Comments on: Black gods and White gods

By: Pawan

Pawan — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:42:49 +0000

In my experience the whole black vs white perception has progressively changed its roots from religion to the British rule to the current fascination with the West.

I have lived in Mumbai, New York and now in Cape Town and the one thing that is common across the world is the superior white vs the inferior black difference and having lived for most part in Mumbai its funny how I always found myself more attracted to white/fair women than to the not so fair/white women regardless of how they looked white was better. Just like regardless of how good/bad a commodity is, you associate quality with price and so beauty with color. What is even more interesting is that India ia predominantly brown and we are white obsessed and I personally know a lot of white men who are brown obsessed so its also a “grass is greener on the other side” situation.
But its not as simplistic as white vs black problem, lets say in the next 20 years India will be the superpower that america is with top of the line infrastructure, schools very littly unemployement excellent technical skills and the Indian Rupee replaces the USD as the global currency, it will certainly fix the color inferiority globally but still not cure the obssession within India for fair/white people. Although better education, intelligence and awareness will reduce this unwanted seggregation.
However being brown has not really impacted me siginificantly and if ever it did, I realised I was brown only when I moved away from India.

By: deepti kukreja

deepti kukreja — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:00:00 +0000

amazing sir…u have really enlightened me!everytime after reading ur articles my perception towards life changes.i m getting towards positive side.thank you so much.keep writing.

By: Ritu

Ritu — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:24:44 +0000

A beautiful description… Gives a lot of insight and peace to the inquiring soul.

By: Karan

Karan — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:38:01 +0000

Nice article….but I guess white symbolizes light, illumination, transparency and knowledge whereas black symbolizes darkness, illusion, opacity and ignorance. Hope is always symbolized by a tiny ray of light in the dark.
White symbolizes giving and life whereas black symbolizes receiving and death.

So, maybe thats why we prefer white to black.

By: aditya sanyal

aditya sanyal — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:09:12 +0000

hat can i say. wow.

By: kavita

kavita — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:52:53 +0000

another insightful article.

i was waiting patiently to see what you would come up with

you didn’t disappoint, am passing this to some African-American friends and of course use it as an excuse to be Wild-er from now on !!!

dhanyavaad.

By: Sarabjot

Sarabjot — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:19:37 +0000

it amazes me as to how some one could take something so simple as black and white colours and be used by our forefathers to demonstrate the working of the world. and it has sunk in so deep that without ever knowing why we would make our choices.

By: Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik

Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:39:23 +0000

Notice you always see a family photo (father, mother, children) of the ‘ascetic’ Shiva but never of the ‘worldly’ Krishna…..criss crossing of ideas and visuals is a hallmark of Hindu philosophy, but that is another article.

By: Sanket Sunand Dash

Sanket Sunand Dash — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:09:49 +0000

Brilliant analysis but I would like to disagree on one issue – black and worldliness. Despite his asceticism, the prototype of all households in India is Shiva with his wife and two sons rather than Krishna with his 16,008 wives.

Krishna represents the pinnacle of worldly success – in courting, in marrying, in power,and in tact and diplomacy.

By: Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik

Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:05:23 +0000

Sure…in a future article.