New Delhi: It’s called ticking all the right boxes. The Miss World pageant organisers know new India, even though they’ve come back to the country after 28 years. They went to Kashmir, paid homage to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) founder K.B. Hedgewar and even tried to go to Ayodhya.
The finale of the 71st edition, which will be co-hosted by Karan Johar, will be held in Mumbai Saturday as a closed-door event at the Jio World Convention Centre. A hundred and twenty contestants are participating in the event, which began on 18 February.
The last edition of the pageant to be hosted in India was held in Bengaluru in 1996. Back then, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were among those most vocally opposed to the event — which, they said, was against Indian culture and which was marred by protests and controversy.
But the itinerary this time is indicative of a number of things: the organisers’ savvy, the Narendra Modi government’s positioning of India on the global stage and its narrative of a changed Kashmir, buzzing with development and tourism.
“We will be bringing the world to India and showcasing India to the world,” Julia Morley, CEO of the Miss World Organization, had said in an earlier statement.
Controversy in 1996
The 1996 pageant in Bengaluru was a grand affair — 2,000 technicians, 500 dancers, 88 contestants, 16 elephants and an audience of 20,000 at Chinnaswamy Stadium.
But it was also deeply polarising and opposed by many organisations, including the BJP and the RSS. Right-wing groups were concerned about ‘Western’ ideals eroding Indian values.
Protests erupted on the streets, including ones led by women’s groups. Around 1,500 people, including BJP supporters, were arrested, according to a Reuters report from the time. There were attempts at self-immolation — leading to at least one person’s death — while a politician organised a mock pageant of ‘rakshasis’.
Amitabh Bachchan’s company, ABCL, which organised the event, saw its Bengaluru office ransacked.
The situation grew so severe that the swimsuit round had to be shifted to the Seychelles. This round would eventually be scrapped in 2014.
Shift in tone
Things couldn’t be more different this time around, and the signs could be seen well in advance. In August last year, a group of beauty queens, including Miss World 2022 Karolina Bielawska and Femina Miss India World 2022 Sini Shetty, visited Jammu and Kashmir.
The Union territory’s tourism department arranged shikara rides on Dal Lake for them, and they subsequently called on Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.
The visit took place a few months after a G20 working group meeting was held in Srinagar, during India’s presidency of the group last year. PTI quoted Syed Abid Shah, secretary of J&K tourism, as saying, “It’s an indication of the transformative nature of the G20 event in the tourism sector of Jammu and Kashmir. Major events of national and international importance are now being planned and organised.”
Fast forward to last week, when CEO Morley, along with Bielawska and six Miss World participants, visited Hedgewar’s memorial in Nagpur.
“Our visit wasn’t just about curiosity; it was a genuine exploration of the incredible humanitarian efforts led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),” wrote Shetty on the Miss World website.
There was also a plan to have some of the contestants take a trip to the newly established Ram temple in Ayodhya, dressed in sarees. But the plan was eventually scrapped over time constraints and security concerns. A similar plan to visit Delhi’s India Gate was scrapped earlier in the year, due to security clearance issues, according to Value 360 Communications, the agency that is handling PR for the event.
Last weekend, pageant participants also attended the Tadoba Festival, an event focused on wildlife conservation and sustainable tourism in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district. A message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, praising the state forest department’s tiger conservation efforts, was read out at the event, PTI reported.
Push for diversity, humanitarian projects
It’s been a long time since when the pageant was seen solely as either an entry point or stepping stone to careers in modelling and entertainment. The event is intended to highlight the ‘beauty with purpose’ message of the Miss World Organization and promote and fund various humanitarian projects.
Twenty-seven-year-old former police officer Navjot Kaur is set to represent New Zealand at the Miss World beauty contest Saturday. She is also the first Sikh woman to represent New Zealand at the pageant. Kaur left the force after she witnessed a variety of issues.
“There’s family harm, there’s child abuse and when I got onto the frontlines it emotionally drained me because I used to be very connected to the victims,” Kaur told Radio New Zealand. She added: “I left (the force) after my last suicide (case), which was very intense.”
Another contestant, Paula Pérez of Spain, is a doctor who advocates for mental health, while Ukraine’s Sofia Shamia is a volunteer who helps children affected by the Russia-Ukraine war and their mothers, especially families that have lost their homes. Miss England, Jessica Gagen, is an aerospace engineer who has stepped into the world of modelling.
Also read: RSS founder Hedgewar was with Congress, and other facts you didn’t know