Vaseline starts skin-lightening Facebook application in India
14th July 2010
In 2009, a poll of nearly 12,000 people by online dating site Shaadi.com, revealed that skin tone was considered the most important criteria when choosing a partner in three northern Indian states.
“Indians believe that if you have fair skin you belong to the higher caste, the Brahmins,” he added, explaining that a succession of light-skinned colonisers in India reinforced the association of fairness with power.
Varna, the term conventionally used to describe the ‘caste’ system in India, literally means color.