The exhibition
Twenty-one historical photographs, arranged in seven rooms. Every image is shown whole — nothing is cropped to fit a grid. Select any photograph to enlarge it; use the arrow keys or swipe to move between them.
About these photographsMost are undated press or family photographs that have circulated in print and online for decades. Where a photograph carries its own printed caption, that caption is quoted. Where individuals other than Rajaji cannot be identified with confidence, they are not named.
Early life and family
Portraiture and the household. Rajaji’s wife died in 1916 and he did not remarry; the family that grew around him is the subject of the group photograph here.
The freedom movement
Gandhi, the Congress organisation and the political workers of the Madras Presidency, between 1919 and independence.
Madras
The province he governed twice: public meetings, the working day of an administrator, and the Congress colleagues of the Madras years.
Government House
Governor of West Bengal from August 1947; Governor-General of India from June 1948 until the office ended on 26 January 1950.
Political ideas
The people he argued with, and the platforms he argued from, between 1950 and his last years.
Writings
The books, the library and the working portrait of a man who wrote for more than fifty years.
Legacy
Public honours and the last decade of a very long public life.