FAIR-UNFAIR: PREVALENCE OF COLORISM IN INDIAN MATRIMONIAL ADS AND MARRIED WOMEN’S PERCEPTIONS OF SKIN-TONE BIAS IN INDIA

Sriya Chattopadhyay

A Thesis

Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

August 2019

Committee:

Radhika Gajjala, Advisor

Lara Martin Lengel

Deborah G. Wooldridge © 2019

Sriya Chattopadhyay

All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT

Radhika Gajjala, Advisor

Matrimonial advertisements are popular in India for people who seek spouses through marriages arranged either by the prospective bride or groom themselves, or their family. Earlier, such arrangements were made mostly by family elders. Today, many of those offline networks have moved onto the online space, with a number of matrimonial websites offering help to spouse seekers. The role of such websites is to enable match seekers create profiles online and seek matches, based on particular search algorithms. There are various filters to narrow search options: one such filter is skin tone.

This study analyzes skin tone determinant—specifically the usage of the term fair—on two matrimonial websites. It explores the ways in which women’s agency is handled by prospective brides on Shaadi.com and Bharat Matrimony.com. Research question is how autonomy is mobilized by women today when dealing with colorism in online matrimonial ads.

Following grounded theory, the study deciphers whether there are changes to how matrimonial ads are worded in online spaces, or whether caste and race continue to be reinforced through covert colorism.

Using cyber ethnography and textual analysis, the study analyzes 30 advertisements across two websites. In-depth interviews are also conducted with four women who underwent a similar process during their wedding. Data analysis arrived at five emergent themes: Continued hegemonic control/covert colorism; Fair as beautiful; Privileging work and independence; Power over content creation; Traditional/cultural values reinforced. iv Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) and a feminist perspective as theoretical foundations, findings indicated the digital space perpetuates colorism. Although overt presentation of skin complexion as a critical attribute has significantly reduced, such reduction is overt. Consistent with CRT, the concept of fair as beautiful remains salient; it is just more covert. The demand for a fair-skinned spouse was low; yet, skin tone was selected by almost all profiles studied. This is rooted in India’s colonial past where colorism and caste played key roles in social structures.

Further, in privileging their professional qualifications, along with mention of usually lighter skin tones, women/family members who placed online matrimonial ads continued to promote connections between social status/class/caste, and skin color. v

I dedicate this thesis to Ishan Chattopadhyay.

Thank you for bringing so much joy, love and meaning to my life, every second of every day.

“The best way to predict your future is to create it”

– Abraham Lincoln

vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My interest in the topic of my research may have stemmed from childhood observances and adulthood knowledge of India’s arranged marriage system; but it was not easy to re-enter academia after a gap of 17 years. The decision to return to grad school after working as a senior journalist for nearly 14 years was a tough one, but I am glad today that I did it. In this, I thank my advisor Dr. Radhika Gajjala, for her continued support and help as I navigated the terrain. We first met as friends, and then as my thesis advisor she has helped me grow in academia, and I hope for many collaborations in the future too. I especially treasure the many thesis meetings over lunch!

I also thank my committee member Dr. Lara Lengel, who always had positive insights into my work and has always gone beyond the role of a committee member to discuss anything I wanted her opinion on. Working on her suggestions has helped enrich this thesis in many ways.

Dr. Deborah Wooldridge, my third committee member, is way more than that to me. As the reporting authority for my grad assistantship, I have come to share a wonderful relationship with her. To say that she has helped me at BGSU in innumerable ways would be just one way of putting it. I thank her from the bottom of my heart for going beyond the call of duty to always, always help me—as my committee member, mentor and trusted friend.

As with everything else in my life, I am immensely thankful for Dhiman Chattopadhyay, my husband and best friend. He urged me to join grad school, helped me navigate the myriad challenges of juggling school and family, and tolerated all my meltdowns. For that and all else, I love him. This thesis journey would not have begun, or been completed, without him.

In ways far deeper and stronger than anything else, I am grateful and immensely thankful for the wonderful understanding and unconditional love that Ishan, my 11-year-old son, brings to my life. I realize now, on hindsight, how lucky I am to have such a mature kid who instinctively vii understood the days I needed to spend alone with my thesis, and the days I needed a warm hug more than anything else. He has questioned me in details about my topic, and in talking to him, I have learnt the valuable lesson of not taking for granted the notion that everyone else knows exactly what I am talking about in this thesis. Explaining concepts to him at the base level helped me have clearer ideas in my own head. Ishan, you know not in how many ways you helped, and continue to help me. A child gives birth to a mother, is a quote by an anonymous person—in verity, a child also helps the mother grow with him/her and that is exactly how my life has turned out.

viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION………………………...... 1

Background of Study……………………………………………………………. .... 1

Organization of Thesis……………………………………………………………… 3

Definition of Terms………………………………………………………………… 4

Arranged Marriages……………………………………………………...... 4

Matrimonial Websites…………………………………………………...... 7

Colorism…………………………………………………...... 7

Research Site…………………………………………………………………...... 8

Research Objectives……………………………………………………………… ... 8

Summary…………………………………………………………………...... 9

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE……………………………...... 10

Conceptual Framework …………………………………………………………… . 10

Role of Race & Caste in Marriage………………………………………… . 12

Concepts of Fairness in Popular Culture…………………………………… 13

Theoretical Foundations: Critical Race Theory ……………………………………. 17

Colorism: A Historical Overview………………………………………...... 19

A Global Phenomenon…………………………...... 19

Colorism in India: Historical Factors at Play………………………………. 20

Matrimonial Advertisements ……………………………………………. ... 22

Colorism in India’s Matrimonial Ads……………………………………. ... 25 ix

Research on Colorism in India……………………………………………………… 26

Online Matrimonial Sites: Greater Agency for Women? ………………………. .... 30

Role of Indian Advertisements in Reinforcing Colorism…………………………. . 32

Guiding Questions ……………………………………………………………...... 34

Summary……………………………………………………………...... 35

CHAPTER III: METHOD…………………………………………………………… ...... 37

Using Textual Analysis & Cyber Ethnography …………………………...... 39

Procedure…………………………...... 40

Indian Matrimonial Websites …………………………...... 42

Bharat Matrimony…………………………...... 43

How I Did it……………………………………………………………...... 46

Shaadi…………………………...... 49

How I Did it…………………………...... 52

In-depth Interviews…………………………...... 53

Interview Settings and Tools…………………………...... 54

Participant Selection…………………………...... 55

Interview Data Analysis…………………………...... 55

Researcher Location…………………………...... 56

Summary…………………………………………………………...... 57

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS & RESULTS………………………………………………… 58

Analysis of Shaadi Profiles…………………………...... 58

Profile Creator…………………………...... 58

Educational & Professional Qualifications…………………………...... 59 x

Lifestyle Values…………………………...... 59

Traditional Cultural Values…………………………...... 60

Physical Descriptions…………………………...... 60

Skin Tone…………………………...... 61

Analysis of Bharat Matrimony Profiles…………………………...... 62

Profile Creator…………………………...... 62

Educational & Professional Qualifications…………………………...... 63

Lifestyle Values…………………………...... 63

Traditional Cultural Values…………………………...... 64

Physical Descriptions…………………………...... 64

Skin Tone…………………………...... 65

Two Ads, Calling Out Against Colorism…………………………...... 66

Emergent Themes…………………………...... 72

Continued Hegemonic Control or Covert Colorism…………………………...... 73

Fair as Beautiful…………………………...... 78

Privileging Work and Independence…………………………...... 80

Power over Content Creation…………………………...... 81

Traditional and Cultural Values Reinforced…………………………...... 85

Discussion…………………………...... 86

Significance of Research…………………………...... 99

Summary…………………………...... 101

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………… 102

Limitations & Scope for Future Research…………………………...... 103 xi

Summary…………………………...... 104

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………… .. 105

APPENDIX A: IRB APPROVAL LETTER ……………………………………………… 117

1 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

Background of Study

I grew up in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata (capital of West Bengal state), a metropolis steeped in history, culturally vibrant, home of the Indian Renaissance movement, and deemed the land of intellectuals—including Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. However,

Kolkata is also a city immersed in tradition, some of which may not have kept pace with the passage of time. One such practice relates to matrimonial arrangements. From my late teens, I used to witness family discussions involving cousins’ matrimonial plans. Almost all my cousins had arranged marriages—unions formed through active family intervention—where family elders would put out advertisements in leading newspapers seeking suitable matches for their children. I would find the process clinical, because love or romance didn’t seem to enter the conversation. At least not till well after the wedding, because in many cases the marrying couple didn’t spend much time together alone till the ceremonies were over. My teenage self would be appalled, and I would tell anyone willing to listen that mine would not be arranged by anyone but myself. As I grew older and wiser, I understood that like most established patterns of life, there were many positive aspects to arranged marriages; usually matches were made with families of similar socio-economic backgrounds, the prospective couple did meet (even if in the presence of family elders) and spoke of common interests etc., so the matches neatly tied in expectations at both ends. There were many instances of the pairing being made within family and friends’ network—an aunt’s second cousin twice removed had a neighbor with an eligible groom; a cousin’s best friend was looking for a bride; these networks teemed with possibilities and were sifted with great care to arrange the match. 2 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

However, one thing didn’t sit well with me even as I allowed the positive aspects of arranged marriages to blend in with my negative ideas. That was the portrayal of prospective brides in matrimonial advertisements. At that time (late 1990s), there were no online matrimonial websites, so all the ads I saw or heard about were ones placed in newspapers—English or vernacular dailies. These would appear every Sunday, spread over one or two pages, usually nearer to the centerfold of the broadsheets. The words used to depict women were variations of the same—tall, slim, pretty, beautiful, good-looking…

…And fair, always fair—or even, very fair.

