Her skin was dark,
so she wore a saree that was blindingly white.
Her mother told her to settle
for any boy that would say yes.
Her features were delicate
not like Mona Lisa.
Not like Monroe, or Hepburn.
Her features were delicate
Just like Rani.
Just like Nanditha.
Just like Konkona.
Artist’s Statement
As someone born in South-Asia, I heard the phrase “Fair & Lovely” being endorsed by some of the biggest celebrities in India. I did not truly witness how negative of an impact colourism had on people of Asian ancestry until I got a little older and started talking to my relatives as well as friends. Oftentimes, we equate cultural influences as purely positive. We see embracing our culture as something to be proud of. While that is true in most cases, there comes a time when we have the view aspects of our culture under a critical lens. Ironically, the flagbearer of the colorism plague in my case was not a phrase in my native language of Gujarati, but rather in English - Fair & Lovely. What was Lost in Translation was not necessary a particular word or story, but rather the general notion that my culture was spotless when it came to potentially negative and toxic mindsets. No culture is. As a society, we have the responsibility to criticize our culture and make it grow as we grow. That is the only way we can make it relevant to future generations and carry it into the millennia to come.
Through this piece, I wanted to dispel Eurocentric beauty standards while viewing my own Indian culture under a critical lens. Colourism still exists in India today, and people with lighter skin are often deemed “more beautiful” in many sectors of the Indian society. This mindset spans from the entertainment industry to the living rooms of individual families, and it has a toxic effect on young girls. My piece depicts a girl with darker skin with a strikingly enchanting gaze, overlaid with the phrase “Melanin & Lovely”. This is a phrase from the accompanying poem I wrote, and it directly breaks down and retools the phrase “Fair & Lovely” which is the flagbearer for the colourism issue in India in an empowering way.
Biography
Rudra Pandya is an Indian-born Canadian artist. He runs an art blog on Instagram where he pairs his art pieces with short phrases/stories/poems written by himself to carry out visual storytelling. He focuses on topics such as self-love, youth and more recently, Indian culture and issues.
