Presenter: Dr. Srirupa Chatterjee, Head (Liberal Arts) and Associate Professor of English, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India
In postcolonial India, a woman’s social worth in public and her status within interpersonal relationships are often contingent upon her physical appearance, and tellingly on her skin color. No doubt, an unsaid bias toward light skin tones has a long and complex history in India. This bias, however, was profoundly impacted and enforced during the twentieth century under the white colonial rulers whose imperialistic dominance compelled the natives to internalize the supremacy of light skin. With this historical backdrop in mind, this presentation analyzes fictional and filmic narratives from the twentieth century and beyond to examine how concepts of colorism engender body anxieties and impact intimate partner relationships in India. The presentation will begin with an analysis of fiction produced by twentieth century writers, such as Santa Chatterjee, Premchand, and K Saraswathi Amma, and then address more recent and popular cinema produced by filmmakers like Sooraj Barjatya and Karan Johar. Treating all such cultural narratives as a testimony to colorist biases, this presentation will argue that, while Indian embodiment has distinct regional, class, and caste based phenotypic specifications, the hegemony of light skin prevails.
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