Abstract
Last Version: Color and Caste Discrimination
The belief in Aryan racial supremacy dominates social hierarchy practices in India. Upper caste members claim a superior lineage by tracing their “genes” to Aryans, connoting a “natural superiority” over “Shudra” and “ex-untouchables.” (The term “ex-untouchables” refers to Scheduled Castes, also known as Avarna (outside four Varna), Outcastes, Panchama, Antyaja, etc.) This chapter uses terms such as Dalits, ex-untouchables interchangeably, to refer to this population, though the socio-legal term defined to this population is Scheduled Castes—deemed as non-Aryans. Aryans textually are described as a pure, noble, and superior race: physically tall, with sharp noses and lighter skin color. Dasyus or Dasas, on the contrary, are considered of lowly origin and racially inferior due to their dark skin. Such stratification based on skin color is perhaps one of the oldest forms of discrimination and domination in human society. India has a 3,000-year-old social hierarchal system rooted in the “varna-jāti” structure. Jāti, or caste system, is a socioreligious organization prescribing restricted commensality, endogamy, practices of untouchability, and other regressive practices. This ancient hierarchy affects, in particular, the rules of dining, endogamy, and caste commensality. Social life is marked by hierarchal practices and other dogmatic beliefs operated through exercising strict control over women and her sexuality. In addition, the cultural complex of beauty, femininity, chastity, and social status is based on skin color and caste location. Lighter skin is considered superior, whereas dark-skinned is rendered as disability, ugly, and inferior. Skin color in thus many ways is marker of social status, inferiority intrinsic to dark skin color, and superiority associated with whiteness/lighter skin shades. This chapter attempts to map historical and contemporary form of color-based discrimination, history of racial discourse, and the role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in promoting and perpetuating color and caste-based discrimination.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
These advertisements can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIWs-38t2-o&feature=related, and in addition, Amitabh Kant’s book Branding India: Incredible Story marks the process of Incredible India and marketing strategies.
- 2.
Darker skinned indigenous people.
- 3.
Arian and Aryan is one and the same, only written differently; here, the connotation was Aryan as a biological race and not as cultural/language group.
- 4.
Originally from Müller, Max (1847). On the relation of Bengali to the Aryan and Aboriginal Languages of India, In Report of British Association. P. 339.
- 5.
Sanatan—“in Sanskrit, ‘eternal, timeless,’ the phrase sanatan dharm is often used for what are claimed to be ageless religious practices going back to the Vedas.” (http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/ambedkar/web/terms/6764.html).
- 6.
Gandhi and Ambedkar had conflict over the addressing the problem of caste; Gandhi believed in maintaining caste order and destroying untouchability; Dr. Ambedkar believed that such a proposition is highly impossible in realizing demolition of caste order; Dr. Ambedkar said, “sanctity of caste and varna can be destroyed only by discarding the divine authority of the Shastras.” This is elaborated in classic essay on “Annihilation of Caste with Reply to ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi” (Ambedkar 1979a).
- 7.
14th survey on marriage trends in India was conducted by Shaadi.com. The respondent base was 150 thousand Indians between the ages 18–45 years with an annual income in the range of Rupees 50,000 and above. The survey was conducted across 300 Indian cities, towns, as well as NRIs living in the USA, the UK, Canada, Middle East, South East Asia, New Zealand, and Australia.
References
Daily Mail. (2008, May 22). British cheerleaders banned from Indian cricket show because their skin was too dark. Daily Mail. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1021152/British-cheerleaders-banned-Indian-cricket-skin-dark.html
Ambedkar, B. R. (1979a). Annihilation of caste with reply to ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches, Vol. 1, P. 47). Bombay: Education Department, Government of India. Retrieved from http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/ambedkar/web/readings/aoc_print_orig.pdf
Ambedkar, B. R. (1979b). Riddles in Hinduism (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches, Vol. 4). Bombay: Education Department, Government of Maharashtra.
Ambedkar, B. R. (1990). Who were the Shudra? The untouchables – Who were they and why they became untouchables? (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches, Vol. 7). Bombay: Education Department, Government of Maharashtra.
