Our complex about fair complexion

 A controversy erupted in Kerala after a renowned classical dancer Kalamandalam Sathyabhama made derogatory remarks against a male dancer. Without taking his name, she said - "His complexion was like a crow, and he looked ugly to perform the art". She conveniently forgot that art has nothing to do with the skin color.

Among all civilisations the Hindu India is the arguably the most racist. Long ago our scriptures, epics and myths assigned virtues with the fair skin and vices to dark skin. The Devtas (Gods) are all fair and handsome while the Demons are black and hideous. Fairness of the skin is also associated with the cultured Aryans as against the "MLECHHA" (uncouth) Dravidians. 

Pakistan, a nation partitioned from India has inherited similar traits and are culturally hopeless when it comes to skin colour. In 1960s when Bangladesh was East Pakistan, Yahya Khan, the military dictator launched a specific mission for the Punjabi soldiers to alter Bangladeshi genes through thorough rape of all women to produce white skin progenies. The dark skinned Muslim migrants from UP and Bihar are still kept separate as Mohajirs in Pakistan.

Once a Pakistani player Sarfraz Ahmed was heard hurling a racial slur at his South African counterpart Andile Phehlukwayo during a Cricket match - "ABEY KAALE, TERI AMMI AAJ KAHAAN BAITHEEN HAIN ?" - transliteated "Hey Blackie, where's your mother sitting today ?" Apparently Pakistanis separated from us only 75 years ago by religion aren't tradition wise much different.

No question, we are a fair skin craze Indian Subcontinent 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. No doubt we got a complex about complexion. Can't blame the marriage broker, it's not fair to 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 the magazine "India Today" not so long ago mentioned about numerous high society Call Girls operating in Delhi are from the impoverished ex-Soviet Republics. The answer given by a pimp to the undercover reporter - "White skin is more sought after than the rest".

The obsession about white skin isn't limited to prostitutes of Delhi. It  extends to the top echelons of the glitterati of India's capital. When Sanjay Gandhi, the son of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi married Maneka, daughter of a Sikh military man, many whined that her family of not having the same stature as the Gandhi family. At the same time they had no qualms of accepting Sonia Maino as wife of Indira's other son Rajiv though she was the daughter of a middle class man in Italy, simply because she was a white foreigner. The stigma of 200 years of slavery to British still exists till date.

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 good looking able dancers who are not necessarily white skinned ? This cheer leading concept have been straight taken out of the page books of American NFL (National Football League) where the cheerleaders include many African Americans and Hispanics, who are either dark or brown skinned. So why not take a step further in IPL and make it more inclusive ? 

During my Engineering College days in REC (now NIT) Rourkela we had couple of students from Ethiopia and Kenya. Many passed innuendos to them - "ABBE KALLU - Hey Black guy". In due course they came to know what "KALLU" meant. One of them retaliated - "You guys call us black but you are a just a shade fairer". He hit the Bull's Eye. Nothing can be more hypocritical, especially when some of us accuse Westerners being racists while we ourselves are world champion racists.

The other day I watched a South Indian movie where the leading female role is played by Kajal Aggarwal, a North Indian import, who hardly knew any acting, but happened to be fair skinned, supplementing her huge assets. Wonder what happened to the talented South Indian Indian movie industry, which has gone so bankrupt that they have to import B graders from North India simply due the the skin color of the actresses.

Gone are the days of Vaijayantimala, Hema Malini, Rekha, Sridevi, Jayaprada who were hardly fair complexioned, had not only 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. And the craze doesn't wane. Those contributing to the immense backlash of Ms. Sathyabhama have made their point. May their tribe flourish.