Being
crowned Miss India is a major deal. It
can lead to endorsements and career opportunities throughout India, the Mid
East, Southeast Asia, and even England.
However, Hindu extremist mobs have violently protested many Indian
beauty pageants, bringing with them members of the Durga Vahini, the women’s
auxiliary of the movement. Nisha Pahuja
introduces viewers to two very different women who represent each side of India’s
culture war in The World Before Her (trailer here), which screens
today as the World Documentary Competition Award winner at the 2012 TribecaFilm Festival.
To
put things in perspective, Aishwarya Rai took second place in the 1994
pageant. Many winners and runners-up
have gone on to lucrative modeling and Bollywood careers. Ruhi Singh would like to follow in their
footsteps. As we watch her in the days
leading up to the contest, it is clear the underdog from the provinces is in it
to win it.
Prachi
on the other hand, will not be competing in pageants anytime soon. The dread terror of Durga Vahini boot camps,
she readily condemns them as decadent western cultural imports. Though she chafes whenever her domineering
father talks about marriage, Prachi wholeheartedly advocates such a traditional
lifestyle for the young weapons-trained Durga Vahini girls. It is a contradiction she has a difficult time
reconciling, even when pressed by Pahuja.
World Before Her
is
more than a bit scary documenting violent Hindu extremist violence targeting
women (more-or-less condoned by the Durga Vahini). Frankly, it is hard to differentiate between
the thugs who beat up female patrons for drinking in Bombay bars (nobody calls
it Mumbai in Before) from the
Islamists throwing acid in the faces of insufficiently veiled women on the
streets of Pakistan.
To
her credit, Pahuja never over-simplifies the circumstances facing her POV
figures. There is indeed plenty of
sexist objectifying going on behind the scenes of Miss India. Likewise, the undeniably abusive history of
Prachi’s “traditional” father is well established. However, one world view is clearly seeking to
force all Indian women into conformity, whereas the other is not. One insightful pageant contestant also
challenges the overheated rhetoric regarding “westernization.” As she points out, yoga practice has become
widespread in America, but nobody talks about us becoming “Indianized.” Score one for the beauty queen.