life:

On this day in 1948 Gandhi was assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic. 

In a career spanning more than two decades, photographer Margaret Bourke-White fearlessly documented many facets of the human experience. Her astonishing portfolio ranged from trailblazing assignments in the Soviet Union in the late 1920s, to capturing the horrors of the Buchenwald concentration camp upon its liberation in 1945. And Bourke-White’s focus on humanitarian issues — showcased in these stunning images of Mohandas Gandhi in India — was equally renowned. 

Pictured here in 1946, the leader sits next to a spinning wheel, a device used to make yarn or thread; the image came to symbolize Indian self sufficiency — and thus independence from British rule.

(see more — Gandhi: Glimpses of a Legend)