This last one was especially disturbing to me then, and it continues to disturb me even as

I write this thesis, more than two decades later. This is because I could not, and cannot, comprehend why fair skin tone was applicable to the Indian context—a brown nation, with variations in shades of the brown. Fair to me meant an adjective to denote something which is just or trustworthy (for e.g., a fair judicial system = one where justice is meted out in the right manner); an adverb which meant fine (for e.g., a fair evening = a fine evening). How and why these equated to the skin tone of a woman as a positive attribute, as evinced by the word’s presence in matrimonial ads, concerned me greatly from that time.

This brings me to the subject of my study, the entry into the main narrative of my thesis—the usage of the term fair in matrimonial ads on online matrimonial websites.

Matrimonial websites are as popular with families and individuals seeking a match for their sons, daughters, or selves, as offline newspaper matrimonial pages. In my study, I have explored the ways in which women’s agency is handled by prospective brides seeking a groom on two of

India’s leading matrimonial websites—Shaadi and Bharat Matrimony. My main guiding 3 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

question was how autonomy is mobilized by women today when dealing with the issue of colorism in online Indian matrimonial ads, where colorism may be described as the privileging of a lighter skin tone over a darker one (fair/very fair versus dark/wheatish, which are the terms or attributes used to describe skin tone in matrimonial websites studied for this thesis).

I looked at whether women are exerting autonomy over the content of the ads by using cyber ethnography and conducting a textual analysis of 30 matrimonial advertisements across the two matrimonial websites. I used Critical Race Theory (CRT) and a feminist perspective as theoretical foundations.

To look at these websites as a gendered space, I analyzed profiles of both men and women to look for similarities and/or differences between how the two genders negotiate matrimonial ads. Following the grounded theory method, I also sought to understand whether women are challenging the status quo of how matrimonial ads are worded, or whether the Indian caste/racial system is being reinforced through covert colorism in these ads. Thereafter, to understand the reasons behind a woman’s selection of words in such ads, I also interviewed four women who had previously gone through a similar process during their wedding. In other words, in this thesis I looked at the prevalence of colorism in Indian online matrimonial ads, and married women’s perceptions of skin-tone bias in India. I also looked at the impact of online sites on the language of such ads, and whether the identity of the person who posts these ads has an effect on the content.

Organization of Thesis

Chapter I of the thesis marks my entry point into the topic of my study, with details of how personal experiences led to my interest in the subject. In this chapter, I have also explained 4 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS the key terms that inform this study, and the rationale behind it. Chapter II provides the conceptual framework and a historical overview of existing literature, where I have noted key previous works that have guided my understanding of the phenomenon. In Chapter III, I described the methods selected for this study, why I chose each tool, and my location as a researcher. In Chapter IV, I analyzed the data and explained the results of my study, also noting the significance of my research. Finally, in the concluding chapter (Chapter V) I have discussed the limitations of this study and offered scope for future research on the topic.

Definition of Terms

I started my research in 2016 by studying the two matrimonial websites I am looking at for my thesis—Shaadi and Bharat Matrimony. I first started looking at the kinds of ads that were visible on these websites to a casual site visitor and later, as I built up my groundwork, I created my own profiles to be able to view ads in their entirety, a step that was necessary before I could think of a sample for my study. Since these websites aim to aid those seeking arranged matches,

I first explain here the key terms that are present in my thesis.

Arranged Marriages

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines arranged marriage as a marriage in which the husband and wife are chosen for each other by their parents (Merriam-Webster, 2018).

Since a good understanding of arranged marriage forms the base of my thesis, I have explained the term in some detail here. Some early studies on arranged marriages concluded that the basic premise on which the institution of arranged marriage hinges is that young people are not able to secure optimal and accurate information about prospective marriage partners through regular engagement and are more guided by their overarching tendency to seek mere pleasure (Goode, 5 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

1963; Auboyer, 1965). Other scholars have argued that this deficiency leads “parents, relatives, friends, and increasingly matchmaking intermediaries” (Batabyal, 2001, p. 274) to undertake the process of finding them a suitable spouse. It is important to note here that these matchmakers play an integral role in arranged marriages, and the process is thus distinctive from love marriages (where the couple fall in love and decide to marry).

Explaining certain key tenets of arranged marriages, Gupta (1976) stated that in the planning of such unions “individuals come to believe that their life mate is predestined, their fate is preordained, they are “right for each other”, they are helpless as far as choice is concerned and therefore must succumb to the celestial forces of the universe” (p. 77). Arrangements are usually made with families that have similar social background, and the families—matchmakers—exude a lot of control over the selection process (Applbaum, 1995).

Such arrangements seem to be working well, and some scholars argue that globally, arranged marriages have consistently shown a better success rate (Applbaum, 1995; Lee, 2013), with far fewer such marriages ending in divorce compared to love marriages. A study by Statistic

Brain (2012), for instance, found global divorce rates for arranged marriages was a mere 6 percent—a significantly low number, given that 55 percent of marriages in the world are arranged (Buch, 2015). Other scholars too have argued that couples in arranged marriages are

“equally happy” as those in love marriages (Myers, Madathil, & Tingle, 2005). The reasons for this apparently high success rates of arranged marriages could be various (Epstein, Pandit, &

Thakar, 2013) and is outside the purview of this study. However, the argument that simply states arranged marriages are more successful than love marriages, is naïve and possibly misleading.

For instance, many marriages in India, particularly in rural India, are arranged when the bride is 6 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

under the age of 16 (Ouattara, Sen, & Thomson, 1998), where marital rape is not uncommon, and where social pressure prevents the woman from considering divorce. Stigma of divorce, social constraints, and consideration of their children’s mental and physical well-being (Barnett,

2001) are just some of the reasons that many couples in India, including those in an arranged marriage, continue to live together (Jejeebhoy, 1998). A low divorce rate, therefore, may not always be a sign of a ‘successful’ system.

What is beyond doubt is that arranged marriages continue to be the most popular form of finding a match for couples across the social strata in India. In a 2015 online survey of Indian men and women from 10 Indian communities, over 70 percent respondents said they preferred arranged marriage to a love-match. Most female respondents also said they wanted their parents or family members to choose the groom (Rodrigues, 2015).

India accounts for a significant chunk of arranged marriages. Arranged marriages, in fact, have been part and parcel of the region’s social life from ancient times. Hindu scriptures written between 200 B. C. and 900 A. D. mention eight modes of acquiring a wife known as Brahma,

Daiva, Arsha, Prajapatya, Asura, Gandharva, Rakshasa, and Paisacha. The first four are methods which “pertain to arranged marriages in which the parental couple ritually gives away the daughter to a suitable person and this ideal” (Gupta, 1976, p. 77).

Before the widespread advent of matrimonial columns in print media and later the internet and, thus, online matrimonial websites, there were other resources that were adopted to seek such arranged matrimonial alliances between families that were strangers till the match was secured. There were various types of matchmakers, most notably the Ghataks. These were men who earned their livelihood primarily by acting as middlemen for families that sought help 7 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

arranging marriages (Pal, 2010). They would facilitate the exchange of information among families, including horoscopes, and when the outcome was positive, would earn commissions.

However, the advent of “online matrimony portals and social networking has greatly reduced the need of ghataks in recent times. They have almost disappeared, but their existence remains in different forms that is agent or consultant of marriage bureaus, matrimony service portals” (p.

57). Thus, Pal equated matrimonial portals with the erstwhile ghataks.

Matrimonial Websites

Online matrimonial sites have been steadily gaining popularity in India, especially among those looking for an arranged marriage for themselves, a family member, or a friend. The role of such websites is to enable match seekers to create their profiles online—mostly free of charge at the basic level—and seek matches from suitable profiles, based on particular search algorithms.

