Malavika Mohanan opens up on racism and colourism in India

By
Web Desk
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Malavika Mohanan touches upon the subtle nuances of ‘racism and colourism’. 

Malavika Mohanan recently stepped up and showcased her thoughts on racism in light of the recent protests in the United States.

The actor published a post on Instagram addressing the situation with a heartfelt note. She claims the recent protests awoke her to the horrors in her own country.

Malavika claims, “while we speak about global racism, we must also become aware about what’s happening around us, in our homes... and do our part in thwarting the obvious as well as the subtle racism and colourism that exists all around us.”

Speaking in regards to what led her to curate this social media piece the star said, “Change should start in your own home and those protests got me thinking that we need that change in India, too. In India, we have colourism as people with dark complexion are called ugly, women with dark-skin find it tough to get married and these are considered normal issues in any strata of our society. Barring a few metropolitan cities where dark complexion isn’t ‘that’ looked down upon, it is in the rest of our country.”

Her post addressed the atrocities inflicted upon those of a darker complexion. She claimed that although “complexion dissimilarity” never stuck to her as a child, but into her later years she was left shocked and “perplexed” because of the mean undertones it carried.

She called out a large number of racist individuals, claiming, “a dark skinned person ‘kala’” or “madrasis” and “North-East Indians are called ‘chinki’” “What makes you beautiful is being a good and kind person, and not the colour of your skin.”

In conclusion she claimed, “Why is skin colour more important than intelligence, kindness or talent? It never made sense to me. It never bothered me if people felt I wasn’t fair enough, because my upbringing gave me confidence. But most people are ridiculed for dark skin. It is ridiculous that there are products that focus on how to be fair. We need to have a conversation about these notions that only if you are fair, will you be beautiful or successful. It is a dated notion. Skin colour is an inconsequential thing to define someone.”