Gandhi joins, from the left, his nephew Kanu (behind the microphone), secretary Sushila Pai, Anis Ahmed, and secretary Pyarelal for a prayer meeting in 1946.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
In a celebrated career spanning decades, LIFE photographer Margaret Bourke-White fearlessly documented countless facets of the human experience, from the aspirational (the building of Montana’s monumental Fort Peck Dam) to the barbaric (Nazi concentration camps). Her trailblazing assignments, for LIFE and as a freelancer, ranged from stories about the Soviet Union in the late 1920s to a riveting feature on segregation in the American South in the 1950s. She was the first woman photographer to fly on bombing runs into Germany during World War II. And on and on and on.
Bourke-White was also, it turns out, a friend to—as well as a close chronicler of the extraordinary life of—Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. It’s hardly surprising, really, that Bourke-White would be drawn to a figure like Gandhi. After all, for her entire career, she focused her lens on the human side of any issue—no matter how savage or unsettling the subject matter—and Gandhi’s emphasis on liberty and dignity in the face of brutal resistance and oppression spoke directly to her own passion for both justice and adventure.
Here, including many pictures never published in LIFE, are some of Bourke-White’s most revealing, intimate glimpses of the spiritual leader and revolutionary thinker known to generations of Hindus as the “Great Soul.”
Not published in LIFE. In 1946, Mohandas Gandhi sits next to a spinning wheel, a device used to make yarn or thread; the now-famous image came to symbolize the notion of Indian self-sufficiency — and thus independence from British rule.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Gandhi often went on hunger strikes as a method of anti-government resistance. Here in 1948, he's seen ending his last fast, which was intended to persuade Hindus and Muslims to work towards peace. Mere weeks after this picture was taken, a Hindu extremist would assassinate him as he headed to an evening prayer meeting.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Gandhi ends his final fast in 1948.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Before she was allowed to photograph Gandhi, Bourke-White was informed she would need to learn the spinning wheel. (She caught on quickly.) Her now-famous images of Gandhi working at his wheel, like this one from 1946, became an enduring representation of Gandhi's legacy.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. In 1946, an array of sandals and shoes lie outside the doorway of the flat occupied by Gandhi's personal secretary.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Mohandas Gandhi's long-eared goat, 1946Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Mira Ben Slade — a Gandhi disciple for more than two decades — pictured in India in 1946.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. The children of Gandhi's son, Devadas — from left, Gopu, Mahun, Ramchandra, and Tara — gather with Hindu leader Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari in 1946.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Sita Gandhi, a granddaughter of Gandhi, is seen at the Gandhi Colony compound in 1946.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. In 1946, 13-year-old Tara Gandhi, another Gandhi granddaughter, is pictured at the compound.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Using straw and hemp, Hindu workers make a khus khus (a large screen), which when dampened and placed in front of an open window will help to circulate cool air in Gandhi's bungalow.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Hindu men and women crowd around gray-bearded Anis Ahmed, a Muslim maulana (scholar), on the grounds of the Gandhi Colony during a twilight prayer meeting.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesGandhi joins, from the left, his nephew Kanu (behind the microphone), secretary Sushila Pai, Anis Ahmed, and secretary Pyarelal for a prayer meeting in 1946.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Mohandas Gandhi catches up on the news in 1946.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Gandhi, center, is shown walking with family members and an official (in suit) from the Friend's Ambulance Unit — an international organization focused on famine relief — in 1946.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. An Indian street vendor sells Gandhi figures in 1946.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. The wife of Indian activist and political leader Jai Prakash Narain departs with her child from Gandhi's nature clinic in 1946. She had been doing volunteer work there.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. In 1946, Gandhi (seated on a bed at top) leads evening prayers surrounded by his devoted disciples and followers.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Mourners crowd around Gandhi's body — he was killed by a lone gunman on Jan. 30, 1948 — as it lies in state. Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesMourners crowd the street below a terrace displaying the body of Gandhi after his assassination in New Delhi in 1948.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNot published in LIFE. Gandhi's five-hour funeral procession stretched over five and a half miles through the streets of Old and New Delhi, and included some 4,000 troops and more than a million mourners.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesMourners climb a telephone pole to observe Gandhi's funeral procession in January 1948.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesMourners gather around wood stacked for Gandhi's funeral pyre in 1948. His ashes were scattered on the holy Jumna River in New Delhi.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesJust 24 hours after his murder, Gandhi’s son set his funeral pyre aflame on the banks of New Delhi’s holy Jumna River, January 1948.Margaret Bourke-White—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
