{"id":517,"date":"2020-12-18T07:55:47","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T07:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/?p=517"},"modified":"2020-12-19T05:45:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T05:45:08","slug":"obsession-and-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/obsession-and-discrimination\/","title":{"rendered":"Obsession and Discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Anusha Mahanta
Delhi Public School, ONGC Nazira, Assam<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We inhabit a society where fascination towards the fair-complexioned is widespread. It is believed that being fair is a blessing while having a dark complexion is a condemnation. A person regarded as fair-complexioned is considered a compliment and is perceived to be prosperous, literate, and hygienic, whereas inferring the relatively darker being as illiterate, destitute, and unclean. The beauty standards have always praised a light-complexioned person and even proclaimed them the symbol of glamour. We are compelled to believe that being fair is a correspondent of being charming. Based on the suppositions mentioned above, this primarily gives rise to “colourism” or, in simple words, discrimination against the dark-skinned and obsession towards the fairer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how did fair superiority become prevalent in India? Is this going on for centuries?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The past has recorded several occurrences that obligated the Indians to think that fair skin symbolized supremacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 1500 BCE, during the Vedic age, when the Aryans migrated to India, they discovered themselves to be comparatively taller, fairer, and more civilized than the Dravidians, which afterward sequenced the dominance of the Aryans over the Dravidians. Besides, India was also being overshadowed by the Persians, Dutch, and the British, which had relatively fairer complexions. We can also presume that the caste system was one such reason for the fair-skinned authority’s dominance. Since it was, and still be perceived, an individual belonging to the Upper caste is generally fair and wealthy. In contrast, a lower caste person is dark-skinned and deprived, which helps distinguish between the touchable and untouchable in the past. These are some of the events which impelled the Indians to praise the fair complexion and equate it to superiority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consequently, in contemporary India, Hindu Gods and Goddesses are portrayed in a light skin tone. Simultaneously, the evils and demons are shown as dark-skinned to exemplify “virtuous or preeminent” and “vicious or trivial,” respectively. However, centuries ago, the Dravidians depicted the deities as dark-complexioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as the TV industry started to dwell on human lives, it intensified the idea of beauty. While the film industry became popular, it somehow contributed hatred towards the darker shades. People, especially the youngsters, desired to have fair skin to imitate the movie stars they admired, which justifies that the lead casts were eventually fair. Though some stars nearly had a dark complexion, they ultimately went through innumerable skin whitening processes to acquire acceptance in the film industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the aftermath, people began to evolve insecurities towards their skin colour, taking advantage of which fairness creams promptly dominated the cosmetic industry. Making us convinced by racial statements like “fairness gives you a success” and “Being fair is lovely,” these creams have earned over Rs 3000 crores. Despite knowing that it can cause severe diseases like skin cancer, people still prefer a fairness cream which proclaims to bleach their skin and make it light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In India, a dark-skinned person is accustomed to advice such as drinking milk, avoiding tea, and applying homemade fairness masks. Students taunt the one with a dusky appearance by addressing them with offending names such as kaala kauwa(crow), Koyla(coal), Blackberry, Gulab Jamun, and sometimes even an African, which inadvertently gives rise to racism. Even if someone loves their dusky complexion, society leaves no stone unturned to make them hate themselves. It is often being told that no boy will marry you if you are a dark-skinned girl, although the stereotype became a reality for quite a few. In most arranged marriages, the boy seeks a fair girl and vice versa. Even in matrimonial sites, a fair-skinned bride’s preference is always highlighted, which justly determines that discrimination regarding the dark and preference of fair skin still exists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are only a handful of instances a dark-skinned person has to go through; in reality, it’s much more. The world is advancing; hence we should progress too. India is a diverse country with people accessing different shades comprising their uniqueness; we must not treat our people as aliens just because of their complexion. From the earliest age, children should be taught to adore and respect every complexion, since they will be India’s future youth and thus would conquer the capability to change our society and its stereotypical assumptions. Adults should resist themselves from judging people by their skin color and pass hateful statements. The fairness creams and advertisements highlighting dark complexion as insecurity or liability and the films and songs comprising racial attitudes should be reported and banned. In a nutshell, shades are distinctive; hence giving preference to only a specific group of people is null and void. Myriads of people have spoken up on this matter. Still, it will only be worthwhile when the nation will unite and break the walls of prejudice jointly and contribute to acquiring triumph over the so-called “Obsession and Discrimination.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anusha MahantaDelhi Public School, ONGC Nazira, Assam We inhabit a society where fascination towards the fair-complexioned is widespread. It is believed that being fair is a blessing while having a dark complexion is a condemnation. A person regarded as fair-complexioned is considered a compliment and is perceived to be prosperous, literate, and hygienic, whereas inferring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[178],"tags":[224],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-dimensions","tag-anusha-mahanta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":518,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions\/518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}