"The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Their perfect ADJUSTMENT to that ABNORMAL society is a measure of their mental illness" - Aldous Huxley
If it wasn't difficult for mother Nature to bind humans in one human race and bestow upon it the wisdom superior to all other creatures, then the foolishness of affinity to pale skin which strips the concordance of humans with Nature must not prevail; Not in our society, not in our minds, not in our hearts. Skin color in India is as diverse as it's culture and traditions. People of all the skin shades are found in our country, majority of them possessing the wheatish- honey complexion. But it's strange really and also heart wrenching that a dark skinned child inheriting the dark skin from either of the parents can be considered inferior to it's sibling with fair skin, under the same roof in the same house. Nuptials with a dark skinned individual may be considered unwise or even the quality of virtue may be questioned.
Indian society has been subject to social hierarchy for ages and the lower castes have suffered awfully under the crushing feet of the higher castes and as if this wasn't enough, discrimination based on skin color was added during the British rule. Note that many of the Hindu Gods mentioned in the Puranas were considered to have darker skin tones, some of them being Kala Bhairav and Mata Durga, it is unlikely that discrimination based on skin complexion existed before the British rule. With the advent of British rule the Sun set over India as the darker intentions were embedded in our society by the British that fair skin was superior by providing employment to Indians with lighter skin tones. The Anglo-Indians born in India mainly followed the British culture with an English upbringing, considered themselves superior to Indians. The darker Indians were addressed as 'Black dogs' in their own nation. Our beloved Indians quietly accepted it drinking blood and tears from their own chalice.
In recent past few decades models and actresses have been rejected by companies and the film industry due to their darker skin tones. The hilarious advertisements promoting fairness creams showed men stealing women's cosmetics in lady's night gowns ( pink colored to be exact) may have made us grin and chuckle but they also mirrored the hollow mindedness of our society and the insecurity our society built within the people with dark skin and these cosmetic brands took advantage of it just like the British did.
Medically, it's a pigment present in the skin called Melanin which protects the skin from the UV rays of the Sun which can cause skin damage and also skin cancer. An inborn mechanism provided by nature as a boon. It is the health of the skin that is important and not the color of the skin.
Even when painters paint skin on the canvas, three colors which stand definite for all skin types are Cadmium red, Yellow ochre, and Ultramarine blue and the good painters know that every skin reflects lights from it's surroundings and therefore the color of the skin changes at every brush stroke
All the colors are beautiful my friend, be it White or Black but the real color darkness is when we silently accept the unnatural, for no bright stars could be seen without the black dome of the night.