How Raghu Rai Captured an India in Transition

A poisonous gas leak from a pesticide plant on December 3, 1984 spread over Bhopal on a northern wind during wedding season and the Ijtema pilgrimage. The cloud, containing hydrogen cyanide, formed a thick deadly fog that smelled of bitter almonds. People gasped, turned blue, collapsed, or ran while inhaling toxic air. By sunrise, about three thousand people had died. More than four decades later, the disaster remains the deadliest industrial catastrophe in human history, with researchers estimating around half a million people still suffering long-term health effects, including permanent lung scarring and irreversible leg damage. The morning after the leak, photojournalist Raghu Rai arrived and photographed a father burying his infant child, with the father’s hand tenderly brushing rubble away from the child’s forehead.

"In the dark, predawn hours of December 3, 1984, a dense cloud of poisonous gas leaked from a pesticide plant and, borne on a soft, northern wind, enveloped Bhopal, a city in central India. It was wedding season, and the first night of the Ijtema, an annual gathering that had drawn thousands of Muslim pilgrims to the city. Celebrations were in full swing as the cloud descended on the metropolis in a thick, deadly fog that, owing to the presence of hydrogen cyanide, smelled of bitter almonds."

"Within minutes, revellers were gasping for breath; their nostrils quivered, their lips turned blue. Some ran from the fog, quickly depleting their last reserves of oxygen, and started to gulp lungfuls of toxic air. Others collapsed instantly. By the time the sun rose over the city, roughly three thousand people had died."

"More than four decades later, the Bhopal gas tragedy remains the deadliest industrial disaster in human history. Researchers estimate that half a million people are still suffering long-term health consequences, including cases in which their lungs were permanently scarred by the chemicals, or irreversible damage to their legs left them unable to walk."

"The morning after the leak, toxins still hanging in the air, Raghu Rai, a photojournalist from Delhi, arrived in the city to document the aftermath of the disaster. Amid the chaos, Rai found a father burying his infant child, no more than a year or two old, in the shallow dirt. Rai approached with his camera, bent down, and snapped a closeup shot of the corpse, half covered in soil. The child's eyes were swollen and milky, their mouth agape in a silent moan. At the top of the frame is the father's veiny hand, tenderly brushing rubble away from the infant's forehead."

Read at The New Yorker