Henri Cartier-Bresson: In India Book

This is a collection of black and white photos of India from the Indian independence (late 1940s) to Indira Gandhi's government (mid-1960s).

The photos document a past era for sure but also, probably, a good part of Indian life today. A few pictures stand out: Muslim women praying at dawn with hands raised to the sky. In the aftermath of Gandhi's assassination, C-B's photos capture "fervent crowds" of people who "fight to touch the train carrying his ashes," of people "tossing flowers" on Gandhi's hearse. In another series of photos, one captures devotees who pay their respects at the funeral of Bhagavan Maharishi whose dead body, garland with flowers and mouth agape, is forced to sit up. Overall, the photos are simple in content. They are crisp and uncluttered. The picture of saris drying at the red fort in Delhi is pure symmetry.

A brief essay on Hinduism by Yves Vequaud introduces this book. The essay attempts to explain a pluralistic and complex religious heritage in just a few pages. "The gods of India," he writes, are "symbols of various forms of energy, of particular forces at work in the cosmos, which stems from the one and same deity...who...defies definition...[a] Being without duality." Vequaud then describes the role of the primary Hindu divinities (the Hindu "Trimurti") that come from Being (presumably, Brahman). Thus Vishnu is the (immanent) One in the world. Shiva is the disintegration of the immanent; all that exists is destroyed, and from this state, new existence emerges. Brahma (today a lesser deity) is said to be the driving, creative force that governs the relationship between existence (Vishnu) and non-existence (Shiva). I think the theme of all-pervading devotion ties this essay to the pictures.