Some Indians are racist as fuck to other Indians. They have a caste system essentially based on skin colour.
this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2026
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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."
George Orwell: The Road to Wigan Pier.
Holup
Caste system isnβt 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
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.
*Colorism
Whitewashing/teaching that paler is purer and better on one side, and unfair representation so the Western audience with fucked education doesn't get confused on the other. You know I was shocked at the lack of education I had on the region when I discovered that some Africans are white. We didn't get taught this shit
Sidenote: whitewashing comes from lime washing houses.
The meaning is: Whitewashing is the act of minimizing or covering up vices, crimes or scandals, or of exonerating the guilty by means of a perfunctory investigation or biased presentation of data with the intention to improve someone's reputation.
I feel that when people call middle-easterners "brown," happens even on lemmy, but I think it's used as more of a rhetoric device meaning "non-european" here so it's not as bad.
They think they're all Muslims so they can't be white. Which is funny for many reasons but also was true for parts of Europe that weren't or were Catholic for a period of time.
I use it as a blanket term for the people Republicans are afraid of.
Is the portrayal in non-Indian films bias or just a consequence of immigration patterns? The Indian immigrants in the USA that I've met have usually been relatively dark-skinned.
That you've noticed.
I have in mind the people I've worked with - I would have known where they were from even if they were lighter-skinned.
That still fits with what I was saying. I wasn't assigning a negative meaning to it.
I'm a white dude and I work with an Indian guy that's lighter skinned than I am
Right? My cousin is as Indian as I am (her parents are my parents' siblings), but she frequently has to convince people she's Indian British and not white British. Whereas I'm very obviously south Asian.
Whether conscious or not is up for debate but race is often used in movies around the world to show the contrast between good/attractive/wealthy (white) vs bad/ugly/poor (dark skinned) characters. Even within the same country, main characters are white and tall while servants and background characters are darker and shorter.
I know it's not even about local populations in the US because a lot of immigrants in LA specifically are light-skinned but those actors usually end up playing white characters more often.
I just watched the trailer for the Ramayana movie, and NGL I only had two thoughts; One this looks like of awesome though cheesey, Two why is everyone so light skinned?
I'm a full Caucasian person, most of the cast looks lighter skinned than I do.
In Asia preference toward lighter skin tone existed before race idea introduced. Basically peasants working outside got tanned vs nobles staying indoors, it was class-based discrimination. It's by no means pretty back then and later meld with western racism and got messier
Colorism predates the modern era in nearly all cultures.
During the Elizabethan era England, women used Venetian Ceruse, a mixture of white lead and vinegar, to paint their faces and necks chalk-white even though it caused hair loss, skin corrosion, and muscle paralysis.
In the early phases of globalization and during the great divergence, white/Western societies began to see themselves as the nobles of the world and their colonies as the inferior laborers. Essentially, it is what you're describing but on a global scale. This further entrenched colorism globally.
Reversals of this mindset have only happened in the past 75 years.
Yash, who plays Ravana, and Sai Pallavi, who plays Sita, are both South Indian and not typically considered fair skinned. Sai has specifically spoken out against colorism in Indian film industries.
What you are saying is that by combining both industries all sides are represented? π
With our Racism combined, I am Almost Appropriate!
Oh yeesh I don't do appropriate. Can I show up for the 9PM racism so the kids are all in bed?
It's the same thing in Brazil.
I have to assume this meme is talking about Bollywood, exclusively. Kollywood β for example β is full of Tamil-looking Tamils. Not to say racism in India doesnβt exist; there is a strange pride and passion about it.
Not the female actors.
I'm an Indian by blood and an American by birth; let me tell ya:
Ain't nobody hatin' quite like family.
Indian people: π¨βπ¦²π§ββοΈπ¨π§βπ¦²π§π¨βπ¦±
Indian people in movies: π§π§ββοΈπ§ββοΈπ¨π¦±π»
Reminds me of "the bleaching of Brazil"
also having token poc's in film with an all-white cast and recently lgtbq+ as well, playing thier stereotypical roles.
Indians are red though
/s just in case
Ya I think that says a lot about that society that they like a certain type.
This is not racism though
Stereotype maybe
For non Indian films, yeah, stereotype. For Indian films, it is racism (as in not the obsolete concept of race, but of judging based on physical characteristics)
How so?
Stereotyping people based on their skin color.
I'll trust you on that. After all, it seems that you're a westerners, and we know that you invented that shit