‘Fairness’ Does Not Always Mean Beautiful

Will people in India be able to wash out this prejudiced thinking?

There are some questions that always strike my mind. Are there any criteria to judge someone on the basis of skin color? Can the color change by applying some cream? The judgment based on color is not a new aspect of our society. It is something coming from ages.

Indian obsession with fairness

Mythology books show fair and white color as a symbol of god (good doer) and dark or black color as a symbol of the devil (bad doer). And, the god who is described as “Dark” in the books, is also shown as fair or blue-skinned instead of black or dark. The meaning of the name of a famous Indian god “Krishna” itself means dark or black in Sanskrit. These things have sat in our minds and people still see others on the same basis.

The Indian cinema, Bollywood takes fair color people as actors and rejects dark-colored people. People tend to take fair colored people as more worth. In the late 90s Indian movies portrayed dark color people as villains. Seldom, to horrify the villain, or in other words, to show how bad the villain character is, the moviemakers used to show a bald dark-colored person.

India has a deep-rooted obsession with color. The things that have been going on for the past, people still accept the same things as true and are not ready to change their thinking with the new age. Today’s truth and the situation of today’s women are all different.

Here is the data related to women. Every 3 out of 4 women (75%) are not a part of the Labor force (workforce). Millions of women don’t have a job. Some experts feel this is due to social or economic factors like education, age of marriage. We all know that even today girls are not given chances to study much and they get married early.

The fairness obsession in India had not only started with the caste system but also during the time when Britishers ruled India. The Mughals and British ruled India for about two centuries. This means that the rulers of the country were fair-skinned, and this was a major reason for our obsession. Fair skin, to Indians, meant power, and dark skin meant the slave or poor. This then got engraved in the mindset of the people of our country and also affected the culture.

Fairness creams, market, and advertisements

The first-ever fairness cream sold in India was in 1919. The name of the cream was ‘Afghan snow’. But the most popular cream — ‘Fair & Lovely’ was introduced in the market by 1975.

The advertisements in the 1980s portrayed a dark-skinned woman unable to find husbands or jobs. Until applying fairness creams to achieve the ‘desirable’ skin tone. These storylines continued in making and hence creating a psychological factor in the young minds of the country. After the liberalization of 1991, many branded creams came to the market. The growing market of these brands then started targeting men and in 2005 they came up with “Fair and Handsome”.

In 2013, more than ₹ 3.0 billion worth of fairness products were being sold in India. The only aim was looking for is and it became so important to the Indians that out of the entire facial care market. Almost 50% of revenue comes from Skin Whiteners and lighteners in India.

Later these brands started to increase their circumference of the market by launching a new brand “Clean and Dry” for an intimate wash. The tagline of the brand was ‘Keep your genitals (reproductive organs) clean, safe & FAIR’. This was one of the most disgusting advertisements I’ve ever come across. Soon, this advertisement got banned. Many research studies have documented the preference for fair skin over brown color. Not only in India but also in other countries, people run behind fair skin.

Our Indian Bollywood has achieved a high position for itself. It has showcased innumerable talented actors. The actors have made some outstanding movies that are capable of inspiring. But today, the same celebrities who have millions of people following them are doing such fair advertisements. It is only those brands that are benefitted and only harm is caused to the people of the nation and their mentalities.

The frivolous thinking about discrimination on color also portrayed in their movies. Usually, It is shown that the groom shocked by seeing his dark-skinned naive bride and refuses to marry and wants to marry a fair girl. The fact is, a majority of the Indian population is brown-skinned or dark. Then how are most of the actors and actresses of almost every Indian film fair-skinned? Not only Bollywood, some of our political leaders, too, are involved in this race of racists.

The outcomes of fairness obsession

But what exactly is wrong with preferring and promoting fairness? How many of us know that this mindset has caused people, especially women ending up taking up their lives? Well, this is not a new or the first case. The people around through taunts over “dark complexion”. Parents curse their daughters for not getting married because of being “Kali”. Many reasons like these have allegedly caused Indian women to take their lives.

A 29-year-old woman killed herself in 2014 after her husband taunted her over her dark skin color, was the statement from the police.

And in 2018, a 14-year-old girl took her own life. Because her classmates bullied her and called her “ugly” because she was “dark”.These tragic incidents reflect how cruel and dangerous India’s obsession with skin color is.

From a very tender age, girls with darker skin tones are given derogatory names. They are bullied in every aspect of society. Whether it is in schools, or on playgrounds, and even within homes. People name them ugly and make unflattering comparisons with siblings who may have a fair complexion.

