A Tale of Two Women: Review of Nisha Pahuja's The World Before Her (2012)

 "It has been said that India was a golden bird. But people are forgetting our history. We are becoming modern, our country is becoming modern. Our past is our roots, we cannot leave our roots. I will speak that I am a Hindu and I will proudly say that I am a Hindu. Egyptians, Romans, they are history now. It's going to happen with us. So we are trying to save ourselves. That is the only thing I want. Nothing else." - Prachi Trivedi 

Prachi Desai instructing her students

Prachi Trivedi is a youth leader of the Durga Vahini camp, the women's wing of right wing militant fundamentalist movement in which young lower middle class and poor girls are taught through methods of lectures and physical combat training how to become a "good Hindu woman." The young girls are also taught to fight against any type of non-Hindu (Islamic, Christian, and Western) influences by any means necessary to protect their culture by doing whatever it takes. The Indian government is wary of their ideologies and has been trying to ban them because these camps promote terrorism and hence, these camps are a great deal of concern for the nation. 

I listened to Prachi's words as I was traveling abroad the flight between London and India. I was transitioning between the world I had left behind in Canada/US (who I had become) and India (where my roots belonged to)! When I first listened to these words, I found them to be so innocent and true. With burgeoning "western modernity", many like Prachi Desai fear the loss of India's "traditional" culture. As she says so eloquently, India was the "golden bird" and I think to some extent whether you are a right-wing or liberal,  there is always a nostalgic hearkening back to the India that was before colonization.

 Many films such as Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (Aditya Chopra,1995) and Pardes (Subhash Ghai,1998) reiterated these ideas about young girls who were expected to maintain their traditional culture and reject western systems of modernity because they were emblematic of India as a nation. Prachi, however, is one of the most complex people I have ever watched in a film. She is strong-willed and vocal feminist who is emotionally dedicated to the principles and ideologies of the Durga Vahini camp. She shares a love-hate relationship with her father who does everything in his power to instill his value systems into her. That being said, her subjectivity is intriguing and unforgettable.

Although these camps strongly promote the principles of becoming a "good" Hindu woman, in many ways, I understand their concern for the loss of their culture especially as a woman who has been brought up in Malaysia, Singapore, and United States and is currently in Canada for the past two years. I left India when I was seven years old and I never wanted to lose myself or my roots. One of the anecdotes I remember from high school is that whenever I would feel like it, I will wear traditional salwar-suits and I remember proudly answering to my fellow students that it was not a religious holiday but I was wearing my cultural clothes (for fun!) I still do at times and am proud of my cultural heritage. As India's growing cosmopolitanism becomes more "universalized", I can understand the need for many to cling on to their own culture and protect it - after all it is the identity that we are born with and what separates us from the rest of the world. That being said, I also understand that change is constant. Therefore, as a 1.5-generation, one of the biggest challenges I have had to face is the need to find a happy balance between the Nidhi who is in love with Indian traditions and culture with Nidhi who lives in a cosmopolitan and modern culture.However, instead of finding an either-or to this dilemma, I have come to terms and always try to embrace the best of both worlds - the old and the new.  

 Ruhi, a Miss Femina India contestant, belongs to the "new" India. In her introduction, she says: 

"We, as a country, should move forward. A lot of people think that if you know...you know if you allow women to work and get modern and get educated, you will lose your culture, your heritage, and your deep-rooted values. But, I don't agree. If we want India to develop, I think all of us have to change. We have to change our mentality. As much as I love and I respect my culture. I think of myself as a modern young girl and I want freedom." 

Ruhi (far right) with fellow Miss Femina contestants

Ruhi's upbringing is quite different than that of Prachi's. Ruhi belongs to (upper) middle class India. Her parents are supportive of her dream to become a Miss Femina India and support her journey throughout the film. She embraces modernity and wants to live her dream and make a career. Like Prachi, she is also fervently dedicated to her dreams and desire to become a part of the modern India. 

