Colourism is different from caste. We’re not Hindu, so we don’t have castes, but I was told as a child how it was a shame that I and my oldest sister got darker skin, not nice light skin like our other two sisters. Boomer generation in my family still says things like, “Look at white things when pregnant so you have a white baby.”
They love the idea of one of their kids marrying a white person, but hate the idea of them marrying a black person.
The nature of endogamy is such that, in my experience, the first preference is that their family member marries someone of a similar South Asian background and social standing. Marrying someone Indian outside of those bounds is the next preference and then marrying someone non Indian. In all of these categories colorism is at play.
Think of medieval clans using marriage to form ties or to consolidate wealth and influence via marriage. Marriage is seen almost as utilitarian with individual wants and needs set aside for the collective.
It’s an ancient way of thinking and I don’t doubt for a second that it’ll be eradicated with time as it has been in many parts of the world that successfully defeudalized who did not have to deal with foreign occupants further entrenching a feudalistic mindset.
In my experience, a pale skinned Indian from the same state would be their first choice for their child’s spouse, rich definitely an advantage.
White European would definitely be second choice.
I nearly married an Irish man and my parents had no issue with his ethnicity. My family has a weird relationship with white people. They simultaneously revere them and look down on them.
Years later in my thirties, I asked my mum what she’d do if I wanted to marry a 50 year old black guy. She told me to stop chatting rubbish.
Unbeknown to us, at the time I asked this, my cousin who is my age (same cousin who is mistaken for white), had secretly married a 53 year old black guy.
I’m happy to say that no one in the family treats her kids as lesser for being half black.
The caste system is not based on skin color. That was a misreading of ancient Indian texts by colonizers in the 1800s. There are darker skinned people of an upper caste background in South India and vice versa in North India.
It is based purely on pedigree / who you are born to.
The caste system is medieval feudalistic bullshit that needs to be eradicated in all forms from every society.
“The British class system is so complex, so riddled with microscopic nuances and unspoken rules, that it functions essentially as a caste system. It is not about how much money you have; it is about an intricate tribal code of accent, vocabulary, and behavior that is almost impossible to learn later in life.”
Anthropolgist Kate Fox: Watching the English
“Class is a skin on the back of caste… In England, the class system is so rigid, so tied to ancestry, accent, and birth, that it functions essentially as a caste system”
Isabel Wilkerson: Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent
“Nevertheless, the essential point about the English class-system is that it is not entirely explicable in terms of money. Roughly speaking it is a money-stratification, but it is also interpenetrated by a sort of shadowy caste-system; rather like a jerrybuilt modern bungalow haunted by medieval ghosts.”
Some Indians are racist as fuck to other Indians. They have a caste system essentially based on skin colour.
Colourism is different from caste. We’re not Hindu, so we don’t have castes, but I was told as a child how it was a shame that I and my oldest sister got darker skin, not nice light skin like our other two sisters. Boomer generation in my family still says things like, “Look at white things when pregnant so you have a white baby.”
They love the idea of one of their kids marrying a white person, but hate the idea of them marrying a black person.
The nature of endogamy is such that, in my experience, the first preference is that their family member marries someone of a similar South Asian background and social standing. Marrying someone Indian outside of those bounds is the next preference and then marrying someone non Indian. In all of these categories colorism is at play.
Think of medieval clans using marriage to form ties or to consolidate wealth and influence via marriage. Marriage is seen almost as utilitarian with individual wants and needs set aside for the collective.
It’s an ancient way of thinking and I don’t doubt for a second that it’ll be eradicated with time as it has been in many parts of the world that successfully defeudalized who did not have to deal with foreign occupants further entrenching a feudalistic mindset.
In my experience, a pale skinned Indian from the same state would be their first choice for their child’s spouse, rich definitely an advantage.
White European would definitely be second choice.
I nearly married an Irish man and my parents had no issue with his ethnicity. My family has a weird relationship with white people. They simultaneously revere them and look down on them.
Years later in my thirties, I asked my mum what she’d do if I wanted to marry a 50 year old black guy. She told me to stop chatting rubbish.
Unbeknown to us, at the time I asked this, my cousin who is my age (same cousin who is mistaken for white), had secretly married a 53 year old black guy.
I’m happy to say that no one in the family treats her kids as lesser for being half black.
The caste system is not based on skin color. That was a misreading of ancient Indian texts by colonizers in the 1800s. There are darker skinned people of an upper caste background in South India and vice versa in North India.
It is based purely on pedigree / who you are born to.
The caste system is medieval feudalistic bullshit that needs to be eradicated in all forms from every society.
Anthropolgist Kate Fox: Watching the English
Isabel Wilkerson: Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent
George Orwell: The Road to Wigan Pier.
Holup
Caste system isn’t based on skin colour
They might be referring to endogamy
Yeah, if that were the case, SRK and Karina Kapoor wouldn’t have had all those skin whitening billboards.
Nope based on birth
*Colorism