Award-winning journalist Harinder Baweja, one of India’s most fearless conflict reporters, brings together four decades of frontline experience in her gripping new memoir They Will Shoot You, Madam: My Life Through Conflict, published by Roli Books. This landmark work chronicles her journey from the bloodied streets of Punjab in the 1980s to insurgency-ridden Jammu & Kashmir, and further across borders into Pakistan and war-ravaged Afghanistan, where even the Taliban refused to meet her eyes.

This book is not only a personal narrative of Baweja’s life as a reporter but also a ground-level account of the sociology and psychology of violence. Through vivid dispatches and reflections, she examines how religion, radicalisation, political decisions and official apathy fracture nations and communities, create fresh fault lines, and trap ordinary people in cycles of trauma.

Baweja’s reporting began in 1984—a cataclysmic year that changed India and her own life forever. Covering the anti-Sikh riots that followed Indira Gandhi’s assassination and the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, she was thrown into the heart of conflict at a time when few women reporters ventured into such danger. These experiences shaped not only her journalism but her entire worldview, making her one of the rare chroniclers who blends empathy with unflinching observation.

Belonging to a generation of journalists who “walked the talk”, Baweja built trusted sources, navigated hair-raising situations and focused relentlessly on the non-combatants—the civilians forever caught between militants and the state. For Baweja, journalism was never just a job; it was a calling that could not be taught in a classroom but had to be lived on the ground.

They Will Shoot You, Madam also situates Baweja’s personal story within the seismic events that have shaped India’s contemporary history. From insurgencies and terror strikes to cross-border tensions and policy failures, she offers a rare insider’s view of the hidden stories behind the headlines.

The author of A Soldier’s Diary: Kargil – The Inside Story and contributor to notable anthologies including 26/11: Mumbai Attacked and Most Wanted: Profiles of Terror, Baweja has been recognised with some of India’s highest honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Prabha Dutt Award and the Haldighati Award.

Published by Roli Books, They Will Shoot You, Madam: My Life Through Conflict is both a memoir and a history lesson—a courageous, deeply reported narrative that takes readers behind the headlines to the heart of India’s most turbulent chapters. For anyone seeking to understand the forces shaping modern India, and the human cost of conflict, this is essential reading.