There are advanced levels of profiles for which members need to pay, rates and options vary according to the company. In India, there are a number of such matrimonial websites such as

Bharat Matrimony and Shaadi, the two websites I looked at in this thesis.

Colorism

The preference for lighter skin tones over darker ones, also known as colorism—is a global phenomenon. In various parts of the world, fair skin tones are deemed preferable. In India too, this predilection shows up in the way matrimonial ads are written, in the abundance of fairness skin creams that have flooded the market—all promising fairer skin for the users and equating the result to success and/or happiness for the users, as well as in everyday communications among people, who often use skin tone as a descriptor of a person.

8 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Research Site

The two matrimonial websites that formed the site of my study—Shaadi and Bharat

Matrimony—are among the largest in India. Bharat Matrimony was founded in 2001 and comprises websites, mobile sites and mobile apps that help men and women look for a life partner within India and the Indian Diaspora. The company has 140 offline retail centers in various parts of India. It was ranked “as India's most trusted online matrimony brand by The

Brand Trust Report India Study 2014” (Hindi Matrimony) in 2015. Shaadi began operations a few years earlier than Bharat Matrimony, in 1996, and claims to be “the world’s oldest and most successful matchmaking service” (Shaadi, 2018). It also has mobile app services. How I navigated these two websites to find my data is detailed in the Methods section of this document.

Research Objectives

In this study, I examined matrimonial advertisements appearing in India’s online media to understand if and how preference towards fair skin is manifested in online advertisements.

Based on my understanding of arranged marriages in middle and upper class Indian society

(comprised mostly of upper castes), I came to this research expecting to see “fair skin” as a significant attribute. Therefore, I observed whether fair skin was signaled as a positive quality in prospective brides and grooms. I looked for similarities and/or differences between how men and women negotiate the terms used to describe themselves in matrimonial ads. Adopting grounded theory, I sought to understand how prospective brides are negotiating the way matrimonial ads are worded, and if the Indian caste/racial system is being reinforced through covert colorism in these ads. Further, I wanted to learn how women who have had arranged marriages feel about 9 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

skin tone being used as a major attribute by their partners, and their thoughts about skin complexion being considered a key physical attribute in matrimonial advertisements.

Summary

To round up what Chapter I contains, it may be noted that I started this introduction section by writing the background of the study—my personal entry point into the topic from childhood till this date. Thereafter, I clearly delineated the organization of the thesis to aid the reader’s understanding of what it contains. I then defined the key terms that inform my research topic—arranged marriages, colorism, matrimonial websites—noting extant studies on these terms that help in the process of explanation. I ended this chapter with an explanation of the site of my data, and my research objectives.

10 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Conceptual Framework

According to Hindu mythology, matches are made in heaven and couples are destined to marry because their karmas are intertwined (Jayaram, 2015). More often than not, however, such unions are finalized and sealed right here on earth through a process known as arranged marriage. In the absence of a love match, such marriages are arranged usually by family elders or the persons who are seeking to get married themselves, via searches on matrimonial websites, newspaper ads or even the old-fashioned word-of-mouth process. At least one survey found that almost 75 percent of all Indians aged between 18 and 35 still prefer arranged marriages (IANS,

2013). In a majority of these instances, would-be brides or grooms prefer to leave it to their parents to initiate the search for a suitable life partner. Historically, a common feature in arranged marriages is the fascination for fair skin, especially in prospective brides, as found in studies of traditional matrimonial advertisements (e.g., Ramasubramanian & Jain, 2009; Utley &

Darity, 2016; Jha & Adelman, 2009).

Fascination with fair skin of course is not an Indian phenomenon alone. Studies in the

United States have found that racial prejudice leads to power inequalities between and within communities of color. In their seminal work on racial formations, Omi and Winant (2004) noted the social and historical processes that led to the creation of various categories of race and the interplay of forces that determined racial blocks over the ages. From the black and white binary that has categorized racial lines, to the more fluid delineations in post-slavery abolishment Latin

America, racial configurations vary across the world. Omi and Winant (2004) define racial formation as “the process by which social, economic and political forces determine the content 11 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

and importance of racial categories, and by which they are in turn shaped by racial meanings” (p.

12). In arguing that societal relations are largely conditioned by race, their study formed a crucial bedrock for my thesis—as I looked at whether the impact of racial formations affects how Indian matrimonial ads are worded. The scholars also stated that race is “a way of comprehending, explaining and acting in the world” (p. 13); this may contribute to the understanding of how and why colorism plays out in the Indian context on the digital platforms of matrimonial websites.

Taking cognizance of Omi and Winant’s arguments, Nakamura (2008) noted that the internet “interface serves to organize raced and gendered bodies in categories, boxes, and links that mimic both the mental structure of a normative consciousness and set of associations (often white, often male) and the logic of digital capitalism: to click on a box or link is to acquire it, to choose it, to replace one set of images with another in a friction-free transaction that seems to cost nothing yet generates capital in the form of digitally racialized images and performances”

(p. 17).

Racism is manifest in various ways across the myriad spectrum of the digital and, indeed, physical/social spaces that we inhabit, but for the purpose of this thesis, I looked at one of the factors—skin color. This is because, to include or even talk about all the factors that contribute to racial formations and manifestations is beyond the scope of this thesis.

Thus, in selecting certain descriptors for their ads from a drop-down menu available on matrimonial websites as well as in uploading their photos and writing about themselves in text boxes that provide extra space to do so, the profiles that formed my sample for this thesis created certain social capital to find a spouse of their choice. Nakamura (2008) argued, “When users create or choose avatars on the Internet, they are choosing to visually signify online in ways that 12 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

must result in a new organization and distribution of visual cultural capital” (p. 18). How such capital plays out within the context of India’s racial connotations is perused later on in this document. An example may be noted in Mayura Iyer’s (2015) blog on colorism in India, where she pointed out, “The glorification of fair skin is pervasive throughout Indian society and goes far beyond implications of beauty—it is associated with greater intelligence, greater status and greater privilege. It manifests itself in colorism, the systemic devaluation of persons with dark skin” (Iyer, 2015).

Role of Race & Caste in Marriage

Much before JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series made bloodlines a critical factor of the fate of her fictional characters (Mudbloods versus Pure Bloods), many ancient Indian texts and oral traditions highlighted the distinctions in society by which “the individual identifies himself by reason of birth and through sentiments of common blood and common ancestry” (Béteille,

1967, p. 444). Hindu laws of those times prohibited inter-caste marriages to preserve the perceived sanctity of the upper castes. Those belonging to the latter category were usually those vested with political and economic power (mostly by dint of being landowners); conversely, the lower castes were poor and laborers. However, it is to be noted that “Although units based on regional, linguistic, sectarian, caste, or lineage affiliation have played a very important part in traditional Indian society and continue to do so today, they do not exhaust the types of groups in modern Indian society” (p. 448).

Such demarcations along lines of birth are not to be confused with colorism which, as stated earlier, is based on differences that arise out of varied skin tones—even within a brown nation such as India. Therefore, “racial categorization does not solely rely on skin color. Skin 13 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

color is only one mechanism used to assign individuals to a racial category, but race is the set of beliefs and assumptions assigned to that category. Racism is the dependence of social status on the social meaning attached to race” (Pathak, 2015, p. 45).

Along the lines of varying shades of brown skin color in India, there are certain interesting points. Usually, people hailing from north India have fairer skin tones than those living in the southern parts; it is also seen that certain upper caste members are fairer than certain lower caste people. Béteille (1967) noted, “Regional and caste differences often cut across each other. People from the lower castes in North India tend to be, on the whole, darker than those from some of the highest castes in the South” (p. 450). Noting in his research how fair is used as a positive attribute of prospective Indian brides, Béteille added that the “caste system has given birth to a variety of stereotypes that have a bearing on social conduct, although their influence on it is less marked now than in the past” (p. 452). A number of such stereotypes focus on physical aspects of people belonging to the different castes, and usually people belonging to the upper castes are dubbed fair, while those belonging to lower castes are termed dark skinned.

Highlighting how caste plays an important role in arranged marriages even today,

Banerjee, Duflo, Ghatak and Lafortune (2013) argued, “The institution is so prevalent that matrimonial advertisements… in Indian newspapers are classified under caste headings, making it immediately obvious where prospective brides or grooms can find someone from their own caste” (p. 34).

Concepts of Fairness in Popular Culture

The notion that fair or lighter-skinned Indians belong not only to a higher social hierarchy but also to a higher moral hierarchy, can be evinced from popular literature too. Amar Chitra 14 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Katha comic books, a publisher of children’s literature that continues to be extremely popular even 70 years after its launch and claims to educate Indian children across the social spectrum about their history and heritage, perpetuate colorism in their portrayal of the hero as fair, while the villain is usually dark, in keeping with the perceived biases of Indian society, “where light skin is prized as a mark of beauty, and dark skin a flaw” (Rao, 1996, p. 41).