In matrimonial websites or in newspaper columns, skin color is almost always given the utmost preference. The brides are described by using words such as fair, wheatish, light, or dark brown, but no one uses the word dark. And all these end up making women with darker skin complexion feel inadequate, unhappy, depressed, and even worse. They take themselves as ugly.

I remember once in my schooling a notorious classmate of mine calling a dark-colored girl classmate “chudail” which means “witch”. Discriminatory attitudes like these will continue to ruin lives until and unless people change their way of seeing others. Issues like these often go unnoticed but create a huge impact on our society.

This leads to one more form of discrimination (partiality/inequality) in society due to skin color. This inequality could have very dangerous consequences. A study had revealed that in Rajasthan & Haryana, due to their dark skin color, their treatment was different from others. Girls were not being taken to family functions or other weddings. Also, dark-skinned women also demand a huge amount of dowry in comparison to fair-colored women.

29-year-old Pooja’s husband pressured her to ask for more dowry from her parents right after their marriage. Her parents had already given their all to the husband’s family in the marriage and they were left with nothing. But the husband wanted more and tortured her. All of this was only because she was dark in color. This pressure got so insane that she committed suicide by hanging to death from a ceiling fan.

We may not know how many more Pooja’s like her are getting such inhumane behavior just for their skin color. Unfortunately, this discrimination has become common nowadays. An American brand of petroleum jelly also known as Vaseline. It had published on their website that “8 out of 10 women in India believe that fair skin gives them an additional advantage in the society.”

Another study in India revealed that dark-skinned women do not even apply for some jobs due to their skin color (inferiority complex). As a result, there are a lot of negative impacts on their career too.

Even small children have to undergo the same untruthful impact of this discrimination. Other Children of the same age group often take it as a joke or moment of a laugh. When they tease their fellow friends for their dark skin tone with names like Kaala (black), or bhondu (stupid), or ugly. But they don’t know how mentally that particular child suffers.

While fighting these derogatory insulting comments for him being the way he is. He then finds it difficult to adjust to other children because he is always afraid that others will make fun of him for him being dark. These later build up in making the start to quit his friend circle and end up being alone. It makes the child unhappy, depressed, and mentally disturbed. Will this child be able to be focused on his studies; and what about his later career?

Nowadays people are running behind these fairness creams as if they will do some miracle. But they don’t know the harm creams can do to them. These Fairness creams are dangerous too. Delhi Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research (DIPSAR) had tested fairness creams of 11 big brands being sold in the market.

It was found that all these companies are using Mercury in their fairness creams. Researches reveal that Mercury can lead to cancer when it comes in contact with our body. Many people have claimed that these fairness creams are not effective, too. These creams can only help in restoring our natural skin tone and they cannot make us fairer.

Those who are unable to afford these fairness creams because of their high cost; then go for home remedies. In India use home-made treatment of unqualified persons. Such treatments can only harm. Because the person who is telling the instructions to make it is unprofessional. Thus, these tips sometimes may help you in removing the tan of the skin, but cannot make you fair.

The widespread market of cosmetics has reached to an extent that people can’t differentiate between original and fake products. People unknowingly do use those fake cosmetics. Which often then results in harmful skin ailments. Like acne, pimples, white pimples, etc.

The caste & class system also did this obsession for fairer, more strong. Earlier the lower-caste, poor workers who worked outside the entire day under the sun, became tan. The upper-caste, rich people who stayed indoors the entire day, did not become dark.

What can we all do now?

The advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) came forward and took its first step to deduce this problem. ASCI banned all cosmetic advertisements in 2014. Which shows dark-skinned people as inferior to fair-skinned people. But clearly, these bans do not make any impact.

Because when advertisements get banned they tend to find loopholes. For example, Alcohol advertisements. McDowell’s №1 “SODA” (Surrogate advertising — Promoting “SODA” instead of alcohol as promoting alcohol on TV is banned by ASCI.).

The most important change needed in our society is to change in attitude (way of thinking). So firstly people need to stop their race behind these cosmetic brands and all fairness creams.

In the last few years, many people have raised awareness over this fairness obsession. Like Muna Beatty, who started the #ColourMeRight campaign. And the Dark Is Beautiful campaign in which many celebrities took part.

And finally, we also have to change our education system. Like in religious books. Which mentions Demons are dark-skinned and heroes are fair-skinned.

We should teach children from the very beginning that fairness is not a criterion for measuring anything.

“We keep saying things like. ‘uska rang saaf hai’ as if dark skin is a dirty thing”. This mindset is propagated in movies, songs, and stories. — Nandita Das

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