PHOTOGRAPHY FASHION STYLING CREATIVE DIRECTION

WOMEN IN BENGAL
*The name of the project is problematic, as it does not encompass women of all classes, religions, and castes, and assumes markers of upper caste and Hindu as the totality of the definition of a ‘woman’.

YEAR2019

MENTOR

Swarup Dutta

TALENTAnushree Acharya, Paramita Barua, Radhika Kedia, Siddhi Kankaria

SHOOT ASSISTANCEVagmi Pathak

AWARDEDBest Graduation Project in the Department of Fashion Communication among all 15 centres of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, India

FEATUREDThe Next Great Fashion Image Makers exhibition, PhotoVogue Festival 2022, Milan, IT

It uses fashion as commentary to understand the evolution of the social identity of an upper-caste Bengali Hindu woman, specifically the bhadramahila in the mid-nineteenth century and early twentieth century. When the British took control over Bengal, they had a poor opinion of the role of women in society. This forced the bhadralok to encourage their women to play a bigger role in society, which included greater physical freedom, access to education and non-domestic work. The social contact between the ruler and the ruled encouraged the revaluation of societal norms. Hence, the bhadramahila became a model, as an attempt to amalgamate virtues of new and old, on traditional Hindu womanly qualities, mixed with modern features of the Victorian image of a perfect lady. This project traces this evolution from the purdah system to getting an education to being a helpmeet to embodying all the values to become a perfect woman to going out more often out of their houses to rally for freedom.

An educated woman

Woman as helpmeet

New woman or ‘Nabina’

Woman during Swadeshi Movement

Woman during the purdah system

An educated woman

Woman as helpmeet

New woman or ‘Nabina’

Women during Swadeshi Movement