The Indian film industry is an extension of this same popular culture. In his critical analysis of India’s Hindi film industry, popularly known as Bollywood, Joseph (2000) argued that as the Indian film industry has become globalized and gone upmarket to cater to overseas audiences, “frustrated dark-skinned female dancers, members of the Cine Dancers Association, are increasingly facing unemployment because directors, film stars, and choreographers perceive slim and light-skinned dancers as indispensable for the cinematic production of an upper class aesthetic”. Since Bollywood provides a “popular escape mechanism for millions of Indians, who lose themselves in the fantasy and drama of the movies” (Shevde, 2008, p. 4), it is hardly surprising that the leading parts are played by fair-skinned actors and actresses. With popular cultural texts are a representation of existing societal norms and biases, the concept of what is beautiful is “intrinsically tied to the society one lives in” (Neikirk, 2009, p. 39).

Indeed, in their study on skin tone and beauty in certain Asian cultures, Li et al. (2008) summed up the cultural connotations of whiteness in India as almost binaries that function as opposites—so “black is associated with underprivileged people and is a symbol of ‘dark,’ ‘dirty,’

‘wrong,’ ‘hell,’ and ‘unfairness’ and is opposite to ‘good,’ ‘bright,’ and ‘well-being’. White skin is always associated with positive messages in Indian and Hindu culture” (p. 445). Equating white skin tones with greater cultural capital, Li et al. suggested, “In social interaction contexts, 15 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

white and fair skins are social symbols and regimes. The notion of beauty is socially constructed, and its meanings are changed and maintained by social forces” (p. 448).

Arguing for a similar symbolic capital depiction of skin color, Glenn (2008) informed that women’s physical appearance plays a crucial role in the judgment of their self-worth. With physical beauty being a benchmark for better life prospects, “men and women may attempt to acquire light-skinned privilege… [even] seeking light-skinned marital partners to raise one's status and to achieve intergenerational mobility by increasing the likelihood of having light- skinned children” (p. 282). Such quests often lead women to seek cosmetics aid to acquire such fair skin, and the perceived benefits of a lighter skin tone (Glenn, 2008).

Advertisements of cosmetics and other products also privilege such lighter skin tones and have been the subject of much scholarly work. In his case study of skin lightening cream Fair &

Lovely in the Indian markets and the checks and balances that can be adopted in advertising such products, Karnani (2007) noted, “It is interesting to note that in the print and TV advertisements, as the woman becomes 'whiter' she also becomes noticeably happier!... Such advertisements have attracted much public criticism, especially from women's groups, in many countries from India to Malaysia to Egypt” (p. 1353).

Glenn (2008) summed up that though the tilt towards lighter skin tones is a universal phenomenon today, “in terms of sheer numbers, India and Indian diasporic communities around the world constitute the largest market for skin lighteners. The major consumers of these products in South Asian communities are women between the ages of 16 and 35” (p. 289).

In an interesting bridge that connects these advertisements to the fundamental focus of my research topic, Karan (2008) also wrote after looking at two such product ads for her study 16 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

that a bride’s father is usually shown to be the person arranging a suitable match for his daughter.

Thus, the fairness creams that promise a rosier picture for the woman when she acquires a fairer skin tone, seemingly are endorsed by the father—as shown in the ads.

The above studies show that India has a fascination for fair skin (Johnson, 2002). While some scholars have argued that this privileging of the lighter-skin or colorism is a colonial legacy (Nadeem, 2014), a result of Western influence that is still present in many Asian cultures

(Eric, Li, Belk, Kimura, & Bahl, 2008), others point out that at least in the case of India, idealizing whiteness (Gupta, 1976, p. 77) and demonizing dark-skinned people have been common since the ancient times, and is still prevalent in popular literature across many Indian cultures (Parameswaran and Cardoza, 2009). Colorism is not a term that is used in daily parlance; however, to put it in a scholarly context, colorism may be elucidated as “an intra-racial system of inequality based on skin color, hair texture, and facial features that bestows privilege and value on physical attributes that are closer to white” (Wilder & Cain, 2010, p. 578). In according greater importance to fair skin tones, darker skin is devalued: “It is a genderized phenomenon, mostly affecting women, that creates social and workplace inequities and negatively affects women of color. In India, colorism is a customary practice perpetuated by cultural beliefs and values, social institutions, and the media” (Sims and Hirudayaraj, 2015, p.

38). In his research, Hunter (2005) too found that “light skin tone is interpreted as beauty, and beauty operates as social capital for women” (p. 37).

Jha and Adelman’s (2009) textual analysis of matrimonial ads across four Indian websites showed an overwhelming bias among males or their parents for women/brides who were fairer than themselves or their sons. Other studies too have found sufficient evidence of bias towards 17 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

fair-skinned women in India’s matrimonial advertisements (Dey, 2016; Mishra, 2015).

Theoretical Foundations: Critical Race Theory

Critical Theory refers to social theories that attempt to critique and change existing structures, unlike many traditional theories that only attempt to explain or understand a phenomenon. In other words, critical theories dig deep into social life to examine some assumptions that may help or prevent us from understanding an event, or a behavior pattern

(Crossman, 2017). In my thesis, I used Critical Race Theory as my theoretical foundation.

Proponents of Critical Race Theory (CRT) argue that “the majority of racism remains hidden beneath a veneer of normality and it is only the more crude and obvious forms of racism that are seen as problematic by most people” (Gilborn, 2015, p. 278). CRT acknowledges that perceived group memberships can make some individuals or groups vulnerable to various forms of bias,

“yet because we are simultaneously members of many groups, our complex identities can shape the specific way we each experience that bias” (Crenshaw, 1995). For example, women of different ethnicities and cultures may experience racial or ethnicity related biases differently.

Indeed, one aspect that is often ignored by Western CRT scholars is that ethnic variation exists within and across racial groups and colorism is not always limited to black and white but can be between fifty shades of brown. Colorism, for instance, can be explained as “the allocation of privilege and disadvantage according to the lightness or darkness of one’s skin” (Burke, 2008, p. 17). The practices of colorism tend to favor lighter skin over darker skin (Gomez, 2008), and colorism beliefs and practices operate both within and across racial and ethnic groups (Bonilla-

Silva, 2009; Gomez, 2008). In case of India, Critical Race Theory can be applied to understand a culture where Whiteness does not necessarily refer to those who identify as ‘White’ or Caucasian 18 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

but to Brown-skinned people who have a skin complexion lighter than their neighbors, and who see this relative whiteness as an advantage, a superior status symbol, and as a means to greater privileges. CRT argues that such colorism is institutionalized—an ingrained feature of social systems, and everyone within such systems contribute to it through social practices (Burton,

Bonilla-Silva, Ray, Buckelew, & Hordge-Freeman, 2010). Further, such racial practices of colorism are not fixed entities but are socially constructed and constantly negotiated based on a group’s own social interests (Bonilla-Silva, 2009; Ward & Robinson-Wood, 2016).

In the South Asian context, White privilege denotes a sense of being privileged among those who consider themselves fairer than others, a quality which they alone can possess, and one which gives them the right to greater enjoyment, reputation and status property (Ladson-

Billings, 1998; Unnikrishnan & Prasad, 2017). Since my topic focuses on one of the factors of racism in India—skin tone—I have applied CRT to understand the phenomenon. This is because, like the U.S. contexts that Ladson-Billings (1998) explained in her study, racism is “so enmeshed in the fabric of our social order, it appears both normal and natural to people in this culture” (p.

11). In CRT, “the strategy becomes one of unmasking and exposing racism in its various permutations” (p. 11)—and I have used it to look at skin tone bias in online Indian matrimonial advertisements.

My study also used a feminist perspective in order to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. Feminism is a perspective, not a research method but it is guided by a feminist theoretical lens including CRT (Sarikakis, Rush, Grubb-Swetnam, & Lane, 2009). In keeping with Rakow and Wackwitz’s (2004) model of representation, voice and difference as the three main themes of feminist communication theory, this study looked at how women are represented in matrimonial ads, the obstacles these create, the manner in which their voices are silenced in 19 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

matrimonial ads and explores how they feel about colorism in matrimonial ads. Feminist theory is also explanatory and polyvocal, meaning that it is generated by multiple voices and experiences, with different interpretations of reality (Rakow & Wackwitz, 2004).

