The Need of Color Blindness

Delhi Golf Club asks Meghalaya woman wearing traditional dress to leave for ‘looking like a maid’

They thrashed me with mops': Nigerian students in Greater Noida describe horrific mob attacks

Former Goa Chief Minister demands ban on Nigerians in India

Indians think Africans are 'frauds and prostitutes' ‒ so why do they still come to India to study?

These news articles are generally present on the second or third pages of our newspapers in a small corner.  They are never taken seriously by anyone, neither the locals, politicians nor the media and the society. But these headlines expose the deeply embedded racism imbibed in the Indian society. Right from racial slurs towards the north Indians to the subtle jokes on the skin colours of the south Indians. 

The concept of racial superiority is the fruit of the dark history of the Western culture. But its influence has spread across the world, where the skin colour is given more importance that the virtues. Same is the case in India. There are various social norms and beliefs that believe the dark-skinned people to be ‘ugly’ and worth nothing. Right from one childhood, different treatments and cares are taken to make sure the child does not have a dark complexion. There are way too many racial comments and stereotypes associated with India. The importance given to fair skin, fairness creams, motivating the use of fairness creams is a reflection of the racial biases in our country.

The stereotypes that are being spread and consumed as jokes about the north Indians are too indirect and subtle to be noticed but are one of the signs of the presence of racial discrimination in India. The recent controversy about the Nepali community and its portrayal in a web series named ‘Pataal Lok’ is one of the greatest examples of this. Even the south Indians are not new to the discrimination that they have to face due to their skin complexion. Their body features, dressing style, the customs they believe in are all the target of the racial biases towards both the north and south Indians. There are work stereotypes associated with them.

This is about our own citizens. But what about the foreigners who tend to visit India for educational or tourism purposes? In India, there are approximately 50,000 to 60,000 Africans residing in India, mostly for educational purposes. Apart from the negative portrayal of them as criminals, they all have faced some or the other racial bias in India. They are accused of being the bearers of illegal activities across India. They are subjected to various lewd abuses and comments in local language by the locals. They are subjected to lynching and even murders, just because of where they belong from and what their skin complexion is.

Is it really necessary to judge human being just on the basis of where he/she belongs from or what colour their skin is? Is it really justice to the virtues of the man? Or, as a society, are we just too blind to see the truth and act like a human?