Colonialism Of Racism

From "gore rang pe na itna gumaan kar, gora rang do din mein dhal jayega" to " ye kaali kaali aakhein, ye gore gore gaal" to "white white face dekhe, dilwa beating fast..", we have all grown up to dancing on and singing these songs, never actually realising the fact that they all stipulate the obsession of Bollywood with fair skin.

But the discrimination on the basis of skin color is not a "parampara" but rather it is colonialism. Britishers were fair in colour and those 200 years of ruling our country tainted the minds of the citizens of the country with a belief that "fair has power". Since then the most important question of every parent while looking for a match for their child has been " Ladki ka rang kaisa hai? Ladka sawla hai ya gora?" and not "Are you ready for marriage?" (a thought that magically never occurs to most of the Indian parents).

Educational qualification is secondary when you can get a job with a fair skin (L-O-L). Advertisements have taught us that how a fairness cream can enhance ones's personality and that celebs/ stars are famous only because of fair skin (ad slogan: " ab star dikhega"). Not to mention that we as a society have pushed each other to the limits to embrace beauty with fairness since our childhood. We never considered teaching students that "kaala" as a pet name for someone with dark complexion is unacceptable and we should not judge or discriminate anyone on the basis of their skin colour. Nevertheless, we inherited this belief with much pride and continue to do so as evident with youth's obsession of editing their pictures to look fairer and prettier (because validation is so important for us to make our presence felt in the society/on social media)

This discrimination went to another level when a woman, resident of Gurgaon, committed suicide because of being a constant victim of tantrums from her husband for her dark complexion. Sentiments of people are suppressed under the prejudiced minds of those who believe that fairness epitomises the beauty.

I wish the textbooks from our childhood were changed where the good is described to be fair in color and the bad is always dark in complexion. Fair and dark complexions have nothing to do with good or evil. Who knows if the dark inside one is embedded within the whiteness flaunted outside?

The only whiteness we should be looking for is in the money ( REMOVE BLACK MONEY and THE HASTE OF RACISM FROM YOUR MIND ).