Colorism: A Historical Overview

A Global Phenomenon

Hunter (2013), who conducted a quantitative content analysis of data followed by in- depth interviews with women of color, concluded that skin color stratification had a significant effect on Mexican-American and African-American women’s income, education and marriage, and that light-skinned women were “considered more beautiful that darker skinned women of color” (p. 5). Other studies too have drawn attention to the ways in which being of a relatively lighter skin color than their peers have benefited light-skinned Black and Latina women, thus creating a visible hierarchy and inequality within communities of color (Parameswaran &

Cardoza, 2009).

At the other end of the world in Japan, advertisements for companies that manufacture different face-whitening cosmetics, allocate well over $2 billion annually in advertisement budgets to frame lighter-skin women as superior to those with a darker skin. Little wonder then that the face-whitening practice of Japanese women continues to be a widely observed social phenomenon in Japan (Ashikari, 2005). In Africa too, Ghannam’s (2008) study showed how in

Egypt the marketing of whiteness products is not just about selling a lotion, but also about selling an idea that “whiteness is positive, desirable, beautiful, and purchasable” (p. 81). The concept of a color hierarchy, therefore, is not just present in predominantly white Europe and North

America but across the world. 20 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Colorism in India: Historical Factors at Play

Some scholars blame the British Empire for sowing the seeds of skin color prejudice in

India—a lasting impact of British imperialism and a historical legacy of internalized racism that has lingered on in the subcontinent even after the empire has long gone (Parameswaran and

Cardoza, 2009). However, racial overtones among different castes, classes and groups of people have been present in India arguably for many more centuries. Even as far back as 2,000 years ago when Indian epics were being codified, Aryan Gods and kings were depicted as fair-skinned, generally noble characters, and the non-Aryans either simply as dark-skinned or as Asuras

(demons), monkeys or evil people. As Parameswaran and Cardoza argued, colorism in India may be related to interwoven beliefs and assumptions about light skin and its historical signification of superior racial, regional, and upper caste/class status.

Indians belong to several different ethnic groups (Balakrishna, 2013) with distinctly different skin tones. For example, people from some northern Indian states are relatively fair- skinned, while those from the northeastern region have skin tones and facial features more akin to East Asians such as the Chinese. Many southern Indians on the other hand have darker skin tones. Consequently, there has been a historical acceptance of diversity in physical attributes, and beauty was not accorded on the basis of skin color (Dube, 1990).

Classifications in India often seems a convoluted process and is multi-layered; the distinctions are at once on the multiple lines of geographic location, the religion one practices, caste and/or sub-caste, primary language spoken (mother tongue) and others. “The earliest classification, as found in Rig Veda [arguably the earliest document of Indian history circa 1500

BC], was not based on birth but on the hierarchy that was determined by one’s occupation; 21 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

however, it is certain that at some particular point in history it became birth-based and rigid”

(Mishra, 2015, p. 727). As people became categorized into one caste or another, those with perceived superior social and economic standing came to stand for certain kinds of superior labor; the lower castes were subject to manual, hard labor, toiling under the hot Indian sun for their meagre livelihood.

Many of the distinctions of that time which are ascribed to different skin tones, may have actually stemmed from the type of people who lived in a specific geographical territory. Often in the context of ancient Indian civilizations, conquering armies such as those of the Aryan invaders would wage wars for control over land with tribal people of the region. The latter were dubbed

Dasas by the Aryans. Though the term dasa loosely translates into slaves, here the implication is for enemies of the Aryans.

Over centuries as Turks, Mughals, Portuguese, Dutch and the British invaded India— colorism evolved and took on different hues at different historical moments. Since many of the invading cultures had lighter skin tones, through the years of subjugation, Indians began to associate lighter skin color with physical, economic and political superiority—those who were in positions of power and enjoyed greater social privileges, as well as beauty. This led to a belief that “lighter skinned conquerors, including the Moguls from Central Asia and colonizers from

Europe, set the beauty standard that white skin was more attractive” (Sims and Hirudayaraj,

2016, p. 40). At some point, such associations began to culminate into an understanding that fair skin equates superiority in both men and women (Mishra, 2015, p. 732); and this equation continues to keep a stronghold on the desire to be fairer to gain greater social capital in India today. 22 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Matrimonial Advertisements

In their research on dating and matrimonial websites, Lundy, Chien, Wang, Deshpande, and Chu (2014) found that the rise in popularity of such services has resulted in relationships being formed via online channels that were earlier formed via offline, physical spaces, much like perhaps the point that Pal (2010) made about Ghataks and the suchlike.

Apart from portals, offline newspaper matrimonial advertisement pages too have played the role of such Ghataks (matchmakers) for many years now. Together, such channels of securing matrimonial alliances have been around across the world. A number of studies have examined various facets of such matrimonial matchmaking. Such research is not restricted to

India but examines issues and trends across the world.

In their study on how gender is stereotyped in matrimonial ads, Ramasubramanian and

Jain (2009) stated, “Due to geographic mobility and increased media access, matrimonial ads in newspapers, marriage agencies, and the Internet are replacing traditional matchmakers. Popular in many countries, ‘personals’ advertising in newspapers and magazines and on websites are one way of finding a suitable romantic partner” (p. 255).

On the other hand, in her study of dating and mate-seeking by urban Indian slum- dwellers, Chakraborty (2012) noted, “Arranged marriages are considered ‘better’ than unsuitable love marriages; however, a love marriage with a middleclass groom or a close relative can topple most ‘ordinary’ arranged marriages” (p. 211).

Given this love for arranged marriages, it is critical to examine how women and women’s bodies are depicted in matrimonial advertisements and what such depiction means for women who found their spouses through this route. 23 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Matrimonial ads are cultural texts since arranged marriages are an intrinsic part of various Indian cultures. It may not be a big surprise therefore if parents, family members, or even prospective brides and grooms themselves equate fair skin with physical beauty in seeking suitable partners for their daughters, siblings or themselves, using fairness as a desired status symbol, much like in popular cultural texts, undercutting other achievements of women (Webster

& Driskell, 1983). Subramanian and Jain’s (2009) study found, “Beauty for women, in the context of matrimonial ads in India, seems to be quite narrowly defined as being fair, slim, and physically attractive” (p. 264). The researchers also opined that “matrimonial ads echo the messages found in media in general and, therefore, reflect an internalization of messages of skewed, culturally narrow, standards of beauty, wealth, and success” (p. 266).

Some more current studies have explored how digital platforms influence marriages across the world. In their recent study, Bajnaid and Elyas (2017) looked at the distinctions between online media dating sites and the traditional courtship practices in Saudi Arabia and observed that through these matrimonial websites, many residents of the Arab nation are now able to access thousands of profiles of potential spouses. This study also found that the Saudis choose to create online profiles that highlight only those attributes that the uploader wishes a prospective spouse to know about.

Studies focusing on Japan too found that potential candidates may change their persona in online matrimonial ads in a bid to stay true to hegemonic social discourses that favors certain body types and attributes (Sat, 2008). In Israel, an examination of classified ads showed, “The quality of a person as a conjugal partner is judged more on the basis of his ability and inclination 24 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

to satisfy his partner’s personal needs rather than on the basis of objectively defined qualities and performance” (Peres & Meivar, 1986, p. 29).

Coming to the U.S., in their study of online dating in the country Hitsch, Hortaçsu and

Ariely (2010) found, “Looks and physique are important determinants of preferences for both men and women” (pp. 147-148).

It may be pertinent at this point to give a concise illustration of what constitutes digital matrimony avenues. Somasundaram (2013) offered a clear description of online matrimony:

“Online Matrimony shall be considered as Self-Service Technology (to search prospective bride/bridegroom to be) enabling match-makers offer services online through their web-portal to log-in and register, participate, create their own pages of database and make it interactive through chat rooms(also for e.g., help desk) for the prospects to ex-change or open communication channels with each other or make payments without face to face interaction or even visiting any physical facility. Hence, Self-service technology adopted in Online-Matrimony provide consumers a greater convenience, accessibility, and ease of use” (pp. 402-403).

In the Indian context, research on matrimonial ads have looked at both online and offline channels. Ramakrishnan’s (2012) study focused on print matrimonial classifieds, although she acknowledged that as a “relatively common social practice, arranged marriages continue to be widely practiced in India, although they have progressed from being arranged by the local priest or matchmaker to include the use of modern technologies. These include matrimonial ads placed in newspapers (both print and web editions) and online profiles posted on matchmaking websites, such as www.Shaadi...” (p. 433). 25 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

An interesting feature of Indian print matrimonial ads is that these liberally use unique shorthand codes that may seem strange to someone not conversant with the process. For e.g., fly is the abbreviation for family, Mglk stands for Manglik (pertains to people having a particular natal horoscope), bful stands for beautiful, N. Wkg stands for non-working, etc. Ramakrishnan

(2012) explained the unique nature of these ads as: “Matrimonials are written in Indian English and are not universally intelligible, especially because key terms, such as caste and lineage markers and birth-stars, are borrowed freely from Sanskrit and other Indian vernaculars” (p.

