India Is Racist Too

It has been long known that India has its own brand of racism, and what is worse, there are many kinds of it. But they were largely kept away from the world. However, it needed the gutsy Chief Minister of India’s north-eastern State of Mizoram, Pu Lalthanhawla, to dramatically expose the malaise in an international forum. ‘‘I am a victim of racism,’’ he told a recent seminar on water in Singapore, leaving his fellow delegates red-faced. ‘‘In India, people ask me if I am an Indian. When I go to south (India), people ask me such questions. They ask me if I am from Nepal or elsewhere. They forget that the northeast is part of India.”

The Chief Minister’s remarks come uncomfortably at a time when New Delhi is protesting racist attacks on Indian students in Australia, and his observations though embarrassing have a strong basis. For long, men and women from the northeastern States have found themselves alienated because of their facial features that are very different from the rest of Indians. Students, for instance, have found it harder to get college or university seats or living accommodation. Also, they have been victims of cheating and other forms of fraud.
However, the prejudice against colour and caste is a far more serious issue in a nation that essentially consists of three races – the generally fair complexioned Aryans from northern States, the usually dark skinned Dravidians from the south and the mongoloid featured light coloured people of the northeast.

To this day, most matrimonial advertisements in the media ask for fair brides, and dark girls are often discriminated. It is not exactly rare to find them being forced to part with a huge dowry or bride price to find a groom. Wheatish looking actress and social activist Nandita Das felt harassed for a long time at the way her makeup men tried painting her face a deathly white.

Of late, Indian men too appear to be increasingly conscious of the colour of their own skin. A range of cosmetic products promises to make them fairer, and “more handsome”, clearly indicating an unhealthy link between complexion and beauty. The dangers of such propaganda cannot be underestimated in India where other forms of racism create havoc threatening society’s peace and fabric.