In a scenario reminiscent of an apocalyptic story, people began to perish due to a toxic gas leak in the central Indian city of Bhopal during the early hours of December 3, 1984. I was in bed when my editor asked me to accompany a group of our journalists to report on the worst industrial disaster in central India.
Indore is nearly 200 km from Bhopal, from where we headed directly to Hamidia Hospital. Upon our arrival, we saw bloated corpses lying around and individuals being transported to the hospital. The scene was filled with death, devastation and sorrow.
To our surprise, we found a large group of national and international reporters had already flooded the city. To be honest, I did not fully comprehend the severity of the disaster at first when I expressed my eagerness to visit Bhopal.
On the hospital compound, we found people still wandering around in a daze, unable to find their loved ones and barely able to see or breathe. Defence personnel positioned to maintain a smooth the flow of people, preventing the usual pushing and shoving.
At the Union Carbide factory, where the methyl isocyanide gas leaked, dead bodies lay on the ground, being collected and loaded onto a waiting truck. Everywhere one looked, people were retching and wracked by violent coughing.
Cremation and burial sites were overcrowded, leaving little room for personal preferences. For Hindus, large stacks of wood were prepared, and bodies were placed on them for cremation. For Muslims and others, the burial process involved a three-layered grave system, where a body was interred, followed by a layer of soil, then another body, and finally more soil.
Indian and international newspapers provided extensive coverage, often featuring graphic images of the deceased and injured in special editions and headlines.
One of the most well-known and haunting images of the tragedy is a black-and-white photograph showing the body of a baby girl, almost completely covered by debris, with an unknown hand gently wiping dust from her face. Her eyes were swollen and cloudy due to gas exposure.
This chilling photo, which encapsulates the terror of the Bhopal gas disaster, was taken by none other than Raghu Rai, a name closely associated with Indian photography. He died at a private hospital in Delhi after a prolonged battle with cancer.
Even today, the child’s image resurfaces on social media whenever tragic events are mentioned. It is not just a picture but encapsulates profound pain and a complete story within itself. Upon seeing it, people around the world were deeply moved. For years, this photo remained the most poignant symbol of the tragedy.
I wrote all of this because I was beside him at a cremation ground in Bhopal while he was taking photographs, although I did not know much about him except that he was a photographer working for India Today magazine. I only remembered it a week later when I saw the photograph on the cover page of India Today.
“At that moment, I wondered whether it was ethical to take this picture. But then I realised that if I didn’t capture it, the world would never know what truly happened there. Photography is a responsibility, and in that moment, my job was to document that injustice,” he later said in an interview.
Raghu Rai, the legendary photographer who shaped India’s visual memory for over five decades, passed away on Sunday. Today, as Rai is no longer with us, people are paying tribute to him by remembering this photograph.
From the aftermath of the Bhopal gas tragedy to capturing Mother Teresa in quiet reflection or the Dalai Lama in moments of calm, Raghu Rai’s work remains among the most enduring visual records of political power in India. Rai's images have shaped how India perceives its most defining events.
As he explained in one of his interviews, photography was a form of spiritual engagement with the world for him. He said, "Once I pick up my camera, I am driven by the ever-changing energy of life and nature," he said.
No doubt, his influence lives on through the individuals he guided and the enduring effect of his photographs. He depicted the photographer not as a commanding figure but as a channel through which reality briefly becomes evident.
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