Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia
Presents
The World Before Her
A film
by
Nisha Pahuja
Saturday October 24, 2015 4pm
9A Hamilton Place, near Park St “T” Station
In Mumbai, a group of young women undergoes an intense month-long Bootcamp for the Miss India Pageant, winning which will mean lucrative stardom and, for some, freedom from domineering patriarchy. At the other end of the country, an annual camp for young girls is being run by the Durga Vahini, the women’s wing of the militant Hindutva fundamentalist movement. Through lectures and physical training, the girls learn what it means to be a good Hindu woman and how to fight Islam and other “foreign” influences. Moving between the transformative actions at both camps and the characters’ private journeys, The World Before Her weaves a lively, provocative portrait of the world’s largest democracy at a critical transitional moment when young women attempting to assert their individuality find themselves caught in the countercurrents of tradition and modernity.
Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia 