I have noted before the obsession with lighter skin amongst the worlds non white populations (while white people often try hard to get browner by tanning) ......
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| Modi Masks Worn By Admirers |
.... But I was reminded of this when seeing facemasks of India's Prime Minister Modi.
They looked almost European in their complexion paleness ... and appear at first glance to have been Photoshopped to reflect the Indian obsession with being 'fair skinned', or having a 'fair complexion'. ... an obsession that its hard to deny, as any look at love ads in Indian magazines, and the sales of skin whitening products in shops confirms.
The reasons for this probably differ across the globe. So in sub-Saharan Africa the reasons may reflect the colonial era and a emulation complex about that (although they may deny it, and I stand to be corrected if someone cares to give me an alternative explanation for skin whitening in Africa) ....
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| From Emperors To Film Stars - All See The Light |
..... while in the Indian subcontinent it may be an equally complex issue, with the long rule of the Mughal rulers over most of the subcontinent (where paintings invariably show the rulers and their harem consorts as very pale skinned, despite the fact that they probably weren't).
This was immediately followed by 150 years of the British Raj, with white European rulers, so there most likely will have been some sort of conscious or unconscious bias toward paler skin in 'rulers', even after independence.
However there is also the factor of caste amongst the Hindu population. This doesn't specifically mention colour, but its a fact that darker skinned Indians are often Dalits (the former untouchables), or the Adivasis (the indigenous peoples). So lighter skin may be seen as 'better' in some way, as it moves you away from the bottom of India's complex social structures.
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| Modi Showing His True Colours |
I don't know if any of this, is why the image of Modi looks so pale skinned or not, but its an odd thing to do for no reason, and I felt urge to mention it.
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