Long before the so called “not so harmonious melting pot” of the US and the mostly “forced, bubbling, angry melting pot” in the rest of the world, there was the ancient culture of India and Hinduism.
Ancient and modern India have long realized that expecting a “melting pot” was neither practical or desirable. They have instead chosen to be a “stew” with a common soup base. The base gets the flavoring from all the ingredients, but the ingredients themselves maintain their own texture and taste. Anyways, would you rather eat a goop of mystery ingredients or a nice bowl of stew ;)
While the modern world struggles with change and acceptance, ancient India faced the same questions and challenges millennia ago. Whether it was the arrival of Jewish people fleeing as exiles from Israel in the year 70 CE, or when shiploads of Zoroastrians fleeing the persecution in Persia arrived at its shores in the year 650 CE. Did ancient India turn these boats back or worse yet, let them sink ?
I will spare you the suspense and tell you what happened to these 2 peoples out of numerous others — India currently has the largest population of Zoroastrians in the world and a sizable Jewish population which has recently started immigrating to Israel from their place of refuge in India. Both these communities are among the most prosperous and have contributed enormously to India.
India is probably the worlds oldest experiment on the clash, amalgamation and finally assimilation of varied cultures, beliefs and races. People often wonder why Hinduism has so many Gods and Goddesses. It is mostly the result of the culmination of a long process, to accommodate many variations of cultures, languages, genders, peoples and their beliefs under one umbrella.
Hinduism has no founder and no single creed or doctrine binds them. One can be monotheist, polytheist, or atheist. You would think this would have diluted its identity and driven it to extinction. However, contrary to this simplistic logic, its non-binding broad inclusions have only made it thrive and made it become a syncretic religion, welcoming and incorporating a variety of outside influences.
It is no wonder that with cacophony of variations most Hindus believe that the world, both its animate and inanimate compositions is nothing but an illusion. And realizing this illusion is true knowledge. Some might think this is crazy talk, but I call it wisdom of the ages.
The complexity of such varied and old culture is enormous. For simplicity, we will examine just two of these aspects, race and gender and how it binds, divides and re-binds Hindus and Indians.
Going back to ancient India, there is a well known anecdote where Lord Krishna asks his mother Yashoda “Mommy, why am I so black and why is my friend Radha so white?”. The Mother smiles and replies to him “Hey my cute baby, you came into the world in the dark of the night so you are black and Radha came into the world during day so she is white”.
If you really think about it, it is as good an answer as any. Each and every one of us could have been born in any culture, race, gender or social class, did we really have a choice?
I recently visited one of the most revered temples in India built to venerate the Goddess Yamuna, personifying the river Yamuna. She is distinct from most Goddesses of the region and is supposed to be of quite dark complexion. The sanctum sanctorum of the ancient temple shows a beautiful black stone image of the Goddess.
She is also supposed to be daughter of the Sun God -Surya and the twin sister of the God of death -Yama who is also of dark complexion.
She is also the consort of Lord Krishna who is not only dark complexioned but his name itself means “black, dark”. He is also supposed to the most handsome and charismatic of all people and Gods.
These are not the only divinities in Hindu mythology who are dark skinned. There is Rama, one of the most famous of all Gods in India who was born a human, lived and died as a human, epitomizing ideal humanity who is dark complexioned.
Vishnu one of the Triumvirates (Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu) who incarnated as Rama, Krishna and many other forms is also depicted as dark skinned.
Shiva himself is depicted as dark skinned in many myths.
Kali, is a dark skinned Goddess. She is often maligned as a bloodthirsty deity . If this seems very gory, let me explain how it works. There was this demon with a boon of immunity from death at the hand of any man . Also, apparently he had a boon that each drop of his blood that fell on earth would create a fully formed clone of him.
So our girl had to step in, drink his blood and burn his body to finish the job efficiently. However, she ends up getting intoxicated with the poisonous blood and in a fit of rage cuts up his evil henchmen and wears their heads and appendages as a garland. Seems like women were always more smart and effective than men :)
Draupadi, a beautiful woman and the central character in the great Sanskrit epic Mahabharata is also known to be called Krishne — again a feminine form of black, dark skinned. Some cruel and disgusting people try to disrobe her in full court. Her anger is one of main reasons leading to an epic war, which ends in the decimation of the entire offending family line.
There is the five headed Goddess Gayatri each face shaded differently. The four heads represent the four Vedas (the oldest “knowledge” texts of Hinduism) and the fifth represents supreme consciousness. The message though subtle is clear, each of the four faces with distinct features and color depicts a different but important aspect of knowledge. And, they are all but part of one supreme knowledge, depicted as the fifth face.
Then there is Venkateshwara, an incarnation of Vishnu, also a dark skinned deity.
There is Madurai Meenakshi, a calmer personification of Shakti.
I could go on and on … but let’s just say there are Gods and Goddesses who are blue, green, yellow, red etc the list goes on and on …
I hope your are getting a gist of what I am trying to say here. What you see here is a formidable list of dark skinned Gods and Goddesses who have equal if not greater footing to Fair Skinned Gods and Goddesses in Hindu mythology. Also, note that the female is equally venerated as the male.
