Every Monday night, PBS airs POV, a series that presents interesting and thought-provoking documentaries that you might not see anywhere outside a film festival. This week, POV featured The World Before Her, an award-winning 2012 Canadian documentary by writer-director Nisha Pahuja, who set out to examine the lives of young women in India.
The documentary follows two very different women, thereby capturing the extremes of Indian womanhood. One woman is Ruhi Singh, a 19-year old from Jaipur who is one of the 20 finalists for the 2011 Miss India pageant. The film follows her through the month-long prep for the pageant and covers disparate topics like the Indian concept of beauty, modernity, and whether the backlash against all this "westernization" is justified. Ruhi's parents are extremely proud of their daughter and her mother acknowledges that she wanted Ruhi to leave Jaipur because it was no place for a girl with her particular ambitions.
The other woman is Prachi Trivedi. She is a member of the Durga Vahini Hindu nationalist movement and the film follows her during one of their training camps, which are attended by young girls from all over the country. Durga Vahini has been labelled a terrorist organization by some, and the camp illustrates some of their violent rhetoric. Prachi is devoted to the movement and aspires to be a leader for this cause. But the same traditional views she espouses are the ones that are holding her back. She acknowledges that while she tells other girls to get married and have children who can be a part of the movement, she herself has no interest in getting married. Her parents have very different ideas, however. Her father thinks it is only right that India is a male-dominated society, and Prachi will do as she's told. And despite this attitude, Prachi states that she has always just been immensely grateful to her father, because in a country obsessed with having sons, he let his daughter live.
A short segment with the 2009 Miss India winner, Pooja Chopra, discusses how her father wanted to either kill her or leave her at an orphanage because she wasn't a boy. Pooja's mother refused and walked out on him, stating that Pooja was going to do great things some day. Which she did. But in a country that electively aborts 750,000 girls every year, it is hard to find anyone to acknowledge an Indian woman's worth.
The World Before Her captures the everyday struggle of Indian women: modern ambitions versus traditional values. In Ruhi's case, her ambitions have won out, but for Prachi, it looks like tradition will prevail. Their circumstances have colored their outlook of the world and their role in it, but apart from outward differences, both are just young women who want to do something important. Whether or not they achieve their dreams against the backdrop of the Indian patriarchy remains to be seen.
A short segment with the 2009 Miss India winner, Pooja Chopra, discusses how her father wanted to either kill her or leave her at an orphanage because she wasn't a boy. Pooja's mother refused and walked out on him, stating that Pooja was going to do great things some day. Which she did. But in a country that electively aborts 750,000 girls every year, it is hard to find anyone to acknowledge an Indian woman's worth.
The World Before Her captures the everyday struggle of Indian women: modern ambitions versus traditional values. In Ruhi's case, her ambitions have won out, but for Prachi, it looks like tradition will prevail. Their circumstances have colored their outlook of the world and their role in it, but apart from outward differences, both are just young women who want to do something important. Whether or not they achieve their dreams against the backdrop of the Indian patriarchy remains to be seen.
You can watch the entire documentary at the POV website.
It seems an enlightening thing to watch, though potentially painful.
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