In the background of the Introduction of the film plays the national anthem of the Indian nation. This documentary, for me, is more than a film. It crystallizes, explores, and complicates the tensions Indian women both abroad and in India are facing everyday. Historically, women' s bodies in India are emblematic of their nation. Shree 420 (Raj Kapoor,1955) and Mother India (Mehboob Khan,1957) constantly reinforced the notion that she not only represents honour of her family but also of her nation. The film also explores questions of female infanticide, classism and class politics, and poverty. However, at the heart of this film, is the tension between the binaries of modernity/tradition and modernity/westernization. 

Both Ruhi and Prachi are representative of the two extremes. While there are women like Ruhi who embrace modernity, there are people like Prachi who are reinforcing age-old traditions and rejecting India's step into modernity. Interesting however, is the conclusion of the film when both these women - Prachi and Ruhi - are still expected to retain their traditional roles to get married and have a family. 

Since post-liberalization, India especially cities like Bombay, Delhi, and Bangalore have become locus of modernity where younger generations experience a whole different culture and become part of the worldwide cosmopolitan club. They can afford travel, well-known brands, and can live a luxurious life.  If you have the money and can afford a cosmopolitan lifestyle, sometimes the essence of traditional culture as it used to be dissipates with past. Here, I was reminded of a conversation I had once with my former advisor, Bipasha Baruah, who suggested that when people do not belong to a certain class or do not have comfortable financial means to support themselves, they cling on strongly to their cultural capital. In my opinion, I believe that these camps are constructed and regulated because its leaders fear the loss of the cultural capital so as Prachi suggests in the beginning of the film, they can save themselves. Therefore, this film does explore the complexities and nuances produced by class politics and how this binary, in particular, shapes the subjectivity of women in India.  

Miss India Pooja Chopra posing for a Photo

The film also tells the tale of Former Miss India Pooja Chopra and her mother's brave steps to save her daughter's life. Furthermore, the viewers also listen to Chinmaiyi, a young girl who was getting drawn to and learning the ideologies of the Durga Vahini camp. Their stories, like that of Prachi and Ruhi's are riveting and touching! While we see Chinmaiyi's nascent ideologies slowly developing and strengthening towards the end of the film, it is Pooja Chopra and her mother's life story that remains unforgettable and disheartening. 

Chinmaiyi standing proud! 

The World Before Her, therefore, is a rich and powerful documentary that greatly speaks about India's current situation especially in lieu of the subjectivity of Indian women that reside in India and out of it. While I have only briefly touched upon the themes of the film and the lives of the people it explores, I would strongly urge people to watch this film. It is a film that underscores the reasons and really brings to light the questions that the international media has raised concerning the violence that women face in India. It also shows how the two worlds of the "Old" and "New" India collide and merge together and speaks to the issues such as female infanticide that still need to be understood and such practices eradicated from the fabric of the society. This film, in conclusion, contributes to the emerging academic and non-academic discourse that speaks about bio-politics, nationhood, women's status in the Indian society, and violence against women in India. 

Please do checkout this film as its available in Netflix, Amazon, and iTunes for viewers in America and Canada. For viewers in India, please support this film and do watch the film when its released all over India. It will blow your mind and really make you rethink about a woman's status in India and the struggles they face in their every day lives..

I want to thank Nisha Pahuja, with whom I had a great conversation with while I was in India. I also want to thank Naveera Ahmed, a fellow PhD student in my department who introduced me to Farzana Shammi and Nisha Pahuja. They were generous with their time, approachable, and always available to my many questions and extremely supportive. I would have missed out on a great film and documentary that spoke to me both at an emotional and at an intellectual level. I apologize too for the delay in posting my blogs for this month because last month was a potpourri of personal and professional obligations that needed to be taken care of.

I would also urge all readers to visit the website of the film, www.worldbeforeher.com, and learn more about the India campaign that is about to start soon. For my readers who live in India, you will have a great opportunity to not only view the screenings but also meet Pooja Chopra, former Miss India who nearly escaped being a female infanticide victim and her brave mother, who saved her life!  

The trailer for the film is below and clips are available at the World Before Her's youtube page.: 

Image Source: Farzana Shammi

Source: Farazana Shammi and Nisha Pahuja 

© Nidhi Shrivastava 2014 This content is subject to copyrights. Please ask for my permission before using this content for any purpose.