Mahatma Gandhi the day before and the morning of his death

On this day in 1948, the Indian peace activist Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. Magnum founder Henri Cartier-Bresson was in India at the time and photographed Gandhi the day before and the morning of his death.

DELHI, India—Birla House. Gandhi dictates a message, just before breaking his final fast. He had been fasting to protest the partition of India, 1948.

DELHI, India—Birla House. Gandhi the day before his assassination, 1948.

DELHI, India—Birla House. Gandhi on the last day of his fast, the day before his assassination, 1948.

DELHI, India—Birla House. Gandhi, just after breaking his fast, 1948.

DELHI, India—Birla House. An interview with Gandhi the day before his assassination, 1948.

DELHI, India—Gandhi leaving a Muslim shrine. This is one of the last appearances between the end of his fast and his death, 1948.

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DELHI, India—Birla House. In Gandhi’s bedroom just after he died. A group of his supporters surround the body. The crowd in the garden was tightly pushed up against Birla House all night. I managed to get to the window and after having wiped away with my elbow the marks from people's foreheads that had smudged the windowpane, I had just enough time to take a picture before I was carried away by another push of the crowd, 1948.

DELHI, India—Birla House. Jawaharlal Nehru, prime minister of India, announces Gandhi's assassination to a crying crowd, 1948.

DELHI, India—Gandhi’s funeral. Crowds gathered between Birla House and the cremation ground, 1948.

DELHI, India—Gandhi’s funeral. Crowds gathered between Birla House and the cremation ground, throwing flowers, 1948.

DELHI, India—Gandhi's funeral. Mourners along the route between Birla House and the cremation grounds, 1948.

DELHI, India—Gandhi's funeral. Mourners along the route between Birla House and the cremation grounds, 1948.

DELHI, India—The cremation of Gandhi. Gandhi's secretary watches the first flames of the funeral pyre, 1948.

DELHI, India—The crowd watching Gandhi’s ashes being scattered, 1948.

DELHI, India—Crowds lined the railway tracks for the opportunity to pay homage to Gandhi's ashes, which were being taken by train to the River Ganges, where some were to be scattered, 1948.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—An anti–Gulf War demonstration, 1990.

NEW YORK CITY—A statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Union Square Park