for a few hours at Ravindra Kalakshetra for the public to pay tribute. [24] She was buried in accordance with Lingayat customs. Her family did not follow any religious customs for her as she identified as a rationalist. [2] The BBC described it as the most high-profile journalist murdered in recent years. [35]
The New York Times reported that several accounts followed by prime minister Narendra Modi had posted "hateful" tweets in response to Lankesh's assassination, prompting a debate in India. [36]
Investigation
During their investigation, the police accessed CCTV footage from her residence and the route leading from Basavanagudi to her house. [29] The city was kept on high alert the day after her death, with police deployed at toll gates in Nelamangala, Hosur Road and NICE Road in search of the killers. Vehicles entering or exiting the city underwent stringent checks, while police in the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were also alerted. [37] On 8 September, the Karnataka government announced a reward of ₹1 million (equivalent to ₹1.4 millionorUS$17,000 in 2023) for providing information about the killers. [38]
In 2018, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the murder case detained two suspects, whom they also suspected of being involved in the murders of Dabholkar and Kalburgi. [39] In June 2018, the SIT stated that Parashuram Waghmore had confessed to the murder: he claimed that he was told to kill someone to save his religion, and that he did not know who the victim was. [40] In September 2018, Maharashtra ATS detained 2 suspects related to Gauri's murder and also recovered a cache of weapons from them. [41] A March 2019 New York Times article on Gauri Lankesh includes a discussion of the police investigation and murder charges. [8] Her relatives and friends discuss the investigation in a podcast published by openDemocracy [42] in January 2022.
On 11 August 2022, the special court for Karnataka Control of Organised Crime examined three more witnesses, including two policemen, in the murder trial. [43]
Vasundhara Das is an Indian playback singer and former actress. Vasundhara's acting career includes Hey Ram (Tamil/Hindi), Monsoon Wedding (English), Citizen (Tamil), Ravana Prabhu (Malayalam), Lankesh Patrike (Kannada) and several others. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil for the song, "Shakalaka Baby" from the film Mudhalvan
Palya Lankesh was an Indian poet, fiction writer, playwright, translator, screenplay writer and journalist who wrote in the language. He was also an award-winning film director.
Lankesh Patrike is an Indian vernacular weekly published in Kannada language from Bangalore, Karnataka.
Kavitha Lankesh is an Indian film director, screenwriter and a lyricist known for her work in Kannada cinema industry. She began as a documentary film-maker before directing her first feature film, Deveeri (1999), which went on to win international, national and state awards. She is considered to be one of the renowned film-makers of Kannada cinema. She has directed and produced more than fifty documentaries/informational films and more than forty corporate films. Some of the films Kavitha directed have won awards and accolades from critics.
Aishwarya is a 2006 Indian Kannada-language romantic drama film directed by Indrajit Lankesh, starring Upendra, Deepika Padukone, in her film debut, and Daisy Bopanna. The film is an official remake of Manmadhudu (2002) with the flashback portion inspired by Ghajini (2005). The film featured Upendra as a rich advertisement executive and changed his mass image into a classy one.
Hemanth Kumar, better known by his stage name Darshan Thoogudeepa or simply Darshan, is an Indian actor, film producer and distributor who works predominantly in Kannada films. In 2017, he was the highest paid actor in Kannada cinema. Darshan established the production house Thoogudeepa Productions in 2006. Its first production was Jothe Jotheyali, with Darshan in a special appearance. His performances in Anatharu (2007) and Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna (2012) won him praise from critics; his performance in the latter as the 19th-century warrior Sangolli Rayanna won him the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actor.
Narendra Achyut Dabholkar was an Indian physician, social activist, rationalist and author from Maharashtra, India. In 1989 he founded and became president of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti. Triggered by his assassination in 2013, the pending Anti-Superstition and Black Magic Ordinance was promulgated in the state of Maharashtra, four days later. In 2014, he was posthumously awarded the Padma Shri for social work.
Malleshappa Madivalappa Kalburgi was an Indian scholar of Vachana sahitya in the Kannada-language and an academic who served as the vice-chancellor of Kannada University in Hampi. A noted epigraphist of Kannada, he was awarded the National Sahitya Akademi Award in 2006 for Marga 4, a collection of his research articles.
Pramod Muthalik is the chief of the Rashtriya Hindu Sena, the parent organisation of the Sri Ram Sena.
The Sanatan Sanstha is a Hindu organization seeking Hindu nationalism in India. It is a non-government charitable trust founded in 1999 by hypnotherapist Dr Jayant Balaji Athavale. It is headquartered in Ramathi, Goa.
Rajarajeshwari Nagar, officially Rajarajeshwari Nagara is a western suburb of Bangalore, Karnataka, India. It is located in the southwestern part of Bangalore along the Mysore Road, with Nagarbhavi and the Bangalore University to the north and north-west, Hosakerehalli to the east and Kengeri to the south-west. There is a prominent arch-shaped structure on Mysore Road which serves as the most popular entrance to this locality.
Santeshivara Lingannaiah Bhyrappa is an Indian novelist, philosopher and screenwriter who writes in Kannada. His work is popular in the state of Karnataka and he is widely regarded as one of modern India's popular novelists. His novels are unique in terms of theme, structure, and characterization. He has been among the top-selling authors in the Kannada language and his books have been translated into Hindi and Marathi which have also been bestsellers.
Malavika Avinash is an Indian spokesperson, actress, television personality and politician who is the current State spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party of Karnataka. She is known for her work in Kannada and Tamil films. She hosted Baduku Jataka Bandi, a television show that aired on Zee Kannada. She is a part of the ensemble cast in the highest grossing Kannada movie - K.G.F: Chapter 2.
Chetan Kumar, also known as Chetan Ahimsa, is an American Kannada-language film actor. Kumar made his on-screen debut in the 2007 film Aa Dinagalu, which earned him the Udaya Film Award for Best Debut Actor Male. His most recent success came in the 2013 hit film Myna, for which his performance received critical acclaim.
Indrajit Lankesh is an Indian filmmaker, producer, and director of Kannada and Hindi films. He is also the publisher of the weekly Kannada tabloid Lankesh Patrike. He is the son of iconic writer, journalist and film maker P. Lankesh.
Balaji Tangali Lalitha Naik is an Indian social activist, politician, writer, film actress who was the minister of Kannada, Culture, and Department of Women & Child Welfare of Karnataka. Naik has also served as an MLC (1986-1992) and MLA (1994-1999). She won the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award in 1991. She is also known for leading important literary, social and language-rights movements such as Bandaya movement and Gokak agitation.
Kanaka Ha Ma is a noted Kannada poet and columnist. She has also been active as a theatre actor and a freelance journalist for Kannada publications.
Lankesh Patrike is a 2003 Indian Kannada-language political thriller film directed by Indrajit Lankesh and starring Darshan and Vasundhara Das. Darshan played a journalist in the film and Vasundhara Das made her Kannada acting debut with this film. Despite releasing to positive critical reception, the film was a box office failure.
Gowri is a 2024 Indian Kannada-language musical film written and directed by Indrajit Lankesh. The film stars Samarjit Lankesh in the titular role, alongside Saanya Iyer, Manasi Sudheer, Sampath Maitreya, and Rajeev Pillai.
