This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-88, May-Jun 1995)
THE winning of the Miss Universe crown by Sushmita Sen in 1994 and the Miss World crown by Aishwarya Rai later that year were celebrated by the Indian mass media and the urban elites as though they were momentous events in Indian history. Manpreet Brar’s qualifying as first runner-up this year in the Miss Uni- verse contest has convinced many Indians that the winning of the earlier two crowns was not a fluke — that India has indeed arrived on the inter- national scene. We thought we had conquered the world whereas in Eu- rope and America little attention was paid to our grand accomplishments.
Up until the 1970s, beauty contests used to be peripheral affairs, only covered by specialised women’s magazines such as Femina and Eve’s Weekly. They were hardly ever a topic of animated discussion in middle-class homes. But now they have acquired a prominence in our social life totally out of proportion to their significance. Millions sat glued to their TV sets in India to watch the crowning of Sushmita and Aishwarya. The prime minister and the president received them as though they were high dignitaries. Big national and international companies spent millions of dollars promoting their products and image through association with the contest and the winner…