On August 15, in 1947, India and Pakistan gained their independence after 200 years of British rule.

Karsh photographed India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, in 1956 while Nehru was still in office. He photographed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto during Bhutto’s tenure as the ninth Prime Minister of Pakistan, and he would go on to photograph his daughter Benazir Bhutto, the 11th and 13th Prime Minister of Pakistan, in 1989.