Instagram feminism: Indian women's relationships with themselves

A personal photographic project that explored young women's body image has evolved into an empowering space for the traumatised

What are young Indian women’s relationships with their bodies? How do these relationships impact their ambitions?” Mumbai-based photographer Anushka Kelkar, 23, began grappling with these questions two years ago, when still a student at liberal arts institution, Ashoka University. Surrounded by women in their late teens and twenties, Kelkar saw diversity, not just in terms of where the women were from, but in the struggles they experienced. 

Curious to know more, she started an Instagram page called Brown Girl Gazing. The initiative explores Indian women’s relationships with themselves, capturing through photographs their different stories, insecurities, vulnerabilities and triumphs. Today, Kelkar’s page