Gandhi and the Spinning Wheel
Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White
Date: 1946
Location: Pune (Poona), India
Margaret Bourke-White photographed Mahatma Gandhi at his spinning wheel — a charkha — at the Birla House in Pune, India, in 1946. Gandhi insisted that Bourke-White learn to spin on a charkha before he would agree to be photographed; she spent time practicing and was photographed herself at the wheel before being granted the portrait session. The spinning wheel was a powerful symbol of Gandhi's philosophy of swadeshi — economic self-sufficiency — and of the Indian independence movement. The image appeared in Life magazine and became one of the most famous portraits of Gandhi. Bourke-White, who was among Life magazine's four founding photographers and one of the first women accredited as a war correspondent, photographed Gandhi just days before his assassination in January 1948.
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