Much before India was intruded by fair skinned people, the country has been charmed by the lighter tone of skin. In Sanskrit, the term ‘Asurya-tana’ is used to define he who is not tanned, unexposed to the sun’s heat and is therefore pure and affluent. “There’s this notion about dark-skinned people belonging to the labour class because they’d work on the fields under the sun. White skin, on the other hand, represented authority,” shares Devdutt Pattanaik, chief belief officer at Future Group.
The original dwellers of India were dark skinned, well-nigh black. They were known as Dravidians. The Aryans who were lighter skinned from Persia intruded from the north and enforced a caste arrangement in order to separate themselves from the Dravidians. Few learners believe that modern racism began in India and spread westward. Your caste determines your education, where you live, work, basically everything.
India is supposedly bewitched by two Ss — Sarkar and Safed. One is far from pure now and another has multiplied into INR 3000 crore commercial business.
Skin lightening creams are reportedly the most popular product on the Indian skin care market, 60% of Indian ladies using them daily. Asia is a huge market of skin whitening cream. India, Singapore, China and Malaysia have reported almost 100% increase in sales every year from last 5 years.
mirror 5
Pearly White Royalty
In earlier times, royal Indian women, amazed by fair skin, used to apply pearl extracts on their skin for increased fairness. In 1919, India had its first commercial fairness cream in Afghan Snow, made by ES Patanwala. The cream was named after King Zahir of Afghanistan, who thought that it cued him of the snow from his homeland.
In 1975, Hindustan Unilever introduced a fairness cream ‘Fair & Lovely’ taking over the fairness bleach market. In no time, they accomplished a groundbreaker position in the market.
After independence, ado of brands like Emami Naturally Fair in the early 90s, CavinKare’s Fairever in 1998 andGodrej’s FairGlow in 1999 came in the business arena to challenge the monopoly of Fair & Lovely. To boot them out from the market, Fair & Lovely pitched the idea of woman empowerment and the cream being a confidence factor to get the perfect job.
The ads for these creams promise love, happiness, satisfaction even wealth if only you make yourself look whiter. The ridiculousness would be comical except for the hazards of some of these products and the message between the lines is – That all of us should look less brown.
Accept it or not, skin colour plays a vital role in the matrimonial alliances, so many mothers murmuring to their sons to take a glance at the feet of prospective brides to detect their true skin colour. Most of matrimonial ads today tub-thump skin colour, particularly when the person being advertised is fair. If not ‘fair’ then we have the ubiquitous “wheatish,”(skin colour that only exists in India) complexion, nothing darker than that is promoted.
In a land where people worship Lord Rama, Krishna and Shiva as almighty, Indians are obsessed with white skin. Talents are overlooked.
Are we the fairest of all?
India’s retail beauty and cosmetics industry, currently estimated at ` 37,000 million, is likely to almost treble by 2020, experts says. Over the last five years, cosmetics products have seen a growth of 60 per cent. The number of salons has also gone up by 35 percent. Cosmetic treatments are also growing at the rate of 5 per cent. In TV ads, the fairness cream categories are in the Top 10. Yearly growth in the Indian beauty and cosmetics markets is estimated to remain in the range of 15-20 per cent in the coming years, twice as fast as that of the US and European markets.
Bollywood Star Fair
Stars who have promoted such cosmetic products include biggies like – John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone, Preity Zinta, Sonam Kapoor and the mighty King Khan.
mirror 4
Starting with King Khan, who created a hum with his Lux soap commercial, the ‘fairness’ market is flourishing with men too getting in the line to become ‘fair and lovely’. But in the rush to look good, has anyone thought of its side-effects?
Dermatologist Dr Amit Vij, says, “Face whitening creams are harmful for all – be it man or woman. “ So how much time do these reactions take to show up? “It varies. For someone, it could react immediately, for another it could take months to show signs of a deteriorating skin,” he says.
Risky business
These creams have long been impeached of being discriminatory and racist. Many creams sold in the market contains hazardous compounds like steroids, mercury and tretinoin; the long term use of which can lead to lethal health concerns likes permanent pigmentation, skin cancer, liver damage, mercury poisoning and others. Few creams also contain hydroquinone which is a bleaching agent that is banned from use in cosmetics(but can be prescribed by doctors for medical reasons) in many countries.
Further risks can include the following: Extended use can contribute to premature aging of skin. Steroids in some skin lighteners may increase risk for skin infections, skin thinning, acne, and poor wound healing. Hydroquinone may cause unwanted and untreatable skin discoloration. Hydroquinone(C6H6O2) is a severely toxic and very powerful chemical used in photo processing, the manufacture of rubber and is an active agent in hair dyes. Mercury in the form of Mercury Chloride & Ammoniated Mercury is carcinogenic(cancer-producing).
Read More: https://janpratinidhi.com/blog/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall/
