Raghu Rai’s photographs immortalised India’s soul, capturing humanity, faith, suffering, and beauty with unmatched depth and compassion
Raghu Rai the legendary photographer was born in Jhang (now Pakistan) on 18th December 1942 and died on 26th April ’26 in New Delhi at a hospital. He died of cancer which had spread. He leaves behind a body of work that can best be described as contemporary India’s visual history, for each of his photographs speaks to you and leaves an unerasable impression.
Raghu as he was known to friends was tall, handsome and very strong. He carried his camera close to his body like an inner eye, believing in the concept of ‘darshan’. He once said, ‘kehte hein kan kan meinbhagwan hein’ – that god exists in every grain. You must have the ability to connect with anything and everything; significant or mundane, precious or ordinary’. He added, ‘if you start caring for everything, everything around you starts to care for you in some way, and you stand connected not only with the physical but the emotional and spiritual aspect’. It was that serendipity that emerged in his photography.
Educated as a civil engineer he hated his mundane job but his elder brother, S. Paul was a photographer and he inspired him to get started in 1965. The place where he was working soon folded up but he joined The Statesman—which at that time was a newspaper with a formidable credibility and reputation—as its chief photographer in the following year. The Statesman started printing half page photos on the weekend in black and white and many of them were Raghu Rai’s photos.
Raghu had an amazing way to connect with people and he used it to get close so that a wide range of people gave him intimate access to their lives. Just a few of them were: Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Dalai Lama and Satyajit Ray. Indira Gandhi allowed Raghu to photograph her taking out cutlery for a dinner party, having a spiritual moment and the iconic photograph of all the ministers standing around her table in a subservient manner as she remains seated, is inimitable Raghu Rai. This led to his first book, ‘A Life in the Day of Indira Gandhi’ published by Nachiketa Publications a publishing division of The Statesman. I must share something that is part of both our family and political history. The Emergency was declared on the night of 25th June 1975 and draconian arrests occurred under MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) of journalists, editors, activists and trade unionists. Under MISA there was no bail, much like the dreaded UAPA right now. My father, Viren Chhabra who worked for the ‘The Statesman’ and was in-charge of the printing along with being the director of the Nachiketa Publications was working late at his office when a policeman walked in with a warrant of arrest for him. What I describe is what was told to me when I was a school girl of fifteen but has remained etched in my mind forever. Viren Chhabra thought fast knowing that there was no bail under the Emergency. He started showing the policeman, Raghu Rai’s book, ‘A Life In The Day of Indira Gandhi’. Raghu Rai’s book meant freedom for what could have been another MISA detenu, for the cop left with the book and not him! Whenever Raghu and I met, we would remember the time of the Emergency with horror and yet this incident with utter relief.
Mother Teresa never liked being photographed for she believed her work with the Missionaries of Charity was a silent prayer to God. But Raghu built such a bond with her that she allowed him intimate access, even when she was praying. Mother Teresa believed that no one should die alone and uncared for and she and the Sisters nurtured the homeless and the dying; this utter compassion was captured with humane insight by Raghu Rai’s lens. This led to his books, ‘Mother Theresa: A Life of Dedication’ and ‘Faith and Compassion: The Life and Work of Mother Theresa’.
Raghu credited Desmond Doig the founder-editor of ‘The Junior Statesman’ later ‘JS’ for introducing him to Calcutta. The photographs are both timeless and classical; the hurly burly of trams, cars, cyclists and people running to catch a bus and the way life is lived just on the street. This led to his exquisite book, ‘Calcutta’ with an insightful and valuable text by Desmond Doig, a great friend of India who lived, loved and wrote about India and the region.
In 1971 Raghu recorded the birth pangs of the creation of a nation, Bangladesh. His photos of two frail boys carrying their old mother and an old man and woman, frail, barely clothed remain forever etched in our hearts. India welcomed these refugees with open arms at that time; we as school children gathered money and donated blood for them; who ever invented the term ‘ghuspetiyas’ (infiltrators) came much later.
In 1977 Raghu Rai’s work was spotted at an exhibition by Henri Cartier Bresson who appointed him as a photojournalist to Magnum Photos.
Raghu Rai also brought out ‘Taj Mahal’ with a text by Usha Rai his first wife with whom he had two children, Lagan and Nitin Rai. The photographs are not only of hitherto unknown dimensions of the Taj Mahal a monument to love but have a spiritual quality with the shimmering waters of the Yamuna and people praying as a place of pilgrimage.
His book ‘Tibet in Exile’ is an exquisite visual record of the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala and the Tibetans. The photographs reveal their religious ceremonies, meditation and their remarkable resilience as they remain refugees in India in exile from their beloved homeland, Tibet. It is also a tribute to the Dalai Lama for keeping his people non-violent as they live and work in India. Raghu also found spiritual solace with the Dalai Lama whom he referred to as his guru. He photographed him for many years on his multifaith walk through the different religious places in Delhi.
His pictures were luminous; some were silent poems and a few were silent screams but each told you there is something sacred within everyone, big or small. However, some of his pictures became iconic; such as the child being buried—its glazed eyes staring—with his father’s hand on his head from the Bhopal gas tragedy. His Kumbh mela photos and the sadhus with esoteric rites and the teeming masses who believe. Framing the brooding Satyajit Ray—whom he always called Dadu—as he visualizes his frames on a set of his film and even walking by the boats with the skyline of Calcutta.
In later years, Raghu Rai became a mentor to growing initiatives and was supportive of the Museo Camera—India’s first Museum of Photography—founded by the amazing photographer, Aditya Arya. Raghu Rai opened the exhibition of the Hungarian photographer, Robert Capa who was killed by a land mine while photographing the war in Vietnam. Raghu was surrounded by young and aspiring photographers who he loved engaging with. In a personal conversation Raghu revealed that he missed the earlier era which was ‘so pure’ as one knew a photograph was a document that had not been tampered. However, Raghu embraced the digital camera in 2003 with his own unique style of photography.
What Ravi Shankar was to Indian classical music and M.F Hussain was to painting, Raghu Rai was to photography. He symbolized a whole era which was liberal, open and much more tolerant. In his conversations he was extremely personable. He knew how to be humane as he dealt with the breadth of humanity in his photographs; the living and the dying, the monuments and always the humans in the landscapes. He will be deeply missed but his legacy endures in his photographs which is a visual record of a diverse India of its myriad ways of living, religions and amazing people. His photographs are finally the essence of India.
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Sagari Chhabra is an awardwinning writer & film-maker. She is the founder-director of the Hamaara Itihaas Archives of Freedom Fighters.
