Gauri Lankesh’ last wish was a Kerala beef dish, and it’s Onam again, 8 years later

Eight years ago, followers and supporters recall, on 5 September 2017, Gauri Lankesh tweeted — mere hours before she was killed — to congratulate Keralites on their celebration of Onam, “religious differences be damned!!!!! [sic]”.

Her plea to “my Mallu friends” to keep up their spirit of secularism — which is what is behind, she wrote, Kerala citizens calling their state ‘God’s own country’, in a taunt to the religious right-wing, aka ‘cheddis’ — included what was to become perhaps her last unfulfilled wish:

“PS: hopefully next time I am God’s own country, someone will get me nice Kerala beef dish!!!!”

Today, in 2025, 5 September is Thiruvonam again — as well as, of course, Teacher’s Day.

So what have we to learn this day from Gauri Lankesh’s fate — and her spirit that lives on?

One of the lessons we have was articulated just yesterday by the Bombay High Court, transferring a set of defamation suits to Maharashtra because the accused — Hamid Dabholkar, son of another slain activist, Narendra Dabholkar, and yet another journalist, Nikhil Wagle — successfully argued there was a legitimate threat to themselves from the right-wing fundamentalist petitioner they had allegedly defamed, the Sanatan Sanstha.

That lesson is that certain right-wing organisations can present a "reasonable and genuine" threat, as the court put it — and it said this in response to the petitioners highlighting the past killings of individuals critical of that group’s ideology. That list including Narendra Dabholkar and Gauri Lankesh as well as Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalburgi.

Another lesson here, also a court-ly one, is that about the speed of justice in India.

The Asia chapter of the Committee to Protect Journalists, an international advocacy group for media personnel, posted with the hashtag #India to “[urge] the Karnataka state government to push for the establishment of a fast-track court to bring her killers to justice”.

“Gauri Lankesh’s murder is emblematic because it is not an isolated case,” CPJ regional director Beh Lih Yi, a veteran journalist from Malaysia, is quoted as saying, because “[killing] a journalist has become one of the world’s safest crimes — not only in autocratic regimes, but also in democracies.

“India must break the culture of impunity around journalist killings and ensure timely justice.”

A lesson there for the ‘mother of democracy’ then?

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, to whom the CPJ Asia message was primarily directed, was one of the politicians to post a public tribute to Lankesh: “Remembering dear Gauri — who laid don her life fearlessly opposing communal hatred and standing firm for democratic values.”

Remembering Lankesh as someone “compassionate and fearless”, the office of the CM of Karnataka posted several lessons we could take from her this day:

“Gauri Lankesh dreamt of a society rooted in harmony and fearlessly stood up to communal forces.

“For that very courage, she fell to the bullets of terror elements.

“Though she is no longer with us, the path of humanism she illuminated remains before us — and it is our duty to walk it.”

The Indian National Congress, of which Siddaramaiah is a veteran leader, has been one of the political parties to salute her as a whole too, for her “fearless journalism and unwavering fight against injustice”.

“She became the voice of truth and courage in the face of hate, and her legacy continues to inspire the struggle for democracy and freedom,” the Congress posted on social media today.

Another salute, a ‘laal salaam’, came from the CPI(M) — fittingly, a Left party for a journalist oft-derided as ‘leftist’, as though it’s a slur (it’s become one of those fighting words this century, has it not, worldwide?). The Puducherry wing posted in tribute to her life dedicated to “fighting caste discrimination and right-wing Hindu extremism”.

And that’s another lesson in values to pick up, perchance, for those who dare in New India.

As for the trial, it began only on 4 July 2022 — for a murder committed in 2017. The July date came eight whole months after the charges had been first framed, and clearly this is expeditious, when that framing of charges took four years! 

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) charged 18 suspects — for Gauri’s murder and for running an organised crime syndicate. Of these, one ‘wanted person’ is still at large three years later, though at least 17 are under arrest.

Articulating the lesson here might be a spot challenging for some of us, so we will leave the discerning reader to educate themselves and discern.

Some will also recall today, perhaps — alongside Lankesh — a young man called Umar Khalid... another activist, this one also awaiting a trial for justice to be done.

Khalid, who has been in custody in the 2020 Delhi Riots case since then, was just denied bail yet again — you might have called him an ‘under-trial prisoner’, except not even a trial seems forthcoming in the near future for him. Khalid was one who celebrated Lankesh on 6 September 2018, remembering “the spirit with which she lived — happy, rebellious and fearless”.

Khalid, often labelled an ‘urban naxal’ by certain powers that be and their followers, counted himself fortunate to see in the front-row seat at his address at JNU another particular activist — also a theatre and literary giant — named Girish Karnad, who came in a wheelchair with a oxygen tube in his nose, and a placard around his neck that read 'Me Too Urban Naxal', which would become a trending hashtag, alongside #WeAreGauri.

Yes, even great men (and women and other genders and ages of citizens) took inspiration from Gauri Lankesh, and are striving still to live up to her legacy.

In these bleak times, when the wheels of justice grind exceedingly slow and uncertain, perhaps there is solace to be found in that much.

In that, and a dish of coconut-ty Kerala-style beef.