With over one hundred beautifully reproduced photographs, this volume documents Henri Cartier-Bresson's lifelong fascination with India. These dramatic images, produced over six visits from India's birth as a nation through the early 1980s, are shaped by an eye & a mind legendary for their intelligent empathy & graphic honesty. Cartier-Bresson's extraordinary gifts of observation & his famous "mantle of invisibility," as well as his connections with figures such as Nehru, allow him to capture the essence of India--a land renowned for its contradictions & variety. His pictures of Hindus in refugee camps after the Partition or beggars in Calcutta speak with the same passion & authority as those of the Maharaja of Baroda's sumptuous birthday celebrations or Ghandi's funeral. With unparalleled skill Cartier-Bresson selects apparently ordinary scenes from the market, temple, or countryside that have the power to put us in direct touch with the very spirit of a country & its people. Accompanying text by renowned Indian film director Satyajit Ray completes this unique & stirring portrait of India.