India, Oct. 12 -- I lived in Bhopal for four years and visited the Union Carbide factory several times for reporting. When poisonous gas leaked from the factory on the night of December 2-3, 1984, I rushed from Patna to cover the horrendous tragedy. The disaster killed thousands; the immediate official death toll was put at 2,259, though subsequent estimates were much higher.

Yet, whenever I remember Bhopal, it is Raghu Rai's haunting photograph of a dead baby, its face partly buried in the earth, that comes to mind. When I think of the Gujarat riots, I recall the photograph of a young Muslim tailor whose face registered sheer terror. Such images do more than document events; they become enduring symbols of human suffering and resistance...