We also have the literal personification of a Deity -Ardhanarishwara, who is equal parts male and female, Shiva and Shakti. The depiction of this deity is an in your face message about gender equality, in case the sublimity is lost on the boneheads of the world :).
It is also the representation of a message that all of us have both Masculine and Feminine energies; and both of these aspects exist in harmony in their natural state.
These are the Hindu cultures, stories and traditions which are still alive and well in the hearts and minds of millions of Hindus worldwide.
Now, I welcome you to the modern world. There are divisions based not just on skin color but also race and gender.
There is little doubt if any that we live in a male dominated society pretty much all over the world. There is also little doubt that light skin color is preferred and seen as better in every aspect (good, honest, educated, cultured to name a few) as apposed to dark skin color which is considered inferior in those same aspects. This is equally true in India.
Discrimination based on just skin color or race however poses a big problem in India. Why you ask? In my own extended family, I have seen many siblings who could not be different from each other. They range from very light skinned with green eyes to very dark skin with jet black eyes born of same parents.
Let us blame the cocktail of genetic mix which exists in the sub-continent or should we more appropriately rejoice it as a kick in the face of discrimination based on skin color. See the beautiful collage of cute Indian children :) below — are we Asian, African, Middle eastern, European or Indian ?
However, this has not stopped Indians from discriminating each other based on the region and majority skin color, most significantly the North and South Indians. In general the North Indians are lighter skinned (colder climate) than the South Indians (hotter climate), with exceptions abound as with everything in India.
The differences in skin color are drastic in closed communities which have been isolated based on Caste system, geography and climate for generations.The same Caste system which made generations of lower caste toil in the hot Indian summer sun turning them dark. And the generations of overlords of the upper caste basking in the shade of their opulent houses giving them lighter skin tone.
In modern India the boundaries of Caste are being challenged. However, the economically less fortunate still burn in the hot sun, while the rich enjoy the numerous skin lightening spas. We are getting better at discrimination based on skin color fueled by economic status.
Coming to the sad fate of women in India. To give you an example of this fate, female infanticide was not uncommon in India till recent times.
Before the advent of Sonogram to determine the sex of the baby and aborting a female fetus, unique methods of killing a healthy born female child existed. One chilling method was to make new born girl swallow an rice grain with husk. This would effectively suffocate the baby both by blocking its windpipe. If that failed, the sharp husk could cut the mucous lining causing hemorrhage in the throat, this caused the baby to suffocate on its own blood. If this does not repulse you or curdle your blood with anger and despair I don’t know what would.
How did we get here? To a place in time where we viscerally hate each other based on skin color and gender. Where we actually hate women so much, that we actually murder them as babies.
Let us not forget brutal, inhuman gang rapes, burning women alive for dowry, honor killings … all of which still occur, even if sporadically in modern 21st century India. Along with the universal, rampant subjugation of women let us throw in the dislike of dark skinned lower classes/castes for good measure.
All this, in the vast microcosm of just one religion and society -India and Hinduism. The same religion where we have elaborate and fervent worship of dark skinned Gods and Goddesses along with their fair skinned counter parts.
The same Hinduism, where the first and most powerful Deity to be manifested from Brahman (the supreme formless entity) was a Female Goddess Shakti.
This is also the same society where the Goddess of learning and knowledge -Saraswati is a woman and the girl child was not allowed to go to school.
Historians, Anthropologists, Social Scientists give a myriad of reasons. But most regular Indians do not have time, inclination or ability to read and digest modern literature. What they do know with clarity are the myths, legends and stories passed on through oral traditions and various art forms. So, let us probe a little bit in the underbelly of the mythology of Hinduism.
The most clear and distinct descriptions of skin color, appearance and segregation based on those factors happens very early in Hindu mythological timeline.
Keeping it simple, the basic story is that there are two sets of step brothers born to the same father but different wives. One set is called Suras, the other set Asuras. The Suras are described as beautiful, pious, and most importantly fair skinned. The Asuras on the other hand are described as ugly, evil and guess what, dark skinned.
You could say wow, there you have it. But it is not simple as that, as the stories continue to evolve. One of the most prominent Suras - Indra is shown to be cunning, capricious, cowardly and power hungry in many stories that follow. These qualities make him unlikable despite his appearance.
On the other hand one of the prominent Asuras — Vibheeshana on the other hand is depicted as pious, virtuous and righteous; so much so that he opposes his own brother in an unjust war. There are numerous such stories which show that appearance is different from character and morality is of paramount importance.
But you could argue that the subtleties of these stories cloud the overall message about appearance and skin color. While this could be true to a great extent, but let us not forget that these stories are well known and accepted to be moral guidelines by most Hindus.
The stories and legends about clear and direct assaults on women and womanhood in general are much harder to ignore and plentiful.
One such story is that of a dutiful wife married to a husband with leprosy. She is kind and loyal to the leper who treats her poorly and is infatuated with a prostitute. She carries him around and also sells her jewelry so he can romp around with that prostitute. This is shown as a clear example of an Ideal wife and how every wife should behave.
There are many such despicable stories that treat women as property and pretty much like household and sexual slaves. To say that woman all over the world, in every single culture still feel the same to some degree or the other does not require you to be a genius. Just ask them.
If we stopped at that, it would be depressing but let us take a different story. A prominent, strong woman and a consort of Krishna is Satyabhama. She and Krishna have a son Naraka from a previous lifetime. He is blessed with an extremely long lifespan and becomes evil and does a lot of raping and plundering.
Krishna along with Satyabhama go to war with Naraka in their present life. Krishna is knocked unconscious in the battle that ensues. In his place Satyabhama takes the lead and fights Naraka wounding him mortally and finally they both kill him.
When Krishna finally reveals that he was their own son from another lifetime, they both are saddened but accept that he had to die because of his evil deeds.
There are also numerous such stories which depict that people who commit atrocities against women and the weak are severely and fatally punished by their own mothers, wives and daughters. So, in spite of being treated as inferiors, in countless stories women come out as the more intelligent and stronger sex than men and ultimately save the day.
These stories are not lost on the Hindu diaspora; they clearly remember both the nurturing and destructive power of the Female deity. It would not be an exaggeration to say that there are far more temples for Goddesses than Gods in India.
So, that was a small ride through Hindu mythology. Hope it was clear that it is not all black and white, male or female domination but there are a lot of grey areas like in most religions.
Reasoning’s aside, we are here at this point in history and this is our reality. We as humanity consciously and subconsciously think and believe that black is bad and women are inferior. Where do we go from here?
There has been a rude awakening that there is a growing gender disparity which leaves many men without partners especially in North India. There is a societal recognition from an Indian parent perspective that a girl child would also take care of you in old age.
There is awareness that an educated girl child will not cost you an exorbitant dowry (Yes, this is still an issue). And in case she is divorced, will not become a burden on you. There is an economic awareness that a working partner is essential to sustain a comfortable lifestyle. There is a psychological awakening that family responsibility and burden can be shared by both men and women together.
While this seems a very clinical, selfish and uninspiring road to change, it is happening nonetheless. It is bringing empowerment to women on a scale and pace that is unmatched in the history of post-industrial India.
This empowerment has also meant that there are many familiar and powerful faces of women in modern Indian politics. While there are some women who might used as political props, they are vastly out numbered by savvy career politicians who wield enormous political power.
The seeds for such powerful women were sown soon after India got Independence. India had a woman Prime Minister “Indira Gandhi” in 1966. You could say a lot of things about her, but you would have to acknowledge that she was a formidable and powerful person. Her own quote might give you an idea of her candor — “My father was a statesman, I am a political woman. My father was a saint. I am not.” . In simple terms, she meant — “Don’t mess with me or I will eviscerate you” :)
Speaking of power, the title for the most powerful entity, king maker/breaker in India is currently held by a foreign born (Italian) woman — “Sonia Gandhi”. She might have inherited the helm of the oldest and largest political party in India (Indian National Congress), as part the Gandhi Dynasty. However, over time she has cultivated an indomitable clout in defining policies and control over her ministers; at the same time she holds a powerful sway over a billion Indians.
Living in such a complex society, every Indian is subconsciously and consciously reminded of their history, religion and mythology. While this may not be the impetus for change, it is certainly provides a bedrock and foundation to sustain this change.
Onto our other big topic of race and skin color. While there is an assault of Ads featuring skin whitening in India, there are numerous voices speaking out about the reality of being dark skinned and being beautiful.
Unless you are a hardcore racist or completely ignorant, it is not hard to see that beauty is scientifically and aesthetically based on skin texture, symmetry, face and body proportions. It is also based on your health, habits and hormonal balance. There is a growing awareness of these facts.
Now in India, there are Ads proclaiming “Dark is Beautiful” and “Stay Unfair, Stay Beautiful”. It is but a silent revolt of at least 50% of people who are medium to very dark skinned in India.
For arguments sake, let us assume you have this person with excellent skin, beautiful hair, amazing body and sharp features. Would this person be still attractive if they were an obnoxious snob who treated you poorly.
Alternately assuming you are this amazing physically beautiful person, with a terrible personality, how many people would actually love you and care about you and how many would just use you and discard you for the next best thing. And how many years would this beauty last; we all get old, sagging skin, falling teeth, fragile bones, hollow eyes … need I continue.
Let us not forget that ultimately it does not matter whether you perceive yourself as a man or woman, too masculine, too feminine, too old, too young, too ugly, too fat, too skinny, too short, too tall, too pale, too dark what actually matters is what kind of person you are.
What actually matters is that you are happy and content inside. What matters is that your share this joy and contentment with the people, living beings and non-living entities around you. What really matters is that you at least try to see through the illusion (“Maya”) of our differences and realize that we are in everything and everything is within us.
This is not a new concept. It has been drummed into hearts and minds of Hindus that ultimately kindness, compassion and virtue are the only vehicles to experience God and ultimate salvation.
Indian society has a solid background to take a crack at the rampant racism based on skin color, general disdain and universal denigration of women. And thankfully, India is re-learning its history and culture, the cracks are already appearing and there are rays of hope.
