Fearless journalist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her home in Bangalore in September 2017. This film follows her political journey, envisaging what she stood for and her struggle for communal harmony until her last breath.

A documentary by Pedestrian Pictures

The post Our Gauri: A Tribute to Gauri Lankesh appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Come October 8, 2018 and the annual commemoration and awards for war correspondents, instituted since 1994, will begin this year showcasing and Exhibition on Afghan Lives. But this year it will be extra special because India’s feisty and courageous journalist, Gauri Lankesh will find honour and mention here.

Image: cjp.org.in

The Bayeux-Calvados Awards for war correspondents (Prix Bayeux-Calvados des correspondants de guerre) is an annual prize awarded since 1994, by the city of Bayeux and the General Council of Calvados. Its goal is to pay tribute to journalists who work in dangerous conditions to allow the public access to information about war.

Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), a partner to the award has informed Ms Kavitha Lankesh that her sister, Ms Gauri Lankesh will be honoured in a new stele that will be inaugurated in this year’s memorial commemorating reporters killed on duty. This stele covers part of last year, and Gauri Lankesh’s name will be on it. Ms Gauri Lankesh was brutally gunned down on the night of September 5, 2017.

There will be tributes paid to her and invitees will speak about her work. Ms Kavitha Lankesh has been invited to attend and pay her own personal tribute to Gauri.
 
The family of Ms Gauri Lankesh, while deeply grieving her loss, one year to the date of her brutal killing, is overwhelmed at this continued recognition of her contribution and her work.

About the Award

The award was launched as part of the fiftieth anniversary of the Normandy landings. It is awarded in Bayeux, one of the first French cities to be liberated in the Second World War, in a conference that includes a book fair, a media forum, discussion evenings, and youth-oriented events.

The award has had twelve categories since 1994: Daily news, Magazine, Photojournalism, Radio, Television, Large Format Television, Web journalism, Young reporter, Lower NormandySecondary School Students’ Prize, Ouest-France – Jean Marin Prize (Print journalism), Public Prize.

In 2012 it was  Javier Espinosa, El Mundo who was recognised for Print journalism, the Photojournalism prize went to Aris Messinis, AFP, the Radio Prize to Jeremy Bowen, BBC News,  the Television prize to Nic Robertson, CNN, the Large Format Television: Mathieu Mabin, France 24, the Web journalism prize to David Wood, Huffington Post, the Young reporter prize to Ed Ou, Getty Images, the Lower Normandy Secondary School Students’ Prize: Mathieu Mabin, France 24, the Ouest-France – Jean Marin Prize (print journalism) to Rémy Ourdan, Le Monde and the Public Prize: Manu Brabo, of AP.
 

The post Gauri Lankesh to be Memorialised as a Reporter Killed on Duty: Bayeux-Calvados Awards appeared first on SabrangIndia.

My Sister, My Soul Mate

A Poem for Gauri by KavitaLankesh

She raved, she ranted,
Many times she burst out….
Uppercaste this… Brahmincal that…
At the inhumanity of it all…
At the injustice of it all…

Silence Gauri?
Ha ha!! What a joke!!
She burst like sunflower seed
scattered all over 
In India
And across the seas…
Now the silence is chanting ….echoing,  ..
“ We are all Gauri!!”
 

The post My Sister, My Soul Mate appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image: Suhel Banerjee

The last 10 seconds

 
Sometimes I feel
You are here…
It’s just one of those hectic days
So you haven’t visited us.
But most times
Reality punches in my gut
And I know you are gone
Forever. 
I churn,
I shiver,
I reel…
I feel like puking but my stomach is empty
Much like everything else
Agonized when awake,
Nightmares in sleep…
As I try to re-live
Your last 10 seconds
That’s all the time it took
To end your voice
The cops tell us
Let me imagine those 10 seconds-
The killer a coward no doubt
hiding behind a helmet
rushes towards you
“Yako? What are you doing magane?
The first shot!
You! Bolimagane!  Who the fuck are you?
Not my comrade,
not my blood,
certainly not my creed!!
You think you got have become big
because your chaddi got longer
And now you wear pants?
Come, end me! Let’s see!!
How dare you!
I am never ending!!
Ten seconds. Three more bullets.
And you were gone.
Did Esha ,Amma or I
Flash through you?
The love, the care, the concern?
Did thoughts of your comrades
Flicker in you?
The same comrades who converted
you from a little chirping sparrow  to
a roaring tigress?
Till the last bullet ripped
and stopped it all…?
You lay there
In a pool of blood.
But have you stopped?
A thousand others continue
Your fight
Here, there, everywhere…
Every drop of your blood
a protest!
With more fervour and vigour…
Confusing me further
If I voice for the voiceless
Like you  
Am I you?
If I am silent…
Am I dead…?

– Kavita Lankesh
 

The post Remembering Gauri Lankesh’s Last 10 Seconds appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Cheers Gauri!

 
You must be so proud of me!!
Happy  in heaven  
or  knowing you
you probably prefer hell
You  brought me down to
the streets and  that  I was  arrested!!
First time!!
Cheers!!
 
Finally maybe I am worth being called your sister!
It’s been three months
And our voices For the government has turned
 Anti government…
Cheers!!
That’s what you and appa always stood  for!
Anti government..
 
I finally know
How a mongrel feels
When stray dogs are abound
In the neighbourhood
 Watching, biting and mating
They are caught and left in another locality
We were like that yesterday..
A harassment to the general public
And the government
They took us for a ride on a BTs bus
And left us in another  area
Hoping we will stop
The battle.
They don’t know the war is still on..
Cheers!!
 
Your  comrades shouted slogans and
Shook their fists
I simply looked at them
My eyes brimmed with tears,
My voice choked and I was mute ,
My hands lay limp by my side..
Impotent and dead..
But  the voices of protest resonated
Again and again
Maybe I  am still alive??
I have fought many a battle
But nothing that required e me to

Raise my  voice .. 
Or raise my fists
unless I wanted to slap a wandering hand..
But  this was beyond all that
How can one stop  the voice that’s echoing 
‘We are  gauri”
“I am Gauri”?
The shouts fill me-
Down ! Down! The Killers are free!!
The innocents  are  arrested!
My very being  is filled
with a sense of  pride !!
 
Countless times I had asked
Who will come to you if you are sick?
Who will come to you if you are broke?
Who will come when you …
Are dead and silent?
Such a fool I was
As  if we were the only ones…
Cheers!
 
Seems like I am a non entity
Compared  to your
 dear and near ones…
who are holding you up
shouting and screaming
Just like you cannot be silenced
They cannot be too!!
I hope I cannot be silenced  too!
Cheers!!
 
                     -KavitaLankesh
 
 

The post A Poem celebrating the spirit of Gauri Lankesh appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Following Gauri Lankesh’s brutal murder, there were protests everywhere. Now that we remember someone who had lived a successful and a complete life, now that we mourn her death, the only question that we should be asking is, what was Gauri’s purpose in life?

Anti Hindu Rashtra
Gauri firmly believed that it was her constitutional duty to establish a just and equal society, a society which Basavanna and Ambedkar fought for. She lived her life according to this belief. Her personal life was not that important to her. Her social life was her personal life.  She was cremated in the Chamarajpet Lingayat crematorium. She was a proud Lingayat who would state her thoughts clearly.  One of her recent articles had supported the view that Lingayatism should be recognised as an independent religion. Just like many followers of Basavanna, she argued that Lingayats were never Hindus. This view was definitely not something that went well with the views of powerful majoritarian groups. 

She had posted a picture of her with her father on the internet a few hours before she was shot dead.  The post said:  “He was a father whom we rarely met, but a brilliant teacher of my life is my appa! Happy Teacher’s Day”. But she was not just her father’s daughter; she was much more than that.

Formation of Forums of Dissent
Gauri was one of the founding members of Karnataka Komu Saouharda Vedike (Forum for Communal Harmony in Karnataka). She, along with other activists, writers, artists, musicians, and some ten thousand Kannadigas, opposed the efforts to establish Baba Budangiri, a pilgrimage centre in Chikmaglur, as the “Ayodhya” of the south. Karnataka Komu Saouharda Vedike and Citizens for Justice and Peace had come together to file a petition in the Supreme Court.

