Colonization

No black, please; we’re pure white Indians

If further proof were needed that we Indians are white supremacists, who hold in scorn all that is dark, it has been provided by two recent instances, both reported on the same day.

In one case, two ‘dark-skinned’ IPL cheerleaders for the Mohali team were allegedly asked to leave the stadium by representatives of the event management company orchestrating the show. While the company in question has denied the charge, there is no denying our in-built prejudice in favour of a whiter shade of pale, as evidenced in everything from matrimonial ads seeking ‘fair complexioned’ brides to the impressive sales figures of skin whitening creams.

The second demonstration of our desire to be whiter-than-thou concerned the colour not of skin but of money. It seems that our powers-that-be are less than enthusiastic about taking up an offer made by the German government to reveal the names of individuals and institutions who have parked undeclared boodle in a bank based in the tax haven of Liechtenstein.

Cynics might interpret the reluctance on the part of the Indian authorities to receive and make public the proffered information as circumstantial evidence indicating the presence of scandalous skeletons lurking in foreign financial cupboards, spectres of Bofors and after.

Such a view, however, is needlessly jaundiced, for it implies associations with what is often called ‘black’ money. Notwithstanding the repeated findings of various national and international agencies which have shown that India’s ‘black’ or ‘parallel’ economy is almost as sizable as its regular, or ‘white’, economy, we shy away from such disclosures.

Understandably so. It’s a question of ingrained aesthetics sanctified by custom.

We have been schooled to believe that everything white represents purity: white sugar, white flour, white rice, white dairy products like milk and ghee. Never mind the medical caveat that all of these can be injurious to health, as shown by the fact that Indians as a whole run a far greater risk of developing diabetes and heart disease than any other community in the world. No matter. For us, white remains right.

This explains our sarkar’s aversion to the German offer, which our netas and babus have rightly construed as a cultural slur. How dare those firangs imply that any Indian - particularly of the rich and politically influential variety - would have any truck with something as icky and distasteful as black money. Fair & Lovely forbid.

For the truth of the matter of course is that no Indian would be sullied with lucre so filthy as to be positively - or rather, negatively - black. If further proof were needed that we Indians are white supremacists, who hold in scorn all that is dark, it has been provided by two r... more

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