436).

In her study on matrimonial ads, Dave (2012) looked at how “the attitude of society and the inherent gender bias is overtly reflected through the language used in them” (p. 263). Using a sample of newspaper matrimonial ads, she found that “men are so vocal about their demand for a fair and beautiful girl, whereas 85% of girls were silent on this aspect in men. It is due to the deep-rooted socio-cultural conditioning of the society, which teaches a woman to be silent and non-assertive” (p. 268).

Colorism in India’s Matrimonial Ads

Taking into account the popularity of arranged marriages in India, and the existence of both print and online media to secure such matches, it may be surmised that India therefore, is perhaps one of the best sites to study how communication systems flow during matrimonial ads for arranged marriages, how women’s bodies are depicted and what women who have been married in this fashion now think about how they were depicted.

Jha and Adelman’s (2009) study found an overwhelming bias among males or their parents, for brides lighter-skinned than themselves or their sons. As they noted: “Dark-skinned 26 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

women are falling through the matrimonial cracks. Despite the presence of dark-skinned female member profiles on these online mate-seeking services; it appears that these women are rarely selected as marriage partners” (p. 76). Other recent studies have argued based on their findings that women too look for fair men. According to a jeevansathi.com survey, skin tone bias cuts across genders with 71 percent women or their parents preferring fair men in marriage

(Rodrigues, 2015). Others (e.g., Dey, 2016) have found that skin complexion of the bride is more important a factor in marriage compared to the skin complexion of the groom. Dey’s analysis of a large number of matrimonial ads that appeared over one year on different sites, showed that 58 percent of would-be-brides self-identified or were identified by people posting the advertisements, as fair or very fair, but while seeking a groom, 93 percent did not specify any skin tone. Further “as many as 85 percent adverts put up by the would-be-groom or his family members did not specify the man’s skin color but very specifically demanded (57 percent) the bride to be fair” (Dey, 2016, p. 8391).

Research on Colorism in India

While the story of racial bias and colorism is well-established globally (Crenshaw,

Gotanda, Peller, & Thomas, 1995; Hunter, 2007; Jones, 2013; Burton, Bonilla‐Silva, Ray,

Buckelew, & Hordge Freeman, 2010), using Critical Race Theory to examine the presence of colorism Indian society is a relatively recent phenomenon (Sims & Hirudayaraj, 2016; Nadeem,

2014). The advent of several multinational skin-lightening brands led to a series of studies on their rising popularity in India, and the effects they had on social values (Osuri, 2008; Shevde,

2008; Parameswaran & Cardoza, 2009). Similarly, skin tone bias in matrimonial advertisements became a subject of discussion as greater access to internet in India resulted in the rise of online 27 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

matrimonial websites, and discussion centered on the presence of colorism in a country of brown-skinned people (Berggren & Nilsson, 2013).

Moving on to Indian matrimonial websites, some studies have examined various facets of online matrimonial advertisements, and the effect of online technology at individual, societal, technological levels; and among various strata of society.

With increased internet access especially among younger Indians, a growing number of parents are ceding control to their children (or younger family members) to select how they want to craft their own matrimonial ads (Harris, 2015). “Young Indians are carving out independence from parents and matrimonial websites have started redesigning themselves for the more progressive user” (Tandon, 2017, p. 2). More and more young people, including prospective brides and grooms or their siblings, are now posting matrimonial ads compared to older folks such as parents (Indiafacts, 2014).

Yet, those studies that have explored the presence of colorism have found continued presence of colorism in matrimonial advertisements. Mishraa, Monippally and Jayaka (2012) studied the online matrimonial profiles of the Indian Muslim community across various measures including income, age, and educational qualification. When it came to physical descriptions, the study found, “Not a single female profile mentioned ‘dark’ as the complexion type. Most likely, such representations reflect the overwhelming preference for fair complexion in the Indian subcontinent” (p. 45). They further noted, “Not a single male or female profile chose ‘dark’ as the expected complexion of the prospective spouse. Only three female profiles and one male profile chose ‘wheatish’ as the expected complexion of the spouse” (p. 45). 28 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Other studies (e.g., Pal, 2010) examined leading Indian matrimonial portals, but did not necessarily study the depiction of skin tone in the ads.

Seth and Patnayakuni’s (2009) ethnographic study looked at how matrimonial websites have changed traditional processes associated with arranged marriages in India, as well as the

“changes in power and control structures and the relationship between technology and social institutions” (p. 334). It also looked closely at the role of family in the online matrimonial search process “against the backdrop of social and cultural changes permeating the Indian Diaspora” (p.

338).

In their article on gender stereotypes and normative heterosexuality in matrimonial ads from globalizing India, Ramasubramanian and Jain (2009) observed that such ads showcase a preference for fair and slim women; while men’s financial prospects and wellbeing were highlighted, in the case of the women, it was physical descriptions that found space in these matrimonial ads. When words such as slim, pretty/beautiful, fair/very fair are used in these ads, their clubbing together “is particularly problematic in that they reinforce messages that thinness and fairness are very desirable traits in women” (p. 264). However, their research did not look at the phenomenon of “online match-making websites such as Shaadi or bharatmatrimonials.com, which might reflect slightly different information as compared to traditional print media” (p.

266).

Hakim Arif (2006) stated in his study that women are defined by skin color and looked at how color binaries of black and white play out in the Bengali context, and the discriminations that are meted out to women with darker skin tones. 29 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Caste, sub-caste and other differentiators continue to be used by members of the matrimonial websites: “Since there are no established mores about using online media, the online matrimonial services mirror existing social practices” (Seth and Patnayakuni, 2009, p. 347).

However, these researchers claimed, “In the case of online matrimonial services, the subtle influence of technology cannot be overlooked as the use of online content, instant messaging and e-mail is expanding the influence of the younger generation over their elders in arranged marriage to create a new social norm that bears closer resemblance to western notions of marriage” (p. 348).

Though Chakraborty (2012) inferred, in her study, that online sites such as Shaadi feel like both “high class places to visit” (p. 208) as well as safe zones to search for a prospective life partner as these “try to mitigate perceptions of untrustworthiness in Indian online culture” (p.

211), this study was restricted to a population comprising urban slum dwellers, a micro look at a specific community, and did not look at colorism issues therein.

Using sociological lens on online matrimonial websites, Agrawal (2015) drew “attention to the relevance of Indian internet matchmaking services in fostering and sustaining caste- and community-based social categorizations” (p. 16). This study took cognizance of the fact that

“Notwithstanding the shifting stances of online service providers themselves, there are definite indications that the internet is used by young men and women who now participate in the process of ‘arranging’ their own marriages, or aid in doing so for their siblings, siblings-in-law and friends – a process that can be seen as a new trend set by these portals, as opposed to the older media which were more likely to be used almost exclusively by parents” (p. 24). 30 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Ramakrishnan (2012) took a close look at print matrimonial ads to find, “The most important ‘desirables’ (or desired aspects of the potential life partner) are for the future bride to be ‘fair’ (light-skinned) and ‘good looking’. She has to be well educated, although the desired level of education (undergraduate, Masters, or professional degree such as law/medicine/engineering) is not stated” (p. 438). This study focused on four skin tone variants as used in such ads— “‘very fair’, ‘fair’, ‘wheatish’, and ‘medium complexioned’” (p. 439).

During my review of literature, I found relatively few extant studies that have examined the possible effects of online technology on matrimonial ads, including possible shifts on power equations within Indian households. Indeed, journalistic research seemed to indicate that more and more young people, including prospective brides and grooms or their siblings, are now posting matrimonial ads compared to older folks such as parents (Indiafacts, 2014). However, my search yielded little academic scholarship that has empirically examined this phenomenon till date, at least in the Indian context.

Online Matrimonial Sites: Greater Agency for Women?

Has increased access among younger Indians to use digital technology changed power equations with regards to who has more control over the contents of matrimonial ads? Has such change in power dynamics affected how women’s bodies are depicted in such ads? While some recent studies have attempted to examine this question, they have largely been for trade journals or newspapers. Rodrigues’s (2015) news article for instance, had several examples of women who speak about how their skin was used to market their marriageability. One of them recalled how she was told by two different men that her proposal was rejected because of her dark skin.

Again, Myers, Madathil, & Tingle’s (2005) survey of married women living in India and the 31 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

U.S., while examining how ‘love grew’ in arranged marriages, did not look specifically at the role of colorism as a mediating factor in arranged marriages. Similarly, in their study on mate selection in modern India, Banerjee, Duflo, Ghatak, & Lafortune (2013) surveyed Indian men and women who published matrimonial ads in the state of West Bengal to conclude that caste of the bride or groom was the most highly valued attribute and most-mentioned in matrimonial ads.

