I AM ON THE HIT LIST

A journalist's murder demonstrates India’s increasing vulnerability to terror.

In September 2017, Gauri Lankesh, a self-described “activist-journalist,” was killed at her home in Bangalore. Her assassination sparked protests and drew international attention to India’s rising culture of intolerance. Following years of reporting on southern India for the New Yorker and New York Times Magazine, Romig uses the story of Lankesh’s life and work, her murder and its investigation, to track India’s risky path from the “world’s largest democracy,” known for its religious plurality, toward the autocracy spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Covering a vast and diverse country, with centuries of relevant mythology and history, the author impressively synthesizes the various narrative threads that not only comprise Lankesh’s story, but also cast an urgent warning about India's trajectory. This is an ambitious project, and it can be challenging to track both time and characters over the course of the text. Lankesh’s murder case alone spanned more than five years and involved a multitude of co-conspirators and investigators. Romig considers the backstories for each possible motive and provides useful details on her subject’s family and the radicalized factions determined to define India as a Hindu state. Each time the narrative twists and turns between past and present, with militant groups, former colleagues, and acts of corruption and inefficiency beginning to bleed together, Romig smoothly, steadily reminds readers of the enormity of what is at stake. With religious discrimination and formerly fringe activists gaining notoriety and momentum, the compelling, sometimes chilling, text serves as a powerful vehicle for exploring India’s precarious position; questioning the role of religion and other institutions; and promoting the possibility for exemplary multicultural nationhood even as current events challenge such optimism.

A sharp, captivating, penetrating inquiry that evolves into something more profound than just a true-crime book.