Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, was the third American leader to visit India during which a village in Haryana was named Carterpuri in his honour.
President Carter died on Sunday, December 29, 2024 aged 100 in Plains, Georgia, his home town.
He visited India a few months after the withdrawal of the state of Emergency and spoke against authoritarian rule in his address to Parliament.
IMAGE: President Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter arrive on a three-day visit, January 1, 1978.
The Carters were received at Palam airport by then President Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, his wife Nagaratnamma Reddy and then prime minister Morarji Desai.
President Carter's visit was meant to break the thaw in India-US relations after the 1971 War and India's 1974 nuclear test.
However, the visit didn't go according to plan. Carter wanted the Indians to put an end to their nuclear ambitions. He was caught by microphones telling his aides that a 'cold and blunt message' should be delivered to Desai over India's nuclear ambitions. Photograph: US Embassy New Delhi/Flickr
IMAGE: Carter -- whose mother 'Miss Lillian' spent several months in India as a Peace Corps volunteer -- visited a village in Daulatpur Nasirabad during their stay.
Here, Rosalynn Carter wears a shawl presented to her by villagers as her husband smiles approvingly.
The Carters gifted a television set to the village and promised funds.
The name of the village was permanently changed to Carterpuri in honour of their visit. Photograph: US Embassy New Delhi/Flickr
IMAGE: In October 2006, some three weeks after his 82nd birthday, President Carter and Rosalynn Carter were in Lonavala -- approximately 100 kilometres from Mumbai -- to build houses as part of the 23rd Jimmy Carter Work Project in association with Habitat for Humanity. A day before, the Nobel Peace Prize winner had inaugurated the project in Patan, near Lonavala.
One of those helping the Carters build homes was Brad Pitt (right, bottom photograph, talking to Jimmy and Rosalynn), who was then in India along with his then partner Angelina Jolie who was shooting for the film A Mighty Heart. Photographs: Getty Images from the Rediff Archives
IMAGE: Before he arrived in Lonavala, President Carter called on then prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, October 27, 2006: Two leaders of uncommon decency and humanity. Photograph: B Mathur/Reuters
IMAGE: The same day, October 27, 2006, President Carter launched the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Award for Campus-Community Collaboration in New Delhi. Photograph: B Mathur/Reuters
Photographs curated by Anant Salvi/Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com