A lifelong journalist, Narasimhan worked at The Hindu, a daily newspaper in Madras, India, and later worked with the Deccan Herald in Bangalore. As the editor of the Indian Express in 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declaring emergency rule, imposed censorship on newspapers and pressured them to report only good news about her.
Most papers complied, but Narasimhan refused, standing firmly for freedom of expression. Narasimhan died March 9 in Puttaparthy, Andhra Pradesh state, at the retreat of a Hindu ascetic. He was 88.