The Hindu Business Line : `Fair' tales

A little reflection on the history of racist colonialism will show that the American Civil War embodies a stirring of collective consciousness, which was unrivalled for those times.

Turn the pages of matrimonial ads in any newspaper and you will find that the most used adjectives are `fair' and very fair' or the euphemistic `wheatish complexion'. In fact, it would seem that the quality of fairness is the most commoditised while soliciting responses to such ads.

I fail to understand why one must be proud of a fair complexion and ashamed to have a dark one. It seems to be a hangover from 200 years of labouring under the British Raj or maybe it goes even further to the centuries spent under the fair-skinned Mughals from Samarkhand (in present-day Uzbekistan).

But a fair complexion is coveted by most Indians; or else cosmetic companies that promise fairness miracles through their creams would not have succeeded. Bollywood abounds in examples of the premium placed on the skin colour. The word gori is used in dialogues and songs to refer to a pretty girl. Gori means `fair' girl in Hindi and it is thus synonymous with her being pretty. Many Bollywood heroines have made it big in the South because of their fair complexion, while few from the south with dusky complexions, have conquered Bollywood. While Hema Malini's fair complexion aided her cruise to stardom, the dusky Rekha, considered much more attractive by many fans, had to struggle for quite a while before being accepted as a top-notch heroine. Recently, watching a beauty contest for males on a TV channel one found a Chopra, Khanna and Singh among the finalists; the Ramasamys and Chockalingams were conspicuous by their absence!

While there are many strikingly good looking actors — men and women — among South Indians, they do not pass muster when it comes to skin colour.

Racist colonialism

I recall with amusement my encounter with a Gujarati student while studying in the US. He was very dark complexioned, but would refer to Afro Americans as `niggers' — a word considered very derogatory of the race. I thought it was a case of the pot calling the kettle `black' (quite literally).

However, there is a silver lining to this dark cloud — the American Civil War of 1861-65. The war was fought between the states of the American north (the Union or `Yankee') and those of the American south (Confederate or `Rebel').

The war was fought over the issue of slavery of Afro-Americans and more than 6 lakh lives were lost in the fratricidal conflict which ended in triumph for the Northerners who wanted slavery abolished. A little reflection on the history of racist colonialism will show that the American Civil War embodies a stirring of collective consciousness, which was unrivalled for those times.

For, the British suppressed the aborigines in Australia, The Boers, Germans and British oppressed the black Africans in South Africa with apartheid; the same was the case of other colonies in Africa, West Indies and Latin America, ruled by various European powers. The American Civil War shows that the Americans of the north were capable of feeling guilt for what was being done to the Afro-Americans and were willing to go to war for their emancipation.

Abraham Lincoln said at the end of the war: "Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal... We here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Discrimination against brown skin

I studied in the US during the time of the Iranian hostage crisis — when Ayatollah Khomeini's followers, who were opposed to the rule of the Shah of Iran, had staged a revolution and the staff of the American embassy in Teheran had been taken hostage.

The crisis lasted for a whole year during which there was a wave of anti-Iranian sentiment across the US. Anyone remotely resembling an Iranian would be targeted for abuse, refused service in restaurants, etc. Often Indians and Pakistanis were mistaken for Iranians, including me. One of the toilet graffiti read: "Flush those brown rascals down!"

What was ironic was that most of the Iranians who were in the US at that time were supporters of the Shah and the US, and many of them had fled Iran in the wake of the revolution, fearing execution by the firing squads of Khomeini's followers.