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From: ravi@crystal.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: "Adi Sankara": life of the Hindu philospher
Message-ID: <66@crystal.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 29-Mar-86 21:12:50 EST
Article-I.D.: crystal.66
Posted: Sat Mar 29 21:12:50 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 1-Apr-86 07:20:17 EST
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Xref: watmath net.nlang.india:1217 net.philosophy:4805

> > sophistication that comes with knowledge and awareness.  In this sense,
> > it may be unfair to find fault with Iyer; the fault probably lies with
> > the social context of 8th century India.  One has to be careful not to
> > judge it by our present-day sensibilities.
> > 
>
> S. Rajeev:
>
>                              But what irritated me was that it also
> appeared blatantly racist: all the brahmins were light-skinned,
> fine-featured, clean-cut, "Aryan" people, while the others were usually
> dark-skinned and aboriginal-looking, in addition to being ill-groomed! 

I would agree that such a depiction is quite racist.  This really makes me
wonder:  The idea that fair-skin means "superior" does not appear to have 
been part of the Indian attitudes till quite recently.

I wonder if there are any Indian works (before the influence of the western
philologists planted the seed of the "aryan" hypothesis in the Indian mind)
where this attitude is clearly manifest.  The word "arya" is used in early
Indian works independently of skin-colour.  Not only was Krishna dark-skinned,
but so were many rishis and others held in high-esteem.  Ironically, it may
well have been Sankaracharya himself was quite dark-skinned since he was born
in Kerala!  There could also never have been any bias that Brahmins, as a
class, were fairer than the others:  The (presumably darker) Brahmins from 
the south have had a primary and formative influence on the growth and 
development of Hindu thought.

What seems beyond doubt is that the idea that fair-skin meant a different 
RACE is a recent import from western thought.  I am not sure if there is any
reason at all to believe that the value that seems to have come through in the
film ("fair" => "superior") is not purely western.  The traditional Indian
attitude seems to have simply been "upper-caste" => "superior".

I would be very interested in hearing what others may have to say on this
issue.
-- 

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