The Colour Of India

The colour of your skin is not a representation of success. The problem is with THEM and not you.

What do Indian beauty cream ads portray?

For men: having difficulty finding girls? get fair and you will get girls
For women: having difficulty With respect to man/career/writing/commentary/radio /cooking/ Kids/ and lets dig at every other insecurity you face—> get fair

But where did it come from:

• In mythology, we hear of the dark skinned Draupadi who was the most beautiful woman of her time, Tilottama a maiden created to defeat two asur brothers was dark skinned.
• Lord Krishna, Lord Rama and all other Avatars of Vishnu were dark skinned.
• Indians came from different parts of the world given the nature of different dynasties that conquered it. Mughals and other north western dynasties are supposed to be fair skinned.
• this difference was created owing to the Aryans (fair) and Dasyus(dark)
• this was intensified during the Mughal and the British era.
• slowly, the rakshas clan came to be portrayed as dark or black and the Gods as white. Even Lord Krishna Or Rama is painted in blue or even shown as fair skinned. when i tried a google search for “Draupadi” i could hardly find a dark image with even the actresses in the series being fair.
• in the Indian movies, many dusky actresses have undergone treatments to become fair owing to the atrocities they might have faced. Some of us might remember the “kali billi” comment on Bipasha Basu.
• in the recent movie “Bala”, a fair skinned actress was tanned, while many dusky actresses are out of work.
• in our homes the darker child usually gets to hear “iske nain-naksh achhe hai rang ke hisab se” or “gori hoti to kitni achhi lagti”.

The change that is needed:

• We need to change the perception from a young age itself. Let us come up with the perception of “all colours are beautiful” and normalise dark skin tones.
• let us not let the opinions of relatives and friends get to us. We can always give a good answer to these taunts. For the children out there, their parents need to take the responsibility.
• as for the fairness creams—> THEY DO NOT WORK. These can restore your natural skin tone in case you get tanned utmost. The parlour treatments are known to damage your skin due to the harsh chemicals.
• Learn to be comfortable in your skin. Be the Goddess Kali and Slay.
• the colour of your skin is not a representation of success.

Always remember: a person who judges you by your appearance, their whole education and so called modernity is a waste. An educated and moreover a good person would never judge anyone on the basis of external cues. The problem is with THEM and not your colour.

Image source: Pexels

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