New Delhi July 25 (IANS) Firebrand writer Gauri Lankesh s journalism was "mandatory" and flowed from her activism her former husband and author of "Illiberal India: Gauri Lankesh and the Age of Unreason" Chidanand Rajghatta said on Wednesday.
The book (Westland/Rs 299/242 pages) examines the lives of two people -- his own and that of Lankesh -- against the "volatile backdrop of an increasingly fractious and intolerant India".
"The two strands come together in the gutting death of a courageous woman who took on these forces and fought for a more equitable society a better India " the publisher said in a statement.
"Following in the method of previous murders of rationalists M.M. Kalburgi Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar Lankesh s murder chilled the nation sparking off protests across India " it said adding that the larger forces that killed these four activists continue to grow.
Saying Lankesh was working close to the ground the author of this personal-is-political narrative added that she became an activist-journalist from a journalist-activist.
Rajghatta and Lankesh had remained friends after ending their 5-year marriage.
An open critic of the "burgeoning Hindutva faction in Karnataka and elsewhere in India and a strident supporter of separate-religion status for Lingayats" Lankesh was shot dead on September 5 2017.
US-based Rajghatta is the foreign editor of The Times of India and has authored "The Horse That Flew: How India s Silicon Gurus Spread Their Wings" earlier.
"Illiberal India: Gauri Lankesh and the Age of Unreason" is published by Westland under their new literary imprint Context.
The book launch was followed by a discussion with Rajghatta and senior journalist Manoj Mitta.

--IANS sj/vd