Sundarana
marriage and migration among the Patidars

Focussing on a young men’s search for a bride, this film documents the crisis Indian agriculture and the relationship between a village and international migration. The film juxtaposes research conducted in the 1950s and in 2013, among the Patidar community of Sundarana (Gujarat, India). In the 1950s the anthropologist David F. Pocock described the Patidars as an intensely competitive and hierarchical society. Then, land and agricultural know-how were central to the ways in which people thought about each other’s worth and status. In 2013 dynamics of status competition continued to key to social life but agriculture was no longer regarded as a remunerative and dignified occupation. Even wealthy farmers were considered poor.  Instead, international migration, ranked nation states and white collar jobs had become new values against which life course decisions were marked. Migrating away from the village had become an economic and social necessity in order to become a recognised social person in the village: to acquire, land, build a house and marry. Many failed. The documentary follows the dramatic story of a young farmer’s quest to marry, and of his discontent. It also tells the story of a community living according to aspirations that they cannot realise.
The research for this documentary was undertaken as part of a collaborative project 'Rural Change and Anthropological Knowledge in Post-colonial India’ funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, UK.

43 min | 2013 | India & UK
In Gujarati, Hindi & English with English subtitles  
Directed by Dakxin Bajranje Chhara and Alice Tilche
Produced by SOAS, University of London & Nomad Movies
Funded by: The Economic and Social Research Council, UK

Screenings and Film Festivals

2014 University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
2014 SOAS, University of London
2015 Official Selection, Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival
2015 Brunei Gallery, SOAS, University of London
2017 The London School of Economics, London
2017 Museum of Croydon, London