They too did not study how women’s bodies, specifically their skin-tone, were depicted in these ads, apart from one sentence where they report: “75 percent of those surveyed mention skin- tone” at some point in the advertisement (p. 25).

Some studies have looked at how particular matrimonial websites work, their structures and implications of such formations. For example, Mishra, Monippally, & Jayakar (2012) looked at Shaadi to note: “Most of the profiles on Shaadi were ‘seeker’ type profiles with people filling out more details about themselves than elaborating on what they were looking for in a prospective spouse. Often, expectations from a future spouse were left blank or marked ‘doesn’t matter’” (p. 50). Somasundaram (2013) described Indian matrimonial sites such as Shaadi as an

“ideal blend between Indian traditional systems and modern technology has made it possible for

Indian bachelors and spinsters around the world and explore and find themselves the perfect match for life” (p. 404). On the other hand, Dwivedi (2015) looked at three online Indian matrimonial sites ‘to provide reliable and sound information with which to identify how modern technology corresponds to societal traditions” (p. 133). This study found, “Even with the online technology the customs and traditions remain intact” (p. 142) and interestingly, also found that women are hesitant about stating that they post their own matrimonial advertisements because they might be considered morally deficient in such cases: “Mostly, the women’s accounts 32 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

provide information that they are created by friends, parents, and relatives irrespective of the fact that they have created it” (p. 142).

Lundy et al. (2014), in their study, found that around seven percent of Indians—on average—use various online websites to seek matrimonial alliances. Their research yielded the finding that cultural norms prevalent in society exude a strong influence on the design and structure of these websites.

Role of Indian Advertisements in Reinforcing Colorism

There has been much research conducted on the role of advertisement in perpetuating ideals that a marriageable Indian woman should possess; such as the “messages of skewed, culturally narrow, standards of beauty, wealth, and success” (Subramanian & Jain, 2009, p. 266) that some studies found. Muralidharan (2016) argued that there has been public censure of fairness creams and certain women's groups as well as celebrities have endorsed campaigns that are geared towards destabilizing the power of ads that equate fairness of skin with beauty. In summing up his study, the researcher stated, “In the light of slowly changing perceptions of beauty and governmental intervention in unison with self-regulation by the mass media, India appears to be on the path of breaking from the shackles of its insecurities and racial biases” (p.

285). It has been stated in the previous chapter how seminal works (e.g., Parameswaran &

Cardoza, 2009) have looked at effects of product advertisement, and how movies and other forms of popular culture have played important roles through the years in perpetuating colorism in India.

Pathak (2015) studied colorism in Indian TV advertisements and also looked at how the

Indian film industry, celebrities, the advertising council guidelines and other channels are 33 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

working towards ending colorism in various outlets across the Indian media. She found that this is a “multimillion-dollar industry that panders to those obsessed with achieving a lighter skin tone, but India's advertising standards authorities have now stepped in to make sure its ads are, well, fair” (p. 61). In an important finding, this study also noted, “The Advertising Standards

Council of India (ASCI)—which regulates print, radio and TV ads—issued guidelines this month

[May 2015] to ensure that ads do not discriminate against darker-skinned people when it comes to dating, finding a spouse, securing a job or getting a promotion” (p. 61). However, Pathak

(2015) did not look at how the particular instances where matrimonial platforms themselves print/present advertisements that call for an end to colorism therein, as I focused on in my thesis research. I refer here to two instances: First, a YouTube video, presented by Shaadi, which is a call against using the term ‘fair’ to highlight a prospective bride and other biases that emerge upon close inspection of matrimonial ads. Second, a print ad published by The Times of India

Matrimonials, where the media company acknowledged its duplicity in continuing to promote physical descriptions over educational qualifications of a prospective bride and calls for an end to the practice in no uncertain terms.

To elaborate on this, I have noted that these two ads have been instrumental in the final shape this thesis research has taken. I refer to the two particular advertisements—one in each media, online and offline—by two of the biggest sites where matrimonial ads are placed. The first one is the print ad, carried out by The Times of India (TOI), the world’s largest selling

English language newspaper with a very popular matrimonial section. The ad was headlined:

Apologies to a country that only wants beautiful, fair girls. TOI clearly acknowledged its complicity in giving preference to the physical attributes of a woman over her educational qualifications in the language of the matrimonial ads and called for changes to the format of such 34 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

ads. It must be noted that TOI has been around for 178 years, and such an ad was a first for the brand.

The second advertisement I refer to is in the online space, titled A Brown Girl's Guide to

Beauty: #WantedFairBridesAndGrooms. It was presented by Shaadi, which calls itself “the world’s No. 1 matchmaking service”; and the “No. 1 Indian matrimonial service in India”

(Shaadi, 2018). The company was started in 1997, but the ad I am referring to was published 20 years later, on July 7, 2017. It was presented in poetry format by a woman stating love comes in all “shades and sizes”.

Guiding Questions

The findings of several previous studies and extensive readings and re-readings of reviewed literature led to certain broad questions that I sought to examine in this thesis. Some scholars have addressed issues regarding colorism in the Indian context—impact and usage in advertisements and matrimonial websites (for e.g., Parmeswaran & Cardoza, 2009; Jha &

Adelman, 2009; Pathak, 2015; Harris, 2015); social implications of skin tone bias (for e.g.,

Hunter, 2007; Jones, 2013; Mishra, 2015; Nadeem, 2014); the interplay of arranged marriage and colorism (for e.g., Gupta, 1976; Jayaram, 2015; Lee, 2013); and specific studies pertaining to the matrimonial websites under purview in this thesis too (for e.g., Utley & Darity, 2016; Tandon,

2017; Sethi, 2008). As I read through these articles, and many more that I have recorded extensively earlier in this document, I felt a growing sense of urgency to understand whether the passage of years since my close encounter with the issue—during the arranged marriage negotiations I witnessed for my cousins—had wrought any changes to the way in which women’s skin tones were depicted in Indian matrimonial ads. With the opening up of the 35 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

worldwide web and access to greater perceived agency for women themselves, had they rooted out colorism as and where they could? I had always felt that if I had to take the arranged marriage route myself and had the choice of uploading my profile on the internet, I would choose a site that suited my belief that no man or woman should be judged by their skin tone, especially from the start of a relationship as sacred as marriage. Thereafter, during the process of creating my profile, if I encountered issues of colorism, I would not stand for it. Indeed, I was thus looking for how women’s agency is managed by the prospective brides who are seeking a spouse on Indian matrimonial websites.

Therefore, the main guiding question for this study was: how autonomy is mobilized by women today when dealing with the issue of colorism in online Indian matrimonial ads. In exerting or not exerting autonomy over the content of such ads, are women reinforcing a certain form of patriarchy through the continued usage of terms such as fair, in their ad profiles? In all cases analyzed, are the women showing proclivity to challenge the status quo of how matrimonial ads are worded? Or is the Indian caste/racial system being reinforced through covert colorism in these ads? Finally, I looked at what direction/shift the ads are going in today, as evidenced by the sample I selected for this study.

Summary

To recap, Chapter II comprises the historical overview of my research topic. I started this chapter by looking at colorism as a global phenomenon, then narrowed the field down to the

Indian context. I then looked at extant research on matrimonial ads and how colorism plays out in them. I took cognizance of the works of scholars in all these; then looked at how research on colorism in India has evolved. Once again narrowing this down to the context of matrimonial 36 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

ads, I also noted studies on the role of advertisement in perpetuating colorism. This brought me to two recent ads in India that I perceive as calling out against colorism; these were placed in the context of my research as I argued that they have played a pivotal role in shaping my understanding of the topic.

37 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

CHAPTER III: METHOD

For the purpose of this study, I used textual analysis and cyber ethnography as research tools.

According to Hsieh and Shannon (2005), “qualitative content analysis is defined as a research method for the subjective interpretation of the content of text data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns” (p. 1278). Since my study used grounded theory, I decided to use the summative approach to my textual analysis:

“Typically, a study using a summative approach to qualitative content analysis starts with identifying and quantifying certain words or content in text with the purpose of understanding the contextual use of the words or content. This quantification is an attempt not to infer meaning but, rather, to explore usage” (p. 1283).

