In the battle between the pen (persuasion) and the sword (force), history had always sided with the pen. The sword can yield a short term gain which is unsustainable without the sword and sooner or later people rebel.

Gauri Lankesh is the latest victim to the bigotry and fundamentalism that killed the other prominent freethinkers and social reformers like Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, Bhagwan Kalburgi, and countless others who have been silenced.

Gauri Lankesh was gunned down last evening in Bangalore. She was an independent journalist and voiced her concerns through her writings and oftentimes with her fiery speeches. She came from Lingayat community: the community that rose all over the state of Karnataka against the Hindu fundamentalists and RSS/BJP.

The Lingayats declared their faith as outside the “Brahminical Hindu Religion”. They raised the banner of revolt against Brahminism.

Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh came from the social reformist background and they have always criticized the Right wing Hindu organization to the extent that they even questioned the authority of the Hindu religion.

The current Indian situation is worst than the known authoritarian states. The policies of the Government are pro-establishment. The RSS/BJP in the garb of Government is trying to further the agenda of its clients: the Brahmins and Banias. The state machinery is used to meet those ends that serve the interests of the upper caste in India. But the worst thing that is happening in this country is the killings of the dissenting voices against this Brahminical dictatorship.

We have to stop this madness and this inhuman intolerant RSS/BJP Government.

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale, Human Rights Activist