Gauri Lankesh assassinated: Murder proves Hindutva patrons are imitating the very ideas they seem to detest

Those who use the gun to silence a dissenting voice are cowards destined to see the destruction of the very perverse idea they are trying to protect through fear and violence. The arc of moral universe, as Martin Luther King said, is long. But, in the end it always tilts towards justice. So, those who killed journalist Gauri Lankesh should be warned they would ultimately lose their battle against the collective conscience of humanity. Freedom of speech; right to dissent; courage to fight against bigotry, hatred and political oppression; and an individual’s ability to think independently have survived centuries of despots, dictators, demagogues and divisive ideologies. They will survive the current phase of Indian politics and majoritarian tyranny too. [caption id=“attachment_4015179” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A supporter holding the photo of Gauri Lankesh during her funeral in Bengaluru. PTI[/caption] The current trajectory of the arc of the moral universe slicing India in two parts is, of course, worrying. It is a portent of the long fight that awaits supporters of individual freedoms and rights against those who want to curtail them through intimidation and guns. It is shocking that India — a civilisation and culture that takes pride in its tradition of shastrarth (debate) — has become a country where expressing contrarion opinion is tantamount to a death sentence. It is a shame that journalists, who usually take unto themselves the responsibility of speaking up for the very ideals of humanity are being killed for doing their job. And, it is both horrifying and repulsive to note that there are people in this country who celebrate a murder because it gives them a sense of vindication for standing up for their perverse agendas and ideology. Nobody knows who killed Gauri Lankesh at her residence on Tuesday, though the modus operandi points at the usual suspects. But, we know who is celebrating her murder, justifying it as deserved karma of a “commie”, a “ku**ya” for whom all the “pups” are crying (the tweet was deleted).

The author of this tweet after #GauriLankesh assassination @nikhildadhich is "Honoured to be followed by PM". Need I add anything? https://t.co/jYf8pX9Itr

— Yogendra Yadav (@_YogendraYadav) September 5, 2017

In many ways, the reaction to her murder is a chilling reminder of the fact that patrons of Hindutva are imitating the very ideas they seem to detest. Their exultation, explanations and justifications are almost similar to the perverse arguments put forth by fanatics after the murder by Islamic extremists of bloggers in Bangladesh for their writings. It is evident — and they should be pitied for it — that they have become mirror image of the extremists they profess to hate. Their moral and intellectual perdition is complete.

Gauri Lankesh, of course, can’t be killed. Because, in death, she has become much more than a person. She is now an idea that humanity has protected through ages: that of individual freedom. This idea could not be defeated by Hitler, it could not be silenced by Stalin, it is raging a fierce battle against Islamic State and other extremists. Those who tried to silence Gauri Lankesh’s voice, thankfully, are much less powerful than those who have battled against freedoms guaranteed by humanity in the past. They will ultimately lose.

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They will lose because, as The Guardian had argued, after the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar on fabricated charges, there is a lot at stake here. The ongoing struggle is between those who would lay claim to India as a democratic, heterogeneous, inclusive and at least incipiently egalitarian national project, and those for whom nationalism has devolved into a lethal cocktail of aggressive religious assertion and equally ferocious unbridled capitalist growth, where neither the body count nor widening inequality indices matter, the newspaper had argued. What can be said with certainty with India is that every few decades, it goes through similar battles. Every few decades, an ideology or a tyrant threatens to change the basic character of the nation, which is of a tolerant, secular, liberal and inclusive democracy. In the end, history has shown, India’s core principals and ideals triumph. My favourite story of a brave woman fighting against bigotry, fundamentalism and majoritarian oppression is of singer Iqbal Bano, who defied Zia ul-Haq’s ban on saree and Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry by appearing on stage in a black saree and singing the poet’s famous composition, Hum Dekhenge. Inspired by her bravery, thousands of people rediscovered their courage and start shouting slogans against the despot. Gauri Lankesh’s death could be a similar moment in the fight against the evil forces that want to destroy civil liberties. If patrons of individual freedoms rediscover their courage, unite to speak up for India and its inherent values, her assassins could well regret their violence. Courage has been the defining trait of humanity. It can never die. Sometimes it takes a murder to remind us of this. Follow all the LIVE updates here