Student politics and the right to free and compulsory education were very close to Gauri’s heart. This is the reason why she was close to Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid. Her relationship with Jignesh Mewani tells us about her commitment towards fighting caste-based oppression. She had a picture of Rohit Vemula in her Facebook account. And she was also one of those who were fighting for justice for the dalit student, Delta Meghawal, in Bengaluru. Her participation in various organisations and movements—for instance, in the National Forum of Fishermen, in the struggle of New Labour Unions to organise the unorganised sector in the country, in every anti neo-liberal development models (especially large dams) movements at the national level, in Right to Education—clearly demonstrates her efforts to bring all the movements together.

Her Efforts to Establish Peace and Harmony
Gauri, along with many well-known and respected individuals in Karnataka, established the Citizens’ Initiative for Peace in 2013. This initiative mainly aimed at making sure that the policy to rehabilitate radical naxalites in mainstream society—formulated in Karnataka in 2009—was implemented.  A.K. Subbayya, H.S. Doreswami, and Gauri Lankesh were part of that government body. As a result of this initiative, nine naxals had surrendered and been rehabilitated.

Any enlightened society would welcome the efforts and initiatives for establishing a peaceful and non-violent society. State Minister of Information & Technology, Ravishankar Prasad, crticised the violent and anti-social trolls but, just two days later, started propagating lies about Gauri’s relationship with naxals. The fight after the murder of Gauri is not only for the respect and love that she had earned; it is also a fight for her strength and struggle against cowardice,  against the rumors and lies that are being spread about her.

Who Killed Her?
Even though it is only the police who can answer this question (let us hope that they will carry out an objective investigation), certain clues raise certain serious questions and put forth some disturbing information.

Last year, Gauri was declared guilty in two defamation cases that were filed in 2008. Prahalad Joshi and Umesh Joshi were the two BJP leaders who had filed the cases against her. Jeevraj, an ex-minister of BJP, publicly said that she would have been alive if she had not written whatever she had about the RSS. He was particularly referring to her recent article “Chaddigala Maranahoma” (The quest for death of RSS).

According to Gauri’s lawyer, B.T.Venkatesh, the murderers belong to a Hindu fundamentalist terrorist organisation. They know it very well that it is impossible to do anything else when multiple cases have been filed against you.  They have lawyers everywhere. They have at least five lawyers in every taluk and all of them work for free. It was interesting how Gauri used the time (that would have otherwise gone to waste) in organising public meetings outside the courts when she had to appear for the hearings. She continued talking her heart out loud and clear. She wrote and spoke in both Kannada and English and was successful in influencing many.

There Are People Who Spread Hatred
Trolls in social media were celebrating her death. Four of such Twitter handles are followed by the Prime Minister.

Lastly
According to the forensic reports, the murderers used a 7.65 mm state pistol to kill Gauri. A similar weapon had been used to kill the seventy-seven year old M. M. Kalburgi, a rationalist and a scholar, in Dharwad on 30 August 2015; the eighty-one year old Govind Pansare, a rationalist of Maharashtra, in Kolhapur on 16 February 2015; and Narendra Dabholkar on 20 August 2013 in Pune. 

Today is 10 September 2017. It has been five days since Gauri has been killed and there have been protests every day, but Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of this country and the one who is famous for connecting with people on social media, remains silent.
Adieu to you, my dearest friend Gauri.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum
 

The post #OurGauri: Gauri’s Resolute Life appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image: Santhosh Sagar / The Hindu

My dear Gauri,

How are you? I hope you are not laughing at all the protests that are happening after your death here. When you were here with us, you would write the script of your life all by yourself. How is it there? How is it there?

You made a mistake Gauri. Why did you let someone else script the last scene of your life on 5 September? He had gauged your weight all wrong. He wrote a scene with someone shooting four bullets at you, someone who weighed like a small sparrow that would have died on being pushed. What else would a commissioned actor do? He acted the way he was commissioned to act. It is your mistake.

When you were shot, I was sitting in Kalakshetra sipping the last few drops of champagne. Next to me was Vishukumar and Vijayamma. It was the last scene of the play “Chekaav to Champagne”. As it was written in the script, an actor in the role of Chekaav had died drinking his champagne. That is when I got to know about your murder. I walked out of theater and called a media contact to get confirmed, and they also said it was true. I went inside and informed Vishukumar and Vijayamma. On hearing that you were killed, both of them were shocked, we also wondered who was next. On stage there was Chekaav’s dead body covered in a white cloth. Thinking of seeing you in the same place sent jitters down my spine. I remembered my two daughters. The reason why I liked you was my daughters and your father.

