A journalist’s killing, a restless metropolis & the ideological divide

Here is a book which is bound to touch the reader because of its powerful narrative style. It is a detailed investigative analysis of the mystery surrounding the brutal assassination of journalist Gauri Lankesh. Moreover, it is also a gripping commentary on the fragility of Indian democracy in the light of growing extremism and political disenchantment.

What I really appreciate is the way Rollo Romig — a journalist, essayist and critic — has offered a meticulously detailed account of Gauri Lankesh’s life trajectory as he places it in the context of the country’s unique and often politically volatile ideological trajectory. In fact, it is this captivating and rare approach that broadens the scope of the book, making it much more than just an investigative analysis into the killing of a brave journalist.

For an alert reader, it will not be difficult to understand that Romig is not just talking about Lankesh, he is also reminding us of the unique interplay of faith, ideology and politics in a system where the voices of dissent are often silenced amid growing authoritarianism.

Moreover, the changing socio-cultural climate of Bengaluru, with its rapidly altering milieu, is also pivotal to the text. It is to this city that both Lankesh and Romig have a connection. Lankesh’s Kannada weekly, Gauri Lankesh Patrike, for which she worked as an editor, was published from the city, and it is here that she was killed outside her residence in 2017. For the author, too, the city holds special significance as he worked here as a reporter for The New York Times Magazine.

No wonder, with heightened sensitivity, Romig takes us down memory lane, and reminds us of how the city, which was once known for its perfect temperature round the year and an accommodative attitude, has quickly changed into a restless metropolis with untamed urbanisation and staunch ideological divides. In fact, the text lays bare the paradoxes that characterize the city: intellectual activism as well as growing intolerance; cosmopolitanism as well as the assertion of parochial and regional identities.

Furthermore, Romig highlights that what is really alarming is that Lankesh’s killing could happen in a city like Bengaluru with a significantly low crime rate. Her murder led to the city’s intellectuals, activists, journalists and other concerned citizens coming together through mass demonstrations.

I appreciate the way Romig has analysed it with immaculately detailed elements of investigative journalism as well as a nuanced cultural analysis, often using a host of interesting and pertinent mythological references to elaborate on the fairly complex themes of bravery, resistance and sacrifice.

The book holds innumerable accounts based on his detailed conversations with Lankesh’s family, colleagues and friends that help throw light on her personality and outlook to life and politics. Here is a text that has succeeded in building a bridge between an isolated incident such as Gauri Lankesh’s killing and the broader issues around political and ideological violence characterizing the Indian democracy in our times.

As you read the text with great care, a set of disturbing questions might haunt you. How are dissenting voices treated within authoritarian regimes? What does a fate like Lankesh’s reveal about the growing intolerance and violence embedded in India’s multilayered political-cultural milieu? Or, for that matter, what is the fate of Indian democracy amid the rise of authoritarianism, or electoral autocracy?

I hope that this book — written with great care and intensity — will inspire us to engage in meaningful conversations around ideology, dissent and violence, and eventually evolve a praxis of liberation from the clear danger of authoritarianism and associated political/cultural/psychic violence.

— The writer taught sociology at JNU