In the 1940s, when the term photojournalist had perhaps not even entered popular vocabulary, some photographers captured some truly momentous moments in history. Prominent among them was American Margaret Bourke-White who worked for the pictorial Life magazine. She was the first female war correspondent and also the first American to be allowed into the Soviet Union, where apart from documenting the industrialisation of the country she got to photograph Josef Stalin.

But her most acknowledged work was in the subcontinent (read Pakistan and India) during its tumultuous years (1947-48) when she took photographs which are worth their weight in diamonds, if one may slightly alter the saying.

She had earlier been sent to India in March 1946 where her major assignment was to photograph Mahatma Gandhi. It proved to be a more difficult task than she could have imagined. It was on the day in a week when the Mahatma observed complete silence. He was spinning the wheel, turning cotton into yarn, when the lady with a heavy camera arrived on the scene.

Pyarelal, his secretary, imposed the condition that she had to work on the spinning wheel first to be able to assess the greatness of his master.

And while she did the needful she was allowed to use only three flash bulbs. In those days a bulb would only work once. The room was not well lighted. The camera and its tripod failed her twice but on the third attempt she took a memorable photograph of the leader. Later, courtesy of Fatima Jinnah, she also got Mr Jinnah to pose for her. She is also responsible for a rare picture of the brother and sister, both wearing broad disarming smiles.

Also featured in the book under review, Witness to Life and Freedom: Margaret Bourke-White in India and Pakistan, are photographs of other political leaders, nawabs and maharajahs as well as pictures of the common people. She also photographed scenes of Gandhi’s funeral from various angles.

An interesting image reflecting the mood prevailing in the Muslim League camp is that of a young party member, the salar of the Quaid-i-Azam, making a fiery speech. Thus between the covers there is a large variety of photographs. But what remain etched in one’s memory are the haunting images of the riots that came in the wake of partition. The photographer has focussed largely on the frightening events in the two Punjabs, before and after partition. The photographs of dead bodies lying on the railway tracks in Amritsar, of human skeletons deprived of flesh by dozens of vultures, and mass burials by bulldozers are truly heart-wrenching.

The last two pictures featured in the book have no caption and the locations are not mentioned, but they could have been taken on either side of the Wagah border for brutality and barbarism prevailed everywhere. Cases in point are the photographs of caravans of helpless people — men, women and children — trudging towards a safer destination, not sure whether they would be able to make it.

Bourke-White was an outstanding woman in many ways. In heat and humidity and with the stench of rotting human bodies all around, she lugged heavy cameras, rolls of films and boxes of flash bulbs and did her job with demonic energy. She met deadlines and sent her exposed films by air to her office. This was the time when air services were very limited.

The text in the volume is no less memorable. A chapter reproduced in the book from Vicky Goldberg’s biography of Margaret Bourke-White is as much about the photographer as about the difficult times and arduous circumstances that she was working in.

We also learn that she was an attractive woman who had conquered many men. Her ‘victims’ included the celebrated Indian journalist Frank Moraes. ‘She invited warring officials who could barely sit down together at conferences… They all liked Margaret, who dressed up to provoke their delight in a backless halter-top dress cleverly run up from a sequined paisley scarf. Sworn enemies became gentlemen accomplices for a few hours, men who were professionally rude to each other reverted to politeness all evening.’ But when it came to her work she forgot everything, including her own inconveniences and often her own safety.

Goldberg lapses into inaccuracy at least once when he misquotes the Quaid-i-Azam: ‘We shall have India divided or we shall have India destroyed.’ As one who has read all of Mr Jinnah’s statements and speeches, this reviewer has never spotted any such remark. Goldberg doesn’t quote the context or the place where this blatant statement was allegedly issued.

The volume is interspersed with comments from Bourke-White’s book on her experiences in India. They act as suitable commentaries on the images selected for publication. So gripping was her role in the two years that Richard Attenborough got Candice Bergen to play the character in his Oscar-winning film Gandhi.

Pramod Kapoor has conceived and compiled a volume which stands out both in terms of style and substance. He deserves praise for cataloguing the contribution of an extraordinary woman and in the process putting together an invaluable work on a gory chapter in our history.

Witness to Life and Freedom: Margaret Bourke-White in India and Pakistan(HISTORY)Concept, text and visuals by Pramod KapoorRoli Books, New DelhiISBN 978-81-7436-699-3148pp. Rs995