Animals By Raghu Rai | With an Introduction By Maneka Gandhi

‘There is an invisible, ancient thread running through our collective human consciousness—a golden tether that binds us not only to the earth but to all that crawls, soars, prowls and sings upon it …’

 On each page of Animals, a new emotional experience awaits the reader.

A sizeable bull sits lazily in a sari shop, a monkey watches over the glittering night lights of a hill town, a horse offers the photographer and his shuttering device a hilarious sidelong glance.

Then there are images of walls lined with the snarling severed heads of big cats, elephants performing at a circus, unsuspecting gharials being forced out of a pond too close to a village.

In this profound juxtaposition rests an enduring hope—to rekindle the spirit of co-existence amongst all living beings.

Through the visionary lens of one of the country’s leading photojournalists, Raghu Rai, witness another India that remains mostly unnoticed—or otherwise viciously brutalized. With a powerful introduction by animal rights activist and politician Maneka Gandhi, Animals is for everyone who believes in a more equal, just world, where all that breathes, breathes freely.

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Maneka Gandhi, founder of People for Animals and a leading voice for animal welfare in India, says, ‘Animals are not commodities; they are beings with lives that matter, bound to us by an ancient, invisible thread. Raghu Rai captures that sacred, silent dialogue between humans and our fellow creatures, reminding us that how we treat the more vulnerable among us reflects the spiritual maturity of our own species.’

Gurmeet Rai, leading conservation architect and wife of the late Raghu Rai, says, ‘Raghu had a deep bond with nature… his experience of the universe was expressed by him as ‘darshan’ and this included all beings – both living and inanimate.

When one sees his photographs, the word that comes to mind is ‘Samdarshi’ one who sees all beings with equal vision—without discrimination or hierarchy. ‘Sam’ as you know means equal, and ‘darshi’ means one who sees. A samdarshi recognises the same life or divine presence in human beings, animals, plants, trees and every part of creation.
Raghu did not regard animals, clouds, trees or people as separate subjects. Each belonged to the same living rhythm. His photography, as he described it, was darshan—seeing the interconnectedness, dignity and divinity of all life.’

Poulomi Chatterjee, Executive Publisher, HarperCollins India, says, ‘Raghu Rai was the ultimate master of his craft. What makes his photographs iconic is his extraordinary ability to infuse them with emotion, allowing us to experience intimately the moment captured in an image in all its immediacy, and then immerse ourselves in the details that coalesce to tell a complete story.

Animals is a very special book – not only does it bring together many of Rai’s previously unseen photographs taken over five decades of his remarkable career, but it also reminds us, as Maneka Gandhi says in her beautiful introduction to the book, that ‘the human story is only a part of Earth’s tapestry’. Raghu Rai passed away a few months before the book’s publication, having seen an early draft of the book. We’re privileged to be the publishers of what we hope is a fitting tribute to his incredible legacy and vision.’

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ABOUT RAGHU RAI

Raghu Rai was one of India’s most influential and legendary photojournalists. Between 1966 and 1976, he was chief photographer at The Statesman and was then Picture Editor, from 1977 to 1980, with Sunday—a weekly news magazine published from Kolkata. After completing a Thomson fellowship in England, he also worked with The Times in London.

In 1972, impressed by Rai’s exhibition at Gallery Delpire, Paris, the legendary photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson nominated him to Magnum Photos, the world’s most prestigious photographer’s cooperative. Rai continues to be a part of the legendry institute.

Between 1982 and 1991, Rai took over as Picture Editor-Visualizer-Photographer of India Today, contributing trailblazing photo essays. His series on Satyajit Ray, Mother Teresa and the Great Masters of Indian Classical Music were critically acclaimed. Rai was one of the first photographers to reach Bhopal in the aftermath of the 1984 Gas Tragedy and extensively documented the event and its effects on the lives of the victims under a special assignment from Greenpeace International. His work has also appeared in many of the world’s leading magazines and newspapers. He has been an adjudicator for the World Press Photo Contest in Amsterdam, and UNESCO’s International Photo Contest many times. In 2012, Raghu Rai, with his son Nitin Rai, founded the Raghu Rai Center for Photography to share his 50 years of knowledge and experience.

Rai was awarded the Padma Shri in 1972, the first to a photographer for the body of works he produced on Bangladesh refugees and the war. In 1992, he was awarded Photographer of the Year in the United States for the story ‘Human Management of Wildlife in India’, published in National Geographic. In 2009, he was conferred with the Officer des Arts et des Letters honour by the French Government. In 2016, we received a lifetime achievement award at the National Photography Awards in India. In 2018, he was celebrated by the Lucie Foundation in New York, as Master of Photojournalism.

In 2019, Rai became the first laureate photographer of Académie Des Beaux Art in Paris—one of the highest awards in photography ever given to a living photographer. Created for the first time by the Académie—specifically for photography—the award recognized Rai from among sixteen of the world’s most distinguished photographers. As Sebastião Salgado remarked, Rai’s work was ‘so multidimensional and multilayered that there was no point in prolonging discussion’. Raghu Rai published more than sixty books in his lifetime, exploring India through its landscapes, people, spirit and socio-cultural histories.

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ABOUT MANEKA GANDHI

 

Maneka Gandhi is a prominent Indian politician, eight-term Member of Parliament, and the country’s leading animal rights champion. Founder of People for Animals (PFA), she pioneered India’s modern animal welfare movement. She has served as a union cabinet minister, authored several books, and remains a fierce voice for environmental conservation.

 

Hardback/Non-Fiction/Photography / 208 PP / INR 3999/-

Releasing On 12th October 2026