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The Deep Rooted Cultural Hegemony Essay

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One day the god Shiva teased his wife, the goddess Parvati, about her dark skin; he called her ‘Kali’ and said that her dark body against his white body was like a black snake coiled around a pale sandalwood tree. When she responded angrily, they began to argue and to hurl insults at one another. Furious, she went away to generate inner heat in order to obtain a fair, golden, skin.’ -Padma Purana, Hindu religious text*(1) ‘Wanted: fair, young bride for eligible Brahmin boy.’ -A matrimonial advertisement from a popular newspaper Do you see any commonality between the aforementioned statements? If you read them once again, you will realize that these are evidences of the deep rooted cultural hegemony in India. This ‘hegemonic whiteness’ has not only invaded our caste system and our concept of beauty, but we see that it stems all the way back from our predominant religious faith i.e. Hinduism. Anybody who reads this will be influenced and imagine the impact it would have had on devotees in India. Further I will elaborate on more such reasons why even educated people are still drowned in their safe haven of white superiority and the way it has spread in India through media. Many scholars have written about this ‘white superiority and how India is still a growing market for fairness products.’ Let us compare the previous literature on this topic and see if we can derive any concrete results or solutions to remedy this highly unethical mindset that has eluded the dark skinned

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