We live in a country which is culturally rich and diverse. We speak so many languages; our fooding and living habits varies so dynamically from one part of the country to the other that sometimes it becomes very tough to believe that we all belong to the same country. As there is always two sides of the coin so is the case with the India. On one side we talk about integrity and culture and on the other we have some conflicting and disturbing notions and some of the prominent ones are based on religion, caste and girls education to name a few. But one emerging notion now a days is based on the complexion of the skin.
There are lot of incidents out there where a person (or women to be specific in most of the cases) with fair complexion is given priority over so called person with dark complexion. You suddenly have brown skin actresses in reality, appearing many shades lighter on screen. Somebody like Kajol is seen promoting a cosmetic cream in almost 8 shades lighter than what she used to be. There are commercials out there that sent out a message that if your skin is lighter, you are more acceptable to society. In our society we have often seen that a woman is not expected to give her opinion or stand up for what is wrong just because she does not belong to fair, white or pink category. During marriage also a girl does not get accepted by her mother in law or husband if she is dark complexioned and somehow if she gets accepted then it just becomes a compromise. These are just some of the haunting examples and you can easily find out more out there in the society.
This notion leads to the weakening of the moral. And when you doubt one thing about yourself, you start thinking there’s also something wrong with your hair, your body, your clothes, your accent—everything. There might be exemptions where Indians have fair complexion but mostly we are people having brown complexion. Complexion is something which cant be controlled. It depends upon many factors including geographical location and food habits but mostly it is hereditary. In fact Asian skin was never so white as it is portrayed now with the help of these cosmetics.
Nandita Das has recently started a campaign named “Dark is Beautiful- Stay Unfair Stay beautiful.” She is always described as dark and beautiful. It’s high time that not only dark toned women but also naturally white ones need to come forward for support. And above all we should be proud of whatever skin color we have and have to believe that its “Who I am” that will make me beautiful than my skin color. We should look at ourselves every now and then and say, “I’m proud of myself. I like the way I’m made.”