« Back to article

Print this article

Photos: Independence Day Special - We, the people of India

A group of teenage novice monks at the Thikse monastery, near Stagmo, about 19 km from Leh, Ladakh, where about 100 monks live.

Thikse, a monastery belonging to the Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism, is the largest in central Ladakh.

Dhanaram Bhil's 4.5 foot moustache!

Dhanaram Bhil, with his 4.5 foot moustache, is a tourist attraction all by himself in Jaisalmer. He is stationed smack next to the town's most famous Patwon Ki Haveli and follows a hereditary trade -- showing off a moustache; his dad's moustache (Karna Bhil) was once equally famous.

Sugarcane highway

Sugarcane produce heads, or rather races, to the market, not far from Virgaon, in the heart of the largely agricultural Baramati taluka in western Maharashtra.

Desert stroll

A villager on a stroll near the dunes of Sam in the Thar desert, close to the Pakistan border.

Say cheese!

Kharwas fisherwomen at a seafood bazaar, Veraval, Junagadh district, near Somnath on Gujarat's Kathiawar peninsula.

Veraval is one of the largest fishing ports in India and trade worth about 800 thousand tonnes is done here. Seafood processing units in Veraval export to Europe, southeast Asia, the Gulf and Japan.

The bindi and the baigan

Sunday is a hectic market day in Devlali, Maharashtra. Vegetable sellers arrive from all over Nashik district to hawk fresh vegetables.

Old friendships run deep

Elderly citizens of the remote and wee Adachivadi village, near the town of Velhe, in western Maharashtra, sit at the door of their hut to listen to an election speech filtering through on loudspeakers.

The dead outnumber the living?

Sleepy Divar island located in the middle of the Mandovi river in Goa, and accessed only by ferry, has a larger population of the dead than perhaps the living. The island's beautiful bungalows are now only thinly populated.

The bliss of the beach

Window shopping at Baga beach, Goa.