In 1947, the legendary French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson embarked on a three-year journey across Asia. It was the first of six trips he'd make to the region over the next 40 years. His first stop was India, just after the country gained independence from the British Empire. Centred on his images of Mahatma Gandhi, the aftermath of his assassination, and his funeral procession, this body of work represents one of the most invaluable archives of India's modern history.
Advised by Magnum Photos co-founder Robert Capa to make more journalistic and documentary photographs, and also to visit India, Cartier-Bresson originally set out to create a photo essay that would capture the essence of the country — its past and present at a time of rapid social and political changes resulting from the postwar collapse of the British colonial empire. The Partition of the country into India and Pakistan along religious fault-lines, however, plunged the region into social and political unrest. What was meant to be a document of the birth of India as a modern nation, soon became a document of the death of Mahatma Gandhi, one of its founding fathers.
On 30th January, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi — who had been protesting and leading multi-faith prayers at the Birla House in New Delhi to seek an end to the communal riots and violence which had broken out between Hindus and Muslims following the Partition — was assassinated by the Hindu Nationalist terrorist Nathuram Godse. Only the day before, Cartier-Bresson had made one of the last photographs of the Mahatma.
As news of Gandhi's murder spread like wildfire across India, Cartier-Bresson unexpectedly found himself witness to a major historical event the echoes of which are still rippling across the fabric of time today.
An astute photographer, he returned once again to Birla House to document Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s announcement of Gandhi’s death. Cartier-Bresson’s quiet pictures of Gandhi’s body lying in state led to a commission from Life magazine to document the funeral, and his solemn black and white photographs captured silence and grief in a moment of chaos, confusion, and collective grief.
These photographs Cartier-Bresson made in the aftermath of Gandhi’s death not only offer a unique visual record of this decisive moment, but also epitomise, although perhaps not intentionally, what makes for iconic photojournalism.
To learn more about Henri Cartier-Bresson's visions of India, read Henri Cartier-Bresson in India (Thames & Hudson, 2006).
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