I Am Gouri Lankesh

Gauri lankesh, the name still rekindles memories in the minds of Indians and thousands from around the world. It's hard to know why some deaths affect us more than others. Most people appalled by Gauri Lankesh's assassination neither knew her, nor even knew of her till she died. She was the editor of a tiny declining Kannada tabloid which stood for freedom of media and expression.

Before she became the editor of a bhasha tabloid, Gauri Lankesh had worked as a journalist in the English language press and she continued to write columns in English to subsidize her Kannada weekly.

After her assaniation, when protests were widespread on distant parts of the nation
. They were political arguments aimed at discrediting the outrage that Gauri Lankesh's murder had occasioned by characterizing it as selective and biased. There was more to this bias than class and language; after all, India's most successful and widely watched English television news channels like Times Now and the Republic were, at the time, often preoccupied by news other than Gauri Lankesh's death. The adjacent argument, implied and explicit, was that the outrage about Lankesh had more to do with her vehemently anti- Hindutva position in life than the tragedy of her death.

The prime minister's speaking silences punctuated by belated and perfunctory condolescence have done nothing to clear the air.

All we can hope is that the efgorts laid by her shouldn't be for nothing. And that her spirit may ignite the fire in every one of us.