India : The Definitive Images : 1858 to the Present

"India: The Definitive Images contains stunning black-and-white and colour pictures by photographers of great repute-among them, Raghubir Singh, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Margaret Bourke-White, Raghu Rai and Steve McCurry-some of whom have captured the beauty, others the moment. Thus, along with timeless images of everyday life-women caught in a monsoon shower; crowds in the busy lanes of Old Delhi-there are photographs of epoch-making events and personalities: the grisly aftermath of the 1857 revolution; the birth of free India and the tragedy of partition; Gandhi with his spinning wheel; the 1971 Indo-Pak war; the demolition of the Babri Mosque; Mother Teresa at prayer. Also reproduced in the collection are the most popular stills from mainstream cinema, a tribute to the medium that continues to rule the imagination of a sixth of humanity." (jacket)