The tourism site called Beautiful India is known for capturing stunning images of the country. But even though it’s nice to look at those images from behind a screen, things are much less beautiful for the people living in those areas.
While India is doubtlessly a gorgeous place full of rich tradition and history, people living there face a unique set of challenges.
This is the idea behind Broken India, which is a website that runs in opposition to Beautiful India.
The project was conceived by a company called Limitless, which caters to Indian audiences while based in Singapore.
The images show what can happen when you carefully crop a photo.
Their objective is to convey the message that ignoring the real problems that India faces will not make them go away.
These photos, as seen on Instagram, ignore the poverty, pollution, and social issues that Indian people face every day.
“We’ve always worked with the knowledge that India is a country that has two contrasting sides — even our audience falls into one category or the other,” explains Limitless founder and CEO Vikas Jha.
“While we have five-star hotels on one side, we have slums on the other,” he continues. “While children are seen as the future of the country, they’re also forced into child labor. While technology is moving ahead, we have bad infrastructure that’s holding us back.”
As Jha points out, the Broken India website “was inspired by a post we saw online on how Instagram only shows you one side of the story. This idea fit well into our concept and helped us take it to a new level.”
He’s also aware that the images might strike a nerve with some people, as they challenge the romantic idea that many tourists and travel companies like to paint of the large, complex country.
“Beautiful India has been used and abused in the media and in tourism campaigns. By bringing Broken India to light, we really wanted to strike a raw nerve. A bit of negativity is essential for positive change.”
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Although some of the feedback from this project has been negative, Jha says he’s glad for it — because at least he knows that the heartbreaking images are touching people. But for all the negative criticism, there are plenty of people who appreciate the project’s realism.
As far as the negative feedback is concerned, Jha says that ” the negativity has helped us to show how people are unwilling to accept reality. At the same time, it showed us how many people were positive in their support and moving toward a more progressive India that sees the truth and wants to help change it.”
You can see more about what’s going on in India and beyond on Limitless.