Further, as Fairclough (2003) explained, “Textual analysis is also inevitably selective: in any analysis, we choose to ask certain questions about social events and texts, and not other possible questions” (p. 14). In analyzing the matrimonial ads, I have focused my attention on colorism and issues pertaining to it, as well as to the identity of the person posting the ad, and how the two are interlinked, if at all. These arise out of my guiding questions, which I have mentioned earlier. Further, Fairclough asserted, “Textual analysis is a valuable supplement to social research, not a replacement for other forms of social research and analysis” (p. 16). Thus, I also conducted in-depth interviews to arrive at possible explanations of colorism in Indian matrimonial ads. 38 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Ethnography has been defined as “a long-term involvement amongst people, through a variety of methods, such that any one aspect of their life can be properly contextualized in others" (Miller & Slater, 2000, p.22). Taking this definition forward, cyber-ethnography is a study of online interaction where the medium or platform allows the subjects being studied to talk back even as the process is occurring (Gajjala & Altman, 2004).

Cyber ethnography also sometimes referred to as netnography (Kozinets, 2002), is a research methodology that reconceptualizes the traditional notion of a site. In cyberspace, the field or site of a study is relatively free of location and space. As internet access grows globally, along with it the use of the internet to conduct all types of work, the need to study human behavior in cyberspace has grown as well, especially to understand how power works online, and how cultural identities are formed, negotiated, challenged, and reinforced online (Keeley-

Browne, 2011).

The study of cyberculture is a growing area of research, and ethnography is one of the main research tools used in studying cybercultures (Bell, 2001). In conventional ethnography- based studies a researcher is immersed in the community they wish to study, gains familiarity with members of the local community, and participates in routine activities. In this manner, an ethnographer may gain deep insight into the lived experiences of people being studied. These interactions and observations are almost always face-to-face.

In cyberethnography, such interactions between researcher and subject may be multifaceted. While some social settings may be face-to-face, in most others the ethnography

(observations, conversations) is computer mediated where the Internet is the site of ethnography.

In many works of cyber ethnography, the researcher is expected to observe the interaction on a particular website to gain a holistic understanding of internet culture (Ward, 1999). In the 39 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

present study, I have used cyber ethnography to observe the interactions and commentaries on two matrimonial websites to understand if and how digital platforms give agency to women who are seeking a life partner through online matrimonial advertisements.

Using Textual Analysis & Cyber Ethnography

Good, meaningful research should ideally contribute to theory building. For this study, I used the grounded theory method to gain deeper insights into how Critical Race Theory may be applied in multi-ethnic but mono racial cultures, such as India. In a grounded theory approach,

“theory may be generated initially from the data, or, if existing (grounded) theories seem appropriate to the area of investigation, then these may be elaborated and modified as incoming data are meticulously played against them” (Strauss & Corbin, 1994, p. 273). In other words, it is a method where theory emerges from data and is grounded in it (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). For this study, I observed how prospective brides, grooms, and their families depicted women’s bodies, or sought specific qualities in women in online matrimonial ads (cyberspace), engaged in in-depth interviews with four women, and conducted textual analysis of both the advertisements and the interviews to inform, contribute to, and develop theory.

As stated earlier, CRT acknowledges that perceived group memberships can make some individuals or groups vulnerable to various forms of bias (Crenshaw, 1995). Textual analyses of the online matrimonial advertisements and in-depth interviews with people who had arranged marriages, helped me analyze if colorism continues to be overt and favor lighter skin over darker skin (Gomez, 2008) on online platforms. Further presence or absence of colorism in such ads helped me understand whether such practices continue to be institutionalized (Burton, Bonilla-

Silva, Ray, Buckelew, & Hordge-Freeman, 2010) and negotiated based on a group’s own social 40 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

interests (Ward & Robinson-Wood, 2016), or whether digital technology has given agency to hitherto marginalized members within the household. In other words, qualitative analysis of data builds a better understanding of the application of CRT in different cultural settings.

Procedure

Initially, I randomly selected 20 particular profiles to study across two Indian matrimonial websites, Shaadi and Bharat Matrimony. I have explained the process by which I looked at these 20 profiles in details hereafter. On Shaadi, I registered a male profile, seeking a bride. As a prospective groom, I was able to understand first-hand how the male gender had to negotiate the space, as well as view the profiles of registered prospective brides—to see how they handled the issue of skin complexion depiction in their ads. On Bharat Matrimony, I registered as a potential bride to see for myself the process that a woman/her family has to go through to register the profile. Thus, the responses I got here were from males (prospective grooms). On both sites, I looked at the first five profiles in order to eliminate any selection bias.

Some weeks later, I revisited both sites and again looked at the first five profiles on each website—to arrive at the final 20 profiles (10 for each) I studied. The time gap helped me read my first set of data and revisit site even as I started the process of coding. Also, this removed to a certain extent the effect of any external agency on my data (such as perhaps a news incident that could impact matrimonial ads being posted, or technology-related issues within the websites being studied that might have affected matrimonial posts at the time I visited the site to collect the data). I reiterate here what Charmaz (1996) stated in her explanation of grounded theory:

“Grounded theorists aim to analyze processes in their data and thus aim to move away from static analyses. Our emphasis on what people are doing also leads to understanding multiple 41 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

layers of meanings of their actions... Throughout the research process, looking at action in relation to meaning helps the researcher to obtain thick description and to develop categories” (p.

35). Thus, the action I looked at in the matrimonial ads was of words used to describe the prospective brides. Further, as Charmaz (1996) noted, “qualitative grounded theory coding means creating the codes as you study your data” (p. 37). As I closely read and re-read the ads, I found that “Coding is the pivotal link between collecting data and developing an emergent theory to explain these data” (p. 37).

I first gave each profile an alphabetical code to protect the identity of the member. Each profile on these websites comes with a user ID that is visible; since this is not important to my study and may have caused identification issues, I ignored it. I also created a color key to code the data into particular categories after careful reading and re-reading of each of the profiles. The color-coding and close readings of the ads helped me raise the codes into six categories for my research. For this purpose, I used the grounded theory step of memo writing, which helped me develop the processes, suppositions and movements that were contained within my codes

(Charmaz, 1996). The memo writing also helped me delve further into my data and move beyond the individual ads posted to search for emergent patterns within my study. It also led me straight to theoretical sampling—gathering more data to strengthen my ideas that would ultimately aid me in tying it all in together into a coherent, meaning-making fold. The purpose, as informed by

Charmaz (1996), was to develop my emerging theory; thus, I conducted my in-depth interviews of four women who had arranged marriages and asked them questions regarding how they felt about the process, colorism in Indian ads etc. After the first round of coding and analysis, I found that though the men who were posting ads seeking brides did not usually mention fair skin as a requirement (only two of the 10 profiles sought a fair bride), the women did record their skin 42 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

tone in the ads. Since I realized that the format of Shaadi led to this selection, I once again registered on Bharat Matrimony with a new profile to check what the women were posting.

Therefore, through the process of working with grounded theory, I looked at 10 other profiles on

Bharat Matrimony—this time as a man seeking a bride to see what the women were posting about themselves. I was “much concerned with discovering process—not necessarily in the sense of stages or phases, but of reciprocal changes in patterns of action/interaction and in relationship with changes of conditions either internal or external” (Strauss & Corbin, 1994, p. 278). I wanted to understand whether the fact that men were not actively mentioning the word fair to seek a matrimonial alliance led to the women not using skin complexion as a factor in their descriptions. As Charmaz (1996) noted, “Theoretical sampling helps you to fill out your categories, to discover variation within them and to define gaps between them. Theoretical sampling relies on comparative methods. Through using comparative methods, you can define the properties of your categories and specify the conditions under which they are linked to other categories. In this way, you raise your categories to concepts in your emerging theory” (p. 45).

Thus, my final sample studied was of 30 ads.

Indian Matrimonial Websites

There are a number of matrimonial websites that a basic Google search yields upon typing the keywords, Indian matrimonial websites. According to Shako (2004), “These websites play the role of mediator, introducing potential marriage partners to one another in a way that an actual person would have done in a traditional South Asian village context” (p. 58). For this thesis, I chose two of these—Bharat Matrimony and Shaadi—because the functions and functioning of most of the well-established websites are similar. In a study that looked at Indian 43 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

matrimonial websites, Titzmann (2011) noted, “The online matrimonial market is led by three main websites: Shaadi, Bharat Matrimony.com, and Jeevansathi.com, of which Shaadi claims the highest number of users and successful matches. Shaadi’s biggest competitor is Bharat

Matrimony.com, which has developed a different business strategy with regional affiliations” (p.

241). Since previous research had noted that these two are both well-known in India and within the Indian Diaspora, I felt satisfied in looking at these two websites. Moreover, both companies have been around for many years.

Writing in New York Magazine, Jain (2005) explained how matrimonial websites function, “Far from being a novel approach to matrimony, these sites are a natural extension of how things have been done in India for decades. Even since well before the explosion of the country’s famously vibrant press in the fifties, Indians were coupling up via matrimonial ads in national papers”. I now provide detailed descriptions of each of the two websites and explain how I navigated their pages to arrