A law student from Bangalore has filed a complaint against Hindustan Pencils at a consumer court, accusing the company of racism for producing a skin tone crayon that is not the skin tone of most people in India.
That law student CHIRAYU JAIN explains here here why he took up this issue.
It was May 2012, I was at Bangalore Airport, where they had a promotion going on – giving out free crayons and colouring sheets, inviting travellers to ‘revisit their childhood’. I jumped at the invitation and so I did revisit my childhood that day.
Probably 10 years had passed since I had last used crayons. My father was feeling all nostalgic on noticing how his son was still unable to colour within the lines. I was feeling odd on noticing the crayon I was using to colour the human parts. It wasn’t of my skin shade, nor of those whom I interact with on a daily basis. But it was the crayon labelled ‘skin’.
I didn’t stop using that ‘skin’ coloured crayon even when the realization hit me, I continued using it to colour the rest of the human parts. It wasn’t that the packet didn’t have any other shades – ‘brown’ crayon was right there. But something stopped me from using it.
Something at the back of my mind kept telling me that the ‘brown’ crayon is not the appropriate crayon. That it is not the appropriate shade. That it is not the appropriate skin colour.
That journey back to Delhi was one of introspecting on what was wrong with me and brooding over what can be done. And afterwards, with friends sharing similar thoughts and disgust for fairness creams and whitewashed Bollywood movies – Brown n’ Proud was born – with the basic idea to scream and shout that dark skin is beautiful skin too.
We wandered amidst grey tones for long while, wondering which approach to use, who is the real enemy. Do we fight for a ban on fairness creams? Or do we campaign against the fair and lovelies of Bollywood? Or do we begin by thrashing everything eurocentric and western?
What would make us appreciate the beauty of dark skin as easily as that of fairer version, without any block at the back of our minds?
A casual visit to a stationery shop in March 2013 made us realize the missing part of jigsaw puzzle. The real enemy weren’t those fairness creams or cricketers and actors endorsing them.
The real enemy was slyly sitting inside the innocent looking crayon packet that carried a label ‘Includes special skin crayon’.
The real enemy was the ‘skin’ crayon.
‘Innocence of childhood’ is a misnomer. It doesn’t exist in the real world. While a child may not know what he is doing or what she is indulging in, they very actively imbibe societal prejudices and biases along with the values.While the pink dresses and blue shorts tells about the expected gender roles, the ‘skin’ crayon teaches us about the perfect skin colour.
Not surprisingly, when going through some old newspapers, out of 90 drawings made by children of the age group 4-16 years, hardly 15 of them had used a shade for colouring human parts which was different from ‘skin’ crayon.
As long as the notion of this ‘perfect skin colour’ remains in our minds, no matter the volume of discourse or campaigns against them, fairness creams would continue to increase their market, Bollywood would continue to prize fairer skin over talent and spouses would continue to be chosen for their colour instead of compatibility.
A problem ought to be tackled where it starts – at the grassroots, not up in the air somewhere. Brown n’ Proud firmly believes in this value and in pursuance of the same, we filed the case against ‘skin’ crayon in June this year. The matter is sub-judice, and we do not intend to back out from the fight until we have won.
Chirayu Jain is a student of National Law School, Bangalore and a member of Brown n’ Proud. Is passionate about promoting the ideal ‘dark is beautiful’ and wants to get Fair&Lovely and other such products banned.
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
As much as I love the idea of a “Brown n Proud” and a “Dark is Beautiful” movement, I think where such ‘movements’ fail is by stopping short the analysis with colour itself. The entire discourse on fair being beautiful stems from caste ideology, and that is something we must not forget. I am only pointing this out because it would be a failure for the movement if the ‘Jains’ (like this author) and the ‘Pundits’ and all the other upper-caste sympathisers stand up for brown skin being beautiful, without realizing their own position of privilege within the movement. If the members of “brown n proud” fail to also encompass this aspect, it will be incomplete.
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Do you really think a crayon is possibly the root of this problem? What if the company makes those crayons because that is what has been widely accepted/perceived as the ‘ideal skin’ colour?
