Rudyard Kipling represents both the good and bad of the Raj. His famous quote of the Orient being a “White mans burden” has survived him to this day. Kipling in effect stated succinctly, that the white race was superior to other races and had a duty to show enlightenment to them.
The color of the skin has created prejudices all over the world ,more so in the United States and Europe where not long back the Blacks were looked down as inferior. These concepts are fallout of centuries of prejudice, that considers women with fair skin more beautiful than dark skinned woman.
Concept of Beauty in the Sub Continent
The 21st century, has seen some change occurring in western thought. But in India and Pakistan the fair skin syndrome is on the rise. In fact, it has dominated the ethos of this region since time immemorial. Thus even in the present age, the concept of fairness has filtered down to all fields from modeling to looking for a bride.
Thus the average resident of the sub-continent is obsessed with fairness. A look at the matrimonial advertisement, will bring out that almost all males in India will prefer a fair skinned girl, to a dark skinned one. The Parsi’s who are ultra fair take the cake as far as the Indian concept of beauty is concerned, because of their white skin.
The Fetish of Whiteness
Every woman desires to have Clear & Brilliant Treatment on her face no matter lady is from sub continent or from Australia. The white skin syndrome has permeated to all corners of the AD world and the arts and Film industry. Thus, a plethora of fairness creams are marketed in the sub-continent led by Unilevers ‘fair and Lovely’ cream. These creams and lotions have a billion dollar market, that is not difficult to understand. However, the sad part is that even the men seem to have fallen prey to this fetish of a fair skin. The result is that quite a few companies market fairness creams exclusively for men. We do not see much of these creams in the west.
The concept of a fair skin as a standard of beauty is not confined to the sub continent, but other South East Asian countries including Srilanka and Thailand are not immune to this fetish. The problem is, that a concept of a fair skin as a hallmark of beauty is ingrained in the ethos of the people of this region.
Right down from ancient texts and books, the writers have extolled fairness as a concept of beauty. In fact, it is rooted in the ethos of the people of this region. Take the film world. You will not find a single dark skinned heroine, whether in Tamil, Hindi or Bengali movies. Fairness as a concept of beauty cannot be wished away. Recently some ultra fair Indian girls came from Canada for modeling and in no time they sidelined the darker local girls.
The concept of beauty being related to a fair light skin will need a long time to be erased from the Asian mind. For all you know it may never happen.
