346 million Indian women, more than one third of the population, are under thirty-five. This female generation lives between extremes: more connected and global than ever, but with narrow ideas of a female identity; raised with the cultural values of their grandparents, but the life goals of independent women. These fortune seekers are the face of a new India. Angry, and frustrated with being marginalised by both globalisation and India’s old politics, they live in Modi government’s exclusionary Hindu nationalism and, above all, in their personal truths: shape your own future.

Photojournalist Elke Scholiers tracks these young fortune-seekers — aspiring Bollywood actors and migrating factory workers, social media devotees and female voters in remote India — all united by the belief that they were born for bigger and better things. Faith or Fortune Seekers brings to life their boundless ambition as women are trying to remake their lives while their country keeps them largely excluded from success.