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Series looking at photographs of ten icons. How Mahatma Gandhi used photography to help bring the British Empire to its knees.

Mahatma Gandhi, the man who brought the British Empire to its knees, was a master of media manipulation. For a non-violent campaigner who employed protest, prayer and fasting, the photograph was one of the mightiest weapons in the fight to liberate India.

In April 1930, the world held its breath as an old man, dressed only in a loin cloth, bent down at the shore of the Arabian Sea to pick up a handful of salt, thereby breaking the law. Photographers from around the world captured this small act of protest, and it was these photographs that shook the foundations of the empire.

We trace the unknown history of Gandhi's life in front of the camera, from an 18-year-old dandy in London and his rapport with Life magazine photographer Margaret Bourke White, to Cartier-Bresson's haunting images of the millions that mourned at the funeral of the Father of the Nation.

29 minutes

Music Played

  • Talvin Singh

    Butterfly

Credits

Role Contributor
Narrator Neil Pearson
Director Sally Benton

Broadcasts