If some one asks me this I don’t have a single answer , my response will change based on time and context!

I am sure by now there will be at-least a few patriotic, fuming Indians calling me “ traitor “ or there could already be a set of officials checking my background based on what I am going to pen down here! It doesn’t matter ! I want to say what I think ! The best thing of being Indian – freedom of speech (a proud Indian moment)!

Well, with very huge population and diversity in language, food, culture and traditions, it is not easy for any government to build laws to satisfy all ! So its clear I am not going to write a cliche about government officials, their bribery , their selfishness and wat nots ! Leaving that aside, my anger is on Indians ourselves!

History talks about racism, black and white ! Ofcourse, with two different race, what can you expect in brutal olden days other than slavery ! But do you know a place where there is a strong racism among the same race just because there is some degree of difference in the skin color ? For an outsider, all Indians are homogenously brown skinned ! But within India – there are fair, dark, slightly fair wheat color – skin shades are deep rooted within Indians!Unfortunately, this diversity in skin color has created a hierarchy of beauty – that tells you that light-skinned people are epitome of beauty, while dark-skinned people fall at bottom supported by media ads !! There are age old TV advertisement telecasted for generations – a girl rejected by a guy due to dark skin and applies some silly skin fairness cream and becomes fair in 10 days and this makes her more confident! How stupid is that? This is an ad every female and male watches as a kid and that is the bias they grow up with ! Sadly, there is no regulation for these ads, as all regulation boards are busy measuring the size of female skirts !

Just want to flip through pages of history and find out when Indians became obsessed with skin colors ?

Dravidians – native Indians were all obviously dark skinned !The History has unclear ideas about Aryan invasions (from Iran and some south part of Russia) who conquered native Indians and became powerful. This being the cause for many dravidians to migrate to south India !

India is a land of invasions from Time to time ! The Mughuls, Turkhs, Persians, Mongols and finally European traders and British colonisation !!

These invasions has always happened from the north , pushing the natives to south by much lighter skinned people who were considered supreme.

Supposedly this influential race created scriptures and history for its own benefits! Every literature and spiritual writings speak about fair God and dark God-their beauty and power ! But no picture of God is ever dark skinned. Even dark Gods – Rama and Krishna are given a unique green/ blue color ! And so called Female Goddess “ Lakshmi “ who brings prosperity to any family is always depicted in every painting as fair skinned ! Always asuras, the bad people or demons are shown as dark skinned !! Is this artist mistake or our brains are etched with skin bias thoughts ? Take any average indian masala movie. The hero is usually a fair skinned gentleman whereas the baddies/ gym boys he beats up are dark skinned and hence monstrous.

After the British colonisation , many weaker section who could not fight back decided to accept fair skin as dominant and powerful. The descendants of the fair aryans and dark dravidian are wheatish in nature and are spread everywhere ! I feel all colonised regions in Asia has similar skin shade thoughts !

But nevertheless, I feel Indians are worst when it comes to bias based on skin color. We seem to decide who should rule the country and who should be given respect and who is powerful based on this. The first question after a birth of a baby is the enquiry about the skin colour!! This has been widely accepted as a very decent query!

I might be wrong , but this is a mutation which has happened millions of years ago in Indian brain which is still prevalent. My thought is this can never be changed – “ overnight “!!

As per me, it was either brutal invasions/ trade or in modern days globalisation are the reasons for growth and culture exchange in every community on a positive note. With this thought, there is no such thing as “native” – nativity is the depth upto which our historical brains could have reached. I say dravidians are native Indians because the history doesn’t date back to say where they descended from and assumes they originated here.

But the same are reasons for such human brain tuned to like the most powerful and sometimes make them impersonate like the strongest !

I feel this million year thought only explodes in different way through different people , but remains within every Indian ! Again , a very common first impression among most Indians is when they face a caucasian, they think he is smart ,knowledgeable and powerful. If they come across a white skin they will immediately start a conversation, which they will not be ready to do with their own race ! Coz there is a trust on the skin color , Honestly the same doesnt apply for a African dark skinned people . Our brains are tuned to react unknowingly. This has been proved with statistics ! Appreciating western music or culture and discriminating our own is also another form of this bias. There are people who look down on others listening to local music! A true music lover will appreciate any music it being English or Local! What are we trying to prove here ? Are we trying to imitate someone so they will accept as part of them and so we all become strong? Somewhere deep in our thoughts, following the strong and powerful and imitating them gives us confidence. It should really be the other way around.

In this modern days, Indians like to pick up American Accent and try to color their thick black hair as blonde as an effect of global village. And try all means of photoshop to show a picture with all filters to show light skin effect ! But Why ? To show that they are like American and to show his caliber? This statement can be discarded with fashion as a reason. But to me it shows our etched brain’s action in another biased dimension.

I am definitely not proud to be an Indian and will feel ashamed until we remove this unwanted racial thought which pushes some people to hide their own identity, put a masquerade and act like somebody else ! Unfortunately what ever we do, we are brown skinned !!

To be continued …