Picture a typical Indian get together.
Friends and family members have arrived and there is the usual enthusiastic attack on food. Also visible is the usual cornering of young women by the older ones who are eager with their special doses of advices.
Suddenly, there is the inevitable comment.
“Whatever happened to your complexion, dear? You weren't this dark when I saw you last”.
With undesirable spotlight cast, the poor soul at the receiving end of this thoughtless remark is seen cringing at the inexcusable sin of turning a few shades darker. Mumbling excuses for her tan, she tries to escape when a couple of kind aunts rush to the rescue.
“Oh, she can use some 'besan and haldi paste' and she will soon have a lighter color”.
“At least she is fairer than so and so”. Many more such wise words follow.
 
I guess you are getting a fairly accurate idea of the issue highlighted here – the strange devotion of Indians to light skin color and an even stranger aversion to dark complexion.
Why can't Indians consider their own color desirable? Why is there a - 'white is best' - mindset in a country which is predominantly brown? Is it the rarity of light complexioned people here that makes light skin color so sought after? Why do people with beautiful dark skin get snide remarks and unsolicited advices on how to turn “fair and (only then) lovely”?
 
I know this topic has been discussed ad nauseam but why is there still no real change in the mind set of the people? It can be very disheartening for a young dusky girl to be considered a greater burden because of her darker skin. It can erode her self confidence and pave way for a lifetime of insecurities. As I try to get a grasp on my own inner demons acquired from a continual barrage of color related remarks, I have finally grown up enough to accept myself, dark skin et all.
But why is this color menace refusing to move out from our collective Indian souls? I could think of the following reasons that may be consolidating the inferior position of “brown or black” in our country.
 
Media projections in India

Thanks to the current media projections of fair skin as the ultimate symbol of beauty, Indians are getting further conditioned into believing it. If the advertisements on Indian channels are to be believed, unless you are light skinned you cannot win a dance competition or an acting assignment or even a job as an air hostess! Why should color have anything to do with the way you dance, act or serve passengers?
As if to soothe the feminists, special creams to turn guys into white hunks are being popularized too. So, now, the pretty girl smiles at the flowers in the guy's hand but the moment she notices his tanned skin, she smirks and turns away. Apparently handsome dark males do not rule women's fantasies any more or so the ad agencies would have us believe.
Considering that most Indians are actually of different shades of brown, it is actually quite ridiculous to demote our own genetic blessings and go on a wild goose chase. If you have a cream and peaches complexion, love it; if you don't, appreciate your own chocolate and mocha beauty!
 
Fair marriages

Complexion criteria in marriages is too well deplored to be mentioned again, but it is worth noting that even now when India inc is apparently on a progressive drive, arranged marriage ads emphasize the “very fair” complexion of the male/female to obviously ensure that any responder be of appropriate light coloring.
If a fair suitor gets a darker spouse, the society creates a huge hullabaloo about it. In-laws find public occasions to tout the color superiority of their son/daughter in the union and relatives wonder aloud why the couple was not color coordinated. It is lost battle for the poor darker partner who must always contend with being the “lucky one”.
 
Let’s look back

If we Indians try to look back, we will realize that in ancient times, description of physical beauty was not influenced by skin color. Lord Krishna is celebrated for his deep coloring and almost all Indian gods and goddesses like Lord Shiva or Ram are considered dark skinned. Obviously, the crowd then could appreciate the beauty of dark skin.
Somewhere, during one of the several colonial invasions, Indians lost appreciation of their own tribe. They started underrating their own achievements, capabilities, looks and coloring. The habit has persisted.
 
Dusky Bollywood

Thankfully, of late, people seem to be able to accept that beauty might not just be in color or lack of it!
Indian males do not shy away from considering a distinctly dusky Bipasha Basu as their idea of a beautiful female and dark complexion is not hindering many of the new actresses like Priyanka Chopra or Tanushree Dutta or Konkona Sen from getting plum film offers. Even item songs, considered the domain of the most crowd pleasing dancers, are now being performed by dusky lasses.
What’s more, bronzing has become the latest fashion trend in a country notorious for its craze for skin lightening. There are even serials featuring dusky lasses in the hugely regressive “saas-bahu” category on Indian channels. However, as expected, you can count such cases on the fingers of one hand.
 
In a nutshell, it might still take decades for many of us to be able to look beyond the narrow confines of color but the realization might be a good start. The fact that white, black and every shade in between can be just as beautiful is not that tough to acknowledge. All one has to do is open up his mind, throw out the preconditioned notions and really look.


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