Decoloniality and cultural representations in Nisha Pahuja’s The World Before Her

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study is an investigation of juxtaposed ideological paradigms represented in Nisha Pahuja’s documentary The World Before Her. Examining the correlations between Western and colonial cultural influences and the felt need for going back to ‘home’/roots, the documentary allows the analysis of cultural dichotomies and complexly situated voices. Through decolonial and feminist critical lens and the Hindutva ideology, there is a representation of polarised categories through tacit comparative frameworks in the documentary. The representation of contrasting images of tradition versus modernity epitomised through the portrayal of the Miss World contest organised in Bengaluru, India, in 1996, and the protests against the propagation of Westernization by the Durga Vahinis – the women’s wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad – highlight the quandary that characterises the notion of nationalism. The Durga Vahinis’ ideals symbolise female identity and Hindu traditions as non-negotiable in the wake of the perception of women’s progress. Through narrative and conceptual analysis, this study centralises the idea of decoloniality versus the broad system of modernity discourses as being prominent trajectories affecting the lives of Hindu women.