I was born and brought up in a small industrial town in the heartland of Indian subcontinent. Ever since I gained awareness, for me and for most of the Indians, being fair is something very desirable. In the country's cosmetic industry, one can find a plethora of products which promise fair color.
The fascination for being fair is not limited to any specific gender, everyone wants to be of lighter shade. I can name few products which are based completely on the premise that Indians love and desire fair color.
This has made me question, why fairness is correlated with beauty? To all my readers, I ask the same question and encourage them to post what they think in the comments below.
I am a data scientist by profession currently pursuing a masters degree in the same field, I started to wonder if the aspects of beauty could be quantitatively analysed and on the basis of those parameters, if it is possible to develop a scale or beauty quotient for the entire human race. I know it sounds boring, but its an erotica for people in my profession.
Before dipping down to the analytics of beauty, I want to dip down on one important aspect of it. Perception. Beauty is the way we perceive things. A close friend of mine often would say, " Beauty is in the eyes of the person who is watching". This phrase strikes a chord in my mind and I think that he is absolutely correct about this.
I researched articles related to the social structure and culture of Indian society prior to the time when British colonized the country. The fair color is not indigenous to the subcontinent, it came with invasions and conquests from central Asians, Afghans, Mughals and others. Here I searched extensively to find out if fair color was always a desire among Indians or not. What if there was no invasion and cultural shift? Would fairness still be a part of how we perceive beauty?
I will write more about this. Please share your thoughts and feel free to give feedbacks :).
