Sharad Yadav may have been defamed all over the media and on the social networking websites for his sexist comments and defiant attitude, but this controversy is highlighting something else as well which we all are unable to see.
Sharad Yadav indirectly raised the very important question of why are we Indians so obsessed with fair skin. If you think that you are not one among those, then perhaps you should think again. I can give hundreds of examples which will clearly prove that fair skin is all what we crave for. I don’t even have to go far to look for these examples, I can just look around in my hostel to find few such cases. There are guys who use a face wash 10 times a day, I can see them rubbing their face mercilessly as if trying to peel off their skin. Sometimes when I walk past the washroom at even 3 in the morning, I can see some of them experimenting brutally to change the complexion of their skin.
The way ‘beauty’ has been defined in our country, a completely false picture of this word has been painted in the minds of the people. If you are fair then you are beautiful, that is how people judge. Even during marriages, we always want girls with fairer skin (Also Read: ‘WANTED: Girl – Tall, Slim & FAIR….’ What’s with that Indian fetish for a fairer skin?).
Maybe this obsession has been since the time Britons ruled over our country and projected the image that white skin is the superior one. But no matter for what reason this mindset still exists, our desperation to achieve a fairer skin at is not justifiable by any means.
Being comfortable in one’s skin is very important, and that is one thing which Indians are definitely not good at. Even when it comes to little things like posting pictures on Facebook, either it is made sure that the photograph is being clicked extreme under bright light or if not, then the color of the skin is being up scaled using photo editing software before putting it up online.
At least these questions will now be raised after what happened in Rajya Sabha on Monday afternoon. The extent to which Mr. Sharad Yadav was right or wrong is a different thing; I am not going to comment on that. All I just want to say is that the heated argument which happened between Janta-Dal United leader, Sharad Yadav, and Human Resource Development Minister, Smriti Irani, should definitely raise the question of our obsession with the white skin as a society, because people like Sharad Yadav are also a part of it.
The whole beauty industry has created a mirage which has inflicted the minds of people to such great depths that it’s not likely to change anytime soon. If beauty keeps on getting redefined as just a matter of ‘fairer complexion of the skin’, the mindset will become almost impossible to evolve.
No matter how much the whole world may admire the Indian skin complexion, we are never going to be satisfied with what we have. Our thirst for a white skin is just unquenchable, God knows when that is going to end.
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