It has been around thirty five years Gauri. You father had visited my house in Udupi and had spent a good deal of time playing with my children. Rather, he was a child while playing with them. I never spoke to him much; even when he told me that I should write a story for the Patrike, I had not said anything else other than a “yes”. Anyhow, I never wrote a word for the Patrike. In spite of that, whenever he met me, he made sure he asked me about my children. I liked you because you were a daughter of such a childlike, sensitive father. After some twenty five years, you had visited me in my house in Bengaluru all of a sudden. You were someone who would like to run about freely like that. No one had even returned from my house without eating neerdose and biriyani. You had stayed back till the evening, and you looked like a sparrow when I saw you getting into the lift.

You might be observing the people who are writing various scripts around your death. Some are asking, who killed you. Some are in a state of shock, and some are wondering who got you killed. It seems like these people know who got you killed better than you do. They all agree that our enemies killed you. You were against those who were against our constitution, democracy, communal harmony, who had worn a mask of nationalism and patriotism. As we all believe Gandhiji was killed by the people who were against him. Pansare was killed by those who were against him, Dabholkar was killed by those who were against him, Kalburgi was killed by those who were against him, who else would have killed you other than those who were against you?

You better not laugh at a few funny things that are being said. They have announced a prize of ten lakh rupees for the one who would help in catching hold of your murderer. Ten Lakh is quite tempting. Instead, they could have cleared all your debts. Please do not laugh. No one else other than the police would get that money. Would anyone else pray for death? It is anyhow a crime to transact such a large amount in cash anymore. Would they give a cheque instead? Wouldn’t those who got you killed know about this even before the cheque is en-cashed? Wouldn’t the person receiving the cheque be the next person to join you there?

Some of them here have got police protection because of you. There are gunmen surrounding them in all directions. They were the same people, and would be seen freely walking; and now they have even stopped stepping out of their homes due to the embarrassment this police protection has caused them. Their relatives have stopped visiting them since the police have started to be around their homes. This is self-declared house arrest. Do not laugh.

You were very stupid to be on the side of truth. You kept writing about everything you thought was true. Following your father, even you tried to, and also let the Patrike function without accepting any advertisements. We, who kept telling you how much we liked you, never read your paper. Now we are all assembling in the Central College grounds in the next two days asking for justice for you.

What is justice Gauri? Do you gain any profit out of it? I remember reading it somewhere; apparently justice is something that does well to friends and bad to the enemies. I do not like this idea of justice. Is it not justice to wish enemies well along with friends? I have heard that everyone who is with you there thinks the same. You believed in this meaning of justice even when you were alive. You would address even those who abused you on social media with love.

Our Home Minister also declared that they were successful in tracking down your murderer. It is not difficult for the Karnataka police to track down your murderer; what about the ones who got you murdered.

I am sorry Gauri.

Even this script that I am writing here is incomplete. I am not able to say everything that I feel like telling. For example, it has been two years since they claimed that they have been successful in tracking down the murderers of Kalburgi. If the ones who got Kalburgi killed are not arrested immediately, I am afraid that the meaningless and vulgar words of those who celebrate a death would become truth. I want to say many such things. Do not laugh. Even you are aware that, it is not easy to run a government.

I have a word limit of five hundered words to write this article. I have crossed the word limit. I hope we would find out who got you killed even before these words got published.

Convey my salutations to your father.

One more thing! Never step again on this planet even by mistake. I shall tell you why when I get to meet you there.

First published in the Commemorative edition by Gauri Lankesh Patrike

The post #OurGauri: “What is Justice Gauri? Do You Gain Any Profit Out of It?” appeared first on SabrangIndia.

( Our Gauri: 67 mnts/English sub/2017)

Gauri Lankesh was one of the Karnataka’s most prominent and fearless journalists. She was shot dead outside her house in Bengaluru on the night of September 5, 2017.
Gauri spoke out against communal forces in the Country and represented dissent and freedom of speech.
 
The  film is more than a personal tribute and follows her political journey, envisaging what she stood for and her struggle for communal harmony until her last breath.
And her life story has become the history of Karnataka’s fight against right-wing communal forces.

The post Our Gauri: A Passionate & Moving Tribute by Deepu (67 Minutes) appeared first on SabrangIndia.