White skin obsession in India

For centuries, there has been obsession with fairness and prejudice against the dark skin. The skin- lightening market in Asia- pacific alone is valued over $13 Billion.

It is pretty obvious that India has been obsessed with fair skin. Over and over again; televisions, magazines and even social media are bombarded with advertisements saying that if we don’t have a fair skin, we are going to have an unsuccessful, loveless and unhappy life. This obsession is actually SUBLIMINAL CONDITIONING over decades.

The first instance of fairness creams being advertised in India was when Afghan snow was introduced in India in the year 1919. While India’s fascination with fair skin is literally thousands of years old, the biggest move towards monetising that obsession came in 1975 when a renounced company introduced a fairness cream.

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By early 1990’s, this fairness cream started immensely out-performing other beauty products without “skin lightening agents”. This created the picture that whatever you put on your face has to be better if it has “skin lightening properties”.