Gauri Lankesh: Left of centre, but heart in the right place

I was immensely saddened and angered by the murder of Gauri Lankesh on Tuesday, on September 5. I knew Gauri slightly, but I mourn her death deeply. I met her a few times over the years in Bengaluru, mostly at meetings or get-togethers hosted by our common friend, Siddhartha. Seeing me warming up to Gauri’s luminous presence, Siddhartha, who runs Fireflies, an ashram without a guru, gently warned me with a chuckle, “She’s wonderful, but wait till you hear her views…” I soon learned that they were not just ‘normal’ Left, but getting more extreme with the years. Being quite argumentative myself, I was about to start engaging her. She listened for less than 30 seconds, then reached out, held my hand and said, “Let it be…” It was a beautiful evening; we were among friends. Her eyes softened: why spoil everything with a pointless and unresolvable wrangle?

“Let it be…” those three words, echoing the great Beatles number, written by Paul McCartney, released just before the band broke up, carried the wisdom of a lifetime, coming from Gauri. The meaning was clear to me instantly, as was the purport of the gentle touch. It was okay to disagree, to fight for what we believed in — indeed, that is what we did as poets, writers, journalists, teachers, public intellectuals, activists, and members of the civil society. But there was no need for rancour, bitterness, hostility, or, even unpleasantness. We needed to know when to say, “Let it be,” to continue with our other more mutually-enhancing conversations, not to keep attacking each other endlessly, relentlessly, and viciously.

I couldn’t agree with Gauri more, especially now that she is not in our midst. The sickening zeal and unscrupulous extremes to which various political groups have stooped to make use of her murder is contrary to whatever she stood for. I abhor the polarisation of our public sphere. I detest those crusaders who cry, “If you are not for us, you are against us.” I loathe the closing of the Indian mind, the extreme intolerance and hatred between opposing camps. More necessary than ever not just to retrieve the middle ground, but also to extend its scope and sphere. Let us agree that it is okay to disagree; we can take opposing positions without hating or attacking each other. Civilised debate and conduct are becoming of a democracy, not bigotry and lack of charity. In that one phrase, “Let it be…” Gauri was reminding all of us that friendship, fellow-feeling, respect for difference were far more important than ideology and politics.

Indeed, it was that ability to rise above the immediate, the ideological, the reductive that made Gauri so attractive. There was a radical openness to her, an unconventionality that both frightened and baffled people. She was an original, truly unencumbered person. She looked you straight in the eye, had nothing to hide or fear. She was not playing games; she lived what she believed in. And there was a whole universe of things she valued which couldn’t be reduced to ordinary political labels — poetry, music, wit, conversation, food, movies, art, and above all, an authentic life. Gauri was a romantic, a revolutionary, a risk-taker, a fighter, a very special human being. Not just Bengaluru, but India is so much the poorer without her. Soon she will join the list of famous and deeply mourned but murdered journalists, writers, and public intellectuals. What a shame!

The longer her assassination remains unsolved, the more the warring political factions will benefit from it, blaming each other, trying to milk the tragedy to their own advantage. Till the facts are out — and I hope that the legal apparatus of the state leaves no stone unturned to book the culprits — let us refrain from asking who will ‘benefit’ the most from her killing. Let us ask, instead, who has lost the most. Not only the immediate members of her family, or her wide circle of friends and admirers in Bengaluru and India, but on the whole and in these troubled times, the fragile culture of democracy loses the most. If we miss her, value what she stood for, we must renew our commitment to the culture of democracy, discussion, debate, even dissent. We must oppose the culture of hatred, intolerance, and violence. Contestation, not detestation — that is what Gauri stood for, and that is what we must restore. Let us come together to condemn this killing; let the ‘centrist’ BJP and Congress issue a joint statement against political violence.

In our last meeting, which was a couple of years back, a noticeably older-looking, white-haired Gauri, excused herself and left early. “I have to close the issue,” she said with a wry smile. “Come over for a more relaxed evening…,” she added as she made her exit. That evening will never be. The issue she had to close was, of course, of Lankesh Patrike. This independent, advertisement-free journal she ran single-handedly managed for years after the passing of her father, the legendary P Lankesh, in 2000. That relaxed evening will now never be.

I want to end this tribute by recalling what her ex-husband, noted journalist Chidanand Rajghatta, said about her: “There was no doubt she was left of centre, even extreme left of centre. But her heart was in the right place, and there was no place in her world for violence. Only cowards took to violence.”

The author is a poet and professor at JNU. Views expressed are personal.