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Rollo Romig’s nonfiction book I Am on the Hit List brings together the life of journalist Gauri Lankesh, her 2017 assassination and the wider questions her murder raises about free speech, journalism and democracy in India. Scroll’s January 2025 excerpt gives the subtitle as Murder and Myth-making in South India; India Today identifies the book as a Context, a Westland Books imprint, title. Coverage varies on the subtitle, so readers should check the edition they are considering.
What is Rollo Romig’s book about Gauri Lankesh?
I Am on the Hit List is narrative nonfiction that follows Lankesh’s life and the investigation into her assassination while examining the political and media environment around her. The book’s scope extends beyond the crime itself: it considers what the killing means for journalism, free expression and democracy in India. India Today describes it as a nonfiction title published under Context, a Westland Books imprint.
Romig has framed the book as both a tribute to Lankesh and a reflection on the country’s political direction. India Today quotes him describing it as “a tribute to the India I love, and to those Indians who are defending it from the forces that want to narrow it into something rigid and homogenous and cruel. It’s also a celebration of one extraordinary and delightfully complicated Indian, Gauri Lankesh.” That is the author’s stated perspective, not a court’s assessment of the case.
Who was Gauri Lankesh?
Lankesh was a journalist and editor of the Kannada weekly Gauri Lankesh Patrike. OCCRP reports that she wrote about disinformation and faced online harassment. Her final editorial ended with the words: “I want to salute all those who expose fake news. I wish there were more of them.” The line, reproduced by OCCRP, links her work on misinformation to the broader questions of public debate and press freedom that Romig’s book explores.
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What happened in the Gauri Lankesh murder case?
OCCRP reports that Lankesh was murdered in September 2017. In its account, prosecutors alleged that religious fanatics associated with Hindu nationalism were responsible and that alleged members of an organized crime syndicate were on trial. These are descriptions of the prosecution’s case in that reporting, not findings of guilt.
India Today reported in January 2025 that accused persons had been granted bail. That dated report does not establish the case’s status or outcome as of October 2026. The material available here does not support a current claim about the proceedings.
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How does the book connect the assassination to Indian democracy?
Romig’s account places the murder alongside Lankesh’s journalism and the conflicts surrounding public speech, disinformation and political identity. Its democratic questions are therefore not separate from the investigation: they concern the conditions in which journalists work, the pressures they face and what a society loses when a journalist is killed.
Romig has said “the book’s central mystery is not who murdered Gauri” but “how she managed to live so fully and touch so many different kinds of people,” as reported by India Today. The phrasing signals a focus on Lankesh’s life and reach as well as the crime. Context publisher Ajitha GS described the book as “a murder investigation that’s also an enquiry into the state of India; in its enquiry of two other unconnected murders.” That description is the publisher’s interpretation of the book’s design.
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What to know about the title and subtitle
Coverage does not use a single subtitle consistently. Scroll’s January 13, 2025 excerpt presents the title as I Am on the Hit List: Murder and Myth-making in South India, while India Today identifies I Am on the Hit List as the book title and names its publisher and imprint. Confirm the cover and edition details when looking up the book; no current retail availability is established here.
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