An Indian politician, Sharad Yadav recently called South Indian women "Dark Skinned" in Rajya Sabha and refused to apologize. No question, we are a fair skin crazy nation, never been able to get rid of this complex about our complexion. Fair skin lotions sell like hot cakes. Indian matrimonial columns are filled with ads where the prime most criteria for the bride is "FAIR", followed by Tall, Beautiful, Qualified blah blah blah. In Odisha when a marriage broker says JHIATI TIKE MANDA RANGA meaning " the girl has little bit dull color", it's an euphemism for dark complexion. Fair enough. Can't blame the broker, as one should not kill the messenger. He is just trying to make his sales pitch in a marriage market where fair complexion rules the roost.
An article in India Today magazine not so long ago mentioned about numerous high society Call Girls operating in Delhi are from impoverished ex-Soviet Republics. The reason, their white skin is more sought after than the rest.
Shakespeare wrote "What's is a name ? You call Rose by another name, it still smells the same". Similarly we can very well say "What's in a Complexion"? A part of Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech was "a person should not be judged by the color of his skin but the content of his character". He was so correct.
The Cheer girls performing at IPL cricket matches are conspicuously Caucasians. Yet in a country where most are dark or brown skinned, the craze for white skin cheer girls is nothing to cheer about. Do we lack any good looking able dancers who are not necessarily skinned ? This cheerleading concept have been straight taken out of the page books of American NFL where the cheerleaders include many African Americans or Hispanics, who are dark or brown skinned. So why not take a step further in IPL and make it more inclusive ?
The other day I watched MAGADHEERA, a Telugu hit movie where the son of ex-Superstar Chiranjeevi plays the leading role. The leading female role is played by Kajal Aggarwal, a North Indian import, who hardly knew any acting but was fair skinned. Wonder what happened to the talented Telugu film industry, which has gone so bankrupt of actresses that they have to import B graders from North. Gone are the days of Vaijayantimala, Hema Malini, Rekha, Sridevi, Jayaprada and many more who not only had excellent looks, were endowed with great acting skills, extending their reach from South to Bollywood. Now it seems the trend has been reversed. Nothing but the craze for fail skin would ascribe to it.
Reminds me of my college days when we had students from Ethiopia and Kenya amongst us. Many called them KALLU (a derogatory term used for blacks). They were aware about it. One of them once told "you guys call us black, but most of you are just a shade fairer than us". He had a point.
Very interesting and informative. But as an outsider who has visited India, can you tell me if there is blatant discrimination between light vs dark skin people?
ReplyDeleteVery interesting and informative. But as an outsider who has visited India, can you tell me if there is blatant discrimination between light vs dark skin people?
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