Basu, D. D. (2009). Introduction to the constitution of India. Nagpur: LexisNexis Butterworths Wadhwa.
BBC. (2003). India debates ‘racist’ skin cream ads. BBC News. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3089495.stm
Béteille, A. (1967). Race and descent as social categories in India. Daedalus, 96(2), 444–463.
Bhatt, C. (2001). Hindu nationalism: Origins, ideologies and modern myths. Oxford, UK: Berg.
Bhosale, B. V. (2003). Charmakar in transition. Mumbai: Nurali Prakashan.
Brun, M. (2010). Institutions collide: A study of ‘caste-based’ collective criminality and female infanticide in India, 1789–1871: A critique of Nicholas Dirks’s Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the making of modern India. Retrieved from http://www2.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/pdf/WP104.pdf
Buhler, G. (1886). The laws of Manu. Oxford, UK: Clarendon.
Census of India. (2001). Census data online. Retrieved from at: http://www.censusindia.net
Chakravarty, U. (1993). Conceptualising brahmanical patriarchy in early India: Gender, caste, class and state. Economic and Political Weekly, 28(14), 579–585.
Dasgupta, D. (2009, June 29). Our true colours: Before we rush to castigate Australia, we need to examine our own prejudices of region and colour. Outlook India. Retrieved from http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?250314
Dirks, N. (2001). Castes of mind: Colonialism and the making of modern India. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Dumont, L., & Pocock, D. (1958). AM Hocart on caste-religion and power. Contributions to Indian sociology, 2, 45–63.
Economic Times. (2011, March 11). Census of India 2011: India’s population rises to 1.21 billion; sex ratio lowest since Independence. Economic Times Newspaper. Retrieved from http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-03-31/news/29366018_1_world-population-percentage-decadal-growth-census-commissioner
Fox, R. G. (1969, January). Varnas schemes and ideological integration in Indian society. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 11(1), 27–45.
Frontline. (2003). A letter of protest. Frontline Journal http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2012/stories/2003062812400.htm
Frost, P. (2005). Fair women, dark men: The forgotten roots of color prejudice. New Zealand: Cyber editions Corporations.
Geetha, V., & Rajadurai, S. V. (1998). Towards a non-brahmin millennium: From IyotheeThass to Periyar. Culcutta: Samya Publication.
Hall, R. E. (2010). An historical analysis of skin color discrimination in America: Victimism among victim group populations. New York: Springer.
Hutton, J. H. (1969). Caste in India: Its nature, function and origins. London: Oxford.
Ilaiah, K. (2010). The weapon of the other: Dalitbahujan writings and the remaking of Indian nationalist thought. New Delhi: Pearson Longman.
Jaiswal, S. (1991). Varna ideology and social change. Social Scientist, 19(3/4), 41–48.
Kamble, B. (2008). The Prison we broke. (Maya Pandit, Trans.). New Delhi: Orient Longman. (Original work Jina Amucha published 1982)
Kant, A. (2009). Branding India: An incredible story. New Delhi: HarperCollins Publishers India.
Kapoor, K. (2011, August 2). Freida Pinto’s fairness war cry. Times of India Newspaper. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-08-02/news-interviews/29838991_1_deo-ads-fairness-cream-advertising-standards-council
Karnani, A. (2007). Doing well by doing good case study: ‘Fair & Lovely’ whitening cream. Strategic Management Journal, 28(13), 1351–1357.
Keer, D. (1990). Dr. Ambedkar: Life and mission. Bombay: Popular Publication.
KuKu, D. (2009, June 29). ‘India is racist, and happy about it’ – A black American’s first-hand experience of footpath India: no one even wants to change. Outlook India. Retrieved from http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?250317
Leopold, J. (1974). British applications of the Aryan theory of race to India, 1850–1870. English Historical Review, 89(352), 578–603.
MacMunn’s, G. (1979). The martial races of India. New Delhi: Mittal Publication.
Madison, J. (2011). You never see dark-skinned girls in TV ads: India’s top models on how the country's fashion industry STILL champions fair skin. Dailymail Online Newspaper. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1370909/You-dark-skinned-girls-TV-ads-Indias-models-countrys-fashion-industry-STILL-champions-fair-skin.html#ixzz1tW26lZNi
Mandelbaum, D. G. (1960). Social perception and scriptural theory in Indian caste. In S. Diamond (Ed.), Culture in history. New York: Columbia University.
Mandelbaum, D. G. (1970). Society in India – Vol. 1 – Continuity and change. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Mani, B. R. (2008). Debrahminising history. New Delhi: Manohar Publication.
Mayell, H. (2003). India’s “Untouchables” face violence discrimination. National Geographic News. Retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0602_030602_untouchables.html
Mukherjee, P. (2008). The diva rules. Telegraph Newspaper. Retrieved from http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080803/jsp/graphiti/story_9633760.jsp
Müller, M. (1847). On the relation of Bengali to the Aryan and Aboriginal Languages of India. In Report of British Association, p. 339.
Nair, M. (2004). The making of “Hawaii Sundari”: Reflections on Air India’s recruitment policy. Economic and Political Weekly, 39(10), 1014–1016.
Omvedt, G. (1976). Cultural revolt in a colonial society: The non-Brahman movement in western India, 1873 to 1930. Bombay: Scientific Socialist Education Trust.
Oommen, T. K. (2002). Race, religion, and caste: Anthropological and sociological perspectives. Comparative Sociology, 1(2), 115–126.
Page, J. (2009). Skin-whitening creams are beyond the pale, rules Indian minister. Times Online UK Newspaper. Retrieved from http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5720597.ece
Pai, S. (2007). Political process in Uttar Pradesh: Identity, economic reforms, and governance. New Delhi: Pearson Education India.
Philips, A. (2004). Gendering colour: Identity, femininity and marriage in Kerala. Anthropologica, 46(2), 253–272.
Rege, S. (2006). Writing caste, writing gender: Reading Dalit women’s testimonies. New Delhi: Zubaan Publication.
Robertson, A. (1938). The Mahar folk: A study of untouchables in Maharashtra. Calcutta: Y.M.C.A. Publishing House.
Rothefield, O. [Illustrations by M. V. Dhurandhar]. (1928). Women of India. Bombay: D. B. Taraporevala Sons & Co.
Sailer, S. (2005, June 12). Blondes have deeper roots. VDARE.com. . Retrieved from http://www.vdare.com/sailer/050612_blondes.htm
Sequiera, R. (2004, September 9). Untouchables can’t become A-I airhostesses. Express India. Retrieved from http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=28587
Singh, A. (2011). Fair is lovely. Indian Express Newspaper. Retrieved from http://expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=273782
Srinivas, M. N. (1962). Caste in modern India: And other essays. Mumbai: Asia Publishing House.
Thapar, R. (1996). The theory of Aryan race and India: History and politics. Social Scientist, 24(1/3), 3–29.
Thapar, R. (2008). The Aryan: Recasting constructs. Gurgaon: Three Essays Collective.
Times of India. (2005). ‘Incredible India’ set for a new push. Times of India Newspaper http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2005-03-21/news/27472161_1_foreign-tourist-arrivals-tourist-inflow-india-tourism
Trautmann, T. (1964). On the translation of the term varna. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 7(1), 196–201.
Trautmann, T. (2004). Aryans and British India. New Delhi: Yoda Press.
Varma, P., & Mulchandani, S. (2004). Love and lust: An anthology of erotic literature from ancient and medieval India. New Delhi: Harper Collins Publishers, a joint venture with India Today Group.
Acknowledgements
We are thankful and acknowledge inputs and guidance from Dr. Ronald E. Hall, Professor of Social Work at Michigan State University, Prof. Kevin Brown, Richard S. Melvin Professor of Law at Indiana University, Ms. Vijayalakshmi Raaj.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ayyar, V., Khandare, L. (2013). Mapping Color and Caste Discrimination in Indian Society. In: Hall, R. (eds) The Melanin Millennium. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4608-4_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4608-4_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-4607-7
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-4608-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)