“Beta dudh pilo gore ho jaoge”.
“Take a bath and become gorachitta.” Children immediately
follow parent’s order with single dream in mind to become fair. Frequently we
get to hear these kinds of statements. Many urban well educated parents use
these kinds of dialogs to make their job easy.
Then Hindi lessons begin by reading statements written behind the trucks
and autos “Buri nazarwale tera mu kala” or “Dal mae khuch kala hey” Bollywood
hit songs try to pacify that though we are dark we are good at heart (Hum kale ho toe kya hua dilwale hey).Our
tradition of painting a face of the wrongdoer or offender with black color is
renowned. Swimming or outdoor games are
big NO NO especially for girls due to fear of getting tan. Search engine unveils
the meaning of Black is it is associated with
power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery. Black is a
mysterious color associated with fear and the unknown (black
holes). It usually has a negative connotation (blacklist, black humor, 'black
death').
Yes we do get evidences for
obsession for white skin which can be traced back to the caste system when
there was lack of education. Black is always associated with negative events. But
this is story of so called metropolitan highly educated families. In the past creating
obsession for fairer skin has added by fairness cream is always being pointed
out. Infants do not understand fairness cream advertisement but we parents who
develops values since that age.
The issue we are talking about is
significant. The fallacious statements used by family members, teacher’s leads
to toddler’s faith development which result in value development. This induces
children to build up faith that beautiful = fair skin and necessitate value
fair skin or white color of the skin. If Indian kids nurture in such
surroundings then can we expect racist free India??
Misleading statements, age-old irrational
proverbs are derogatory and result in racial discrimination and sows the seeds
of obsession for fair skin. Mentioning such absurd proverbs on vehicles, using
in books should be banned. Using such
defensive statements should be discouraged.
Small changes will bring big changes…..
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