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dark is beautiful
COLOURISM IN INDIA – A HISTORY
Discrimination based on skin color was most visible in British India, where skin color served as a signal of high status for the foreign British who actively promoted the idea. Thus, those individuals with a lighter skin color enjoyed more privileges from the British, were considered to have a more affluent status and gained preference in education and employment. Darker skinned individuals were socially and economically disadvantaged.
The caste system in India too involves skin color bias. British historians observed that since the upper castes were not involved in tedious labor and weren’t as exposed to the sun as the lower castes, they used to stay indoors and thus possessed lighter brown skin. The lower castes on the other hand had higher melanin concentration in their skin cells due to continued exposure to sun from working in agricultural fields and outdoors.
STEREOTYPES
Children are complimented by relatives and friends for being the ‘fairer one’, in teenage and this bias keeps growing with age. It can be blamed on peer pressure,...
Discrimination based on skin color was most visible in British India, where skin color served as a signal of high status for the foreign British who actively promoted the idea. Thus, those individuals with a lighter skin color enjoyed more privileges from the British, were considered to have a more affluent status and gained preference in education and employment. Darker skinned individuals were socially and economically disadvantaged.
The caste system in India too involves skin color bias. British historians observed that since the upper castes were not involved in tedious labor and weren’t as exposed to the sun as the lower castes, they used to stay indoors and thus possessed lighter brown skin. The lower castes on the other hand had higher melanin concentration in their skin cells due to continued exposure to sun from working in agricultural fields and outdoors.
STEREOTYPES
Children are complimented by relatives and friends for being the ‘fairer one’, in teenage and this bias keeps growing with age. It can be blamed on peer pressure,...
