What causes colorism in India?

[Anonymous]

Growing up I saw all the actors on Indian movies and tv shows to be light skinned and I thought they were the majority of the population until two years ago when I travelled to this city that is full of Indian people , and I noticed that a lot of Indians are dark skinned.

I did a little research on the internet , and it turned out that colorism is a huge and rampant issue in India. That's why a lot of dark skinned people ( especially women ) face discrimination in all aspects of life, which resulted in the promotion of lightening products, which is so disgusting to me , because I believe the more natural you are , the more attractive you will be.

What causes colorism? and what efforts have been made to combat it?

[Starwitch23]

Colourism exists in India because there is a belief in the society that the light skinned people have better socio-economic background. It has been seen that all the light skinned colour ruled over India. The first were the Aryans who ruled over Davidians. Then the Mughal, Iranian and Afghans came. At last, the British who were also light skinned. This engraved in the minds of Indian consciously and subconsciously that all the rulers were light skinned people. So, they are better than the dark skinned people. That's why we see the ads that if we are light skinned then the success is guaranteed.

[Starwitch23]

Dravidians**

[Asker]

Makes sense
Thanks for taking time to make these points

[Starwitch23]

Thank you 😊

[Asker]

You are very welcome

[ChrisMaster69]

@Starwitch23 you also need to throw in the likes of the Siddi in to the mix.

[Starwitch23]

They are Aryan by race. They originated from Pakistan. Many of them migrated in India.

[ChrisMaster69]

Sorry no, they are originally Bantu from the Indian slave trade with Africa,

[Starwitch23]

Oh I've never heard of that. Sorry for that.

[UnknownGagsUser]

The influence from the west cultures and their beauty standard..


Look , not dark skin indian get discriminated, infact all dark skin people from all over the places have faced this problem. The thing is everyone should love who they are, appreciate what they have instead of let the medias influence them.

[UnknownGagsUser]

Thanks for MHO

[Asker]

You are welcome
Your answer made the most sense

[SuccessfulHornDog]

I asked a lot of my Indian friends if it came about because of British colonial rule and they all said no. It seems like it has been around for ages. I dont know why but it could very well just be a natural preference like white have for blonde women

[jshm2]

You're confused.

Indians are darker skinned, but "light" skin is seen as a status symbol in the higher castes.

[Asker]

I know

[weeee]

I don't know. Its weird because even some of the hindu gods have dark skin.

[ronaldo75]

Asians are insanely racist and colorist by nature. It's going to take decades to erase it.

[legalboxers]

They want to bleach their skin so they can seem white to fit in into Main Stream American Movies