Colourism In The Indian Subcontinent

By Riya Chaudhary

Every now and then you will come across a person saying “He/ she would be so much prettier if their skin was a bit fairer.” Or this statement that I came across with the effect of, “It was such a spectacular wedding although the bride was a bit dusky and dark.” No matter where or who you are, you will hear statements like every now and then. It’s a sad truth you cannot refute. To understand and unravel this obsession with “fair skin”, let’s pick the Indian Subcontinent as our niche and look back upon history and try to trace the origin of this colorism.

Going back as far as 500BC, to The Epic, Puranic and Classic Periods. The glorious age of Gods and Goddesses. In the Indian Mythology, the revered Gods, Lord Rama and Lord Krishna, are depicted in a blue shade to symbolize that their skin tone had such dark depths that it almost had a blue hue. Goddess Kali, the epitome of a strong, all powerful woman, is depicted in a black shade. All these imageries show that the darkness of a person’s skin was not considered a “flaw” as it is now, back then but was revered highly. In the earliest of versions of the Mahabharata, Draupadi, who was considered to be the most beautiful woman in all of Aryavartha, was of dark complexion. Originally, statues of Goddess Parvati were carved out of black stone. (right)

Now, look around you. You’ll find that even statues of these gods have been highly white washed. Even Lord Krishna, who even has hymns written about his dusky complexion isn’t accurately depicted with a dark skin complexion but with a more golden, shinier hue. Most goddesses in live action plays, television series and movies are portrayed by fair and whiter women. To portray the godly beauty of them, they are inaccurately shown to be fairer than they used to be. All of this begs the question, “When did things change and people became plagued with the idea of fair skin?”

Colorism can most approximately be traced to the colonization of India. When people from somewhere else, somewhere different came and settled in our country, a sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’ was formed. To differentiate between the two people had to rely upon physical attributes. Those times have now passed but the ‘us’ and the ‘them’ is still prevalent. This newfound infatuation with the western culture is what I believe to be the root of this colorism since the most noticeable difference between “us” and “them” is our complexions. Most of our culture is influenced by the West. From the cinema industry’s hunger for the Oscars to the teenage disregard for Indian culture and favor for the Western culture. All of this influence promotes a sense of want to be westernized. This is where the aforementioned physical attributes play a role. The source for most Indians for western culture is stems from entertainment media. That media depicts western people using the stereotyped ‘tall, fair, skinny’ criterion. This is precisely what Indian people adopted as their standard of beauty. The “tall, skinny and fair” criterion for beauty.

Precisely this criterion needs to be uprooted. The Indian obsession with the West needs to get squashed and our own culture needs to be appreciated. It is a long and hard battle. To change the mind set of people on a whole. It will not happen in a day or two and it certainly will not happen if people quietly let comments on casual colorism pass by them without any one refuting them. People who believe that dark people aren’t as beautiful or attractive as the fairer ones need to be asked, “What is so unattractive about the dusky skin tone which is so akin to the all powerful gods and goddesses they dearly worship?”

By Riya Chaudhary