Currently it seems like you are fighting this battle ‘in the air and not at the grass roots’. Grass roots would mean to tackle the mindset of our entertainment industry. One token Bipasha Basu or Nandita Das cannot be held as the flag bearers of ‘dark is beautiful’. In fact, even they do not represent the skin tone of majority of the country. Would you consider renaming your movement ‘Shades of Brown and Proud’? Because I find ‘Brown and Proud’ offensive. And it also suggests that you are pitting yourself against the notional ‘Fair and Proud’. But the problem doesn’t even lie with people who are ‘fair’. It is the people who are brown who have these prejudices about themselves.
The problem is our media, movies, television, etc. How many ads have a darker skinned person selling a product? How many billboards have pictures of darker skinned persons? Even in South India (not stereotyping – am south Indian myself), where a larger section of the population is dark skinned, you hardly find hoardings on the road which show dark skinned persons. There are not many (if any) successful dark skinned female actors in any of the South Indian movie industries. Yet people throng halls to see them, whistle, put up posters, worship, build temples, fantasise about these lighter skinned women. In the real world (esp in South India), some men even pursue girls from certain communities/castes/sects because they are fairer due to their lineage? Let us not be ignorant. It happens. Watch any tamil ‘masala’ movie. Or watch any Hindi movie item song to see how foreigners have now replaced Indian back-up dancers. Hey, at least we have solved half the problem – one gender is now represented well in cinema irrespective of the colour of skin.
This is a problem of vanity. If people are really comfortable in their skin, why would majority of the population have accepted these ads, tv shows, movies, etc. which clearly do not reflect reality? Are we being naive to assume that a ‘majority’ of the population has been brainwashed by crayons and fairness products and are therefore insecure? Do products like the ‘skin colour crayon’ and ‘fair and lovely’ exist to feed this vanity or are they the cause? How can getting a commercial product banned help? Especially if millions of people use them for the exact purpose they are advertised for? What do these people do when these products are banned? Does getting these banned change their mindset? What will they do when there is no Fair and Lovely? Bleach? They clearly aren’t ‘Brown and Proud’!
The problem lies in why these people want to change the colour of their skin? Do you really believe it is because they ‘drew’ a picture of themselves and coloured themselves with the ‘skin crayon’ or is it because they want to emulate what they see splashed across newspapers, TV’s and movies? What next? Ban spray tans? Ban plastic surgeons? Ban liposuctions? Hair dyes? Beauty parlours? People can do whatever they want to make them feel better. If using Fair and Lovely makes them feel better then so be it. It will be unfair and not lovely to deprive them of the one thing that provides them hope and makes them feel better.
This is an old problem with its roots buried deep in history. It cannot be solved or even impacted slightly by your ‘lawsuit’. You might win that but you will not solve anything. This might personally further your case as a law student but I suspect your introspection has been fully thought out. If this problem needs to be solved, it can only happen after years and years of accurate representation of our society by our production and publication houses. You seem to have the time and the will. Take the fight to them and be prepared to wait for a few generations before things change. Don’t fight opportunistic businessmen wanting to capitalise on the vanity of millions. Jo dikhta hai woh bikta hai – pardon the pun.
Best of luck.
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Although I thoroughly appreciate the sentiment and its rationale, suing a crayon company can only get some spotlight on the issue. This will not help solve the problem that has been deeply rooted in not only this country but throughout the world. I believe that one out every four person you’ll meet will have a distaste towards Fair&Lovelies and Nivea men Whitening products, its nothing new. Some of the companies have changed their advertisements campaigns too.. like the one where Arjun Rampal shows his disgust towards whitening creams. Let the market take its own course. What you are trying to do is impose a sentiment, your sentiment, my sentiment or that ‘one’ out of ‘four’ sentiment on the people of India. People have the right to make their own choices on how they want to look. Therefore by banning these companies, you are robbing them of their choice. Secondly, as for the crayon companies, my defense will be that it is simply a matter of convenience to name it ‘skin color’ for the children.. I mean what else would you prefer calling it?
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Disagree. Suing the crayon company will create some media buzz, spotlight, and it will make people think about their prejudices. Good move ! The suit may fail but that is not the intention. It should be followed up with further media and mass education of course.
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Media plays an important role in mass distribution of messages.Firstly endorsement of 0fairness cream should be banned.It has widely been accepted in India that fairer skin is the perfect skin tone.Banning of these cream will definitely create abuzz because generally fairness products are endorsed by the celebrities and will get much publicity.
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