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Gauri Lankesh: The Undaunted Journalist of Karnataka

Neha Hegde

Early Life

The notable journalist, Gauri Lankesh was born in a Lingayat family on January 29, 1962 in
Shivmogga district’s Konagavalli village of Karnataka. Her father, P Lankesh was a journalist and
poet, and founded the Lankesh Patrike, a weekly newspaper published in Kannada. Her mother
was Indira Lankesh and she has two siblings, a younger brother and a sister, namely – Indrajit
Lankesh and Kavitha Lankesh. Gauri started her journalism career in Bangalore by working for
The Times of India. After a few years, she and her husband, Chidanand Rajghatta, relocated to
Delhi. She returned to Bangalore soon after and spent the next nine years as a reporter for the
Sunday Magazine. She had been working in the profession of journalism for around 16 years.

Her father, an atheist, disassociated from the faith even though they were Lingayat. She
received the same values as well. Along with her siblings Indrajith and Kavitha Lankesh, she
attended school in Bengaluru. By her own admission, Gauri Lankesh was a tomboy. At an early
age, she wanted to be a doctor, but with time, she became more interested in journalism.

She obtained her BA from Central College in Bengaluru before receiving her journalism master's
degree from IIMC (Indian Institute of Mass Communication) in New Delhi. She began her
journalism career with The Times of India and has since worked for a number of
reputed organizations. She contributed pieces as a guest columnist to publications abroad.

Notably, Gauri Lankesh became head of the ETV Telugu bureau in New Delhi. She gained fame,
however, after the Babri Masjid was destroyed in 1992 because she began vocalizing her strong
opinions against division and communalism.

After her father passed away in 2000, Gauri Lankesh relocated back to Bengaluru. She was now
in charge of carrying on her father's Lankesh Patrike. Gauri and her brother Indrajit, however,
began to disagree over editorial matters.
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The marriage of journalist Chidananda Rajghatta and Gauri Lankesh was short-lived. They split
amicably, she claimed in an interview, but they remained friends. She insisted that she did not
miss having a family and that her hectic schedule prevented her from considering getting
married again. Gauri cherished her interactions with her niece Esha.

“Gauri Lankesh Patrike”

However, a family dispute about the ownership of the Lankesh Patrike newspaper and its
political stances started in 2005. Gauri Lankesh and her film producer brother Indrajit got into a
fight over issues pertaining to operating the newspaper. The paper was divided in half. While
Indrajit stuck with the original title, she gave her version the name Gauri Lankesh Patrike.

Gauri Lankesh Patrike had readers in even the most isolated Karnataka villages. The journalist's
initial greatest obstacle was figuring out the nation's dynamics on the ground level. Writing in
Kannada while overcoming her English media bias was another issue. Lankesh battled through
both challenges and won.

Gauri Lankesh published articles that were disparaging of Manusmriti, the RSS, and the BJP. Her
stance on matters like the harassment of minorities, Baba Budan Giri (Datta Peeta), and the
dispute surrounding Ramachandra Mutt drew the wrath of right-wing organisations. She
supported the Lingayat community's position as a distinct religion.

She had developed into a strong voice in local media by the middle of the 2000s. She made a lot
of visits to cover rural concerns. Unsurprisingly, she received negative remarks. Despite her calls
for a substantive conversation between the government and Naxalites, some individuals
claimed that she supported the Maoist cause. She became well-known for standing up
against Hindutva movements. She was an outspoken opponent of Hindutva movements that
sought to annex the mixed-faith Datta Peetha temple in Chikmagalur. In 2014, seer
Raghaveshwara Bharathi of the Ramachadrapura Mutt was accused of sexual harassment. She
took up the matter, angering many of his devotees.
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Political and Religious Ideology

Regarding her political views, Lankesh was an avid opponent of Right-Wing politics, which
supported the aggressive form of Hindu nationalism known as the Hindutva. She opposed the
notion that "the Hindu right was associating with lynching, riots, bomb blasts, threats of rape,
and imprisonment of anyone critical of its religious idea of India." She used to speak out
strongly against the Indian caste system and was a vocal opponent of it. She was an outspoken
left-wing journalist who worked in India, which has become as one of the most dangerous
places in the world to operate as a reporter.

She was renowned for penning articles that provoked strong reactions from readers. For
instance, she accused the BJP politician Prahlad Joshi and two of his associates of defrauding a
jeweller in an article she published in her newspaper in 2008 and criticised them. Contrary to
what she had anticipated, Prahlad Joshi used legal channels and brought a defamation lawsuit
against her. She also used to discuss religion and specific groups in her speeches.

In 2014, she stated in a speech - "What is this Hindu religion, and who is its profounder? We
know the Christian religion's profounder and its holy book, we know the Mohammedan
religion's profounder and its holy book, and so on for the Sikh, Buddhist, and Jain religions. But
who is the Hindu religion's profounder, and isn't it also said that this is a religion without a
father and mother and one without a holy book? Can it be termed a religion since it never
existed and had its name solely given to it by the British?”

In a November 2016 interview with the website NewsLaundry, Lankesh said that she has
received criticism for her reporting and attempts. "Unfortunately, today, anyone speaking in
favour of human rights and against staged encounters is labelled as a Maoist supporter," said
Lankesh. In addition, because I criticise Hindutva politics and the caste system, which are both
components of what is seen as "Hindu dharma" (Hindu duty), my critics label me a "Hindu
hater."

Gauri Lankesh was a blunt speaker and she didn't straddle the line. With the murder of
professor MM Kalburgi in his Dharwad house in 2015, assaults on rationalists took a new turn,
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and Lankesh believed that fundamentalist venom was spreading significantly. She would not,
however, back down. Her relentless commitment to putting an end to caste prejudice went
hand in hand with her resistance to religious extremism. She referred to the Dalit activist
Jignesh Mewani, as well as the student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and Shehla Rashid, as her
children. She made sure their voices were heard throughout all of Karnataka.

Defamation Case

In a defamation lawsuit brought by Bharatiya Janata Party MPs Prahlad Joshi and Umesh Dhusi
over a story she had written in Gauri Lankesh Patrike in 2008, alleging that they had illegal
transactions, Gauri Lankesh was found guilty in November 2016. She was given a six-month
prison term and a Rs. 10,000 fine, but she was released on bail and given the opportunity to
appeal the case to a higher court.

Assassination of Gauri Lankesh

One evening, 5th of September, 2017, when Lankesh was heading back home from work, a guy
approached her. The man's helmet covered his face. She was shot by the man as she fled
towards her house, and she fell about 10 feet from it. According to the police, surveillance
footage, and autopsy findings, she was shot four times and was pursued by two other men.
Lankesh was killed as the gunshots penetrated her, and the murderers quickly fled the scene.
Her attorney said, as reported in the Hoot, that the murder was a sinister and carefully
planned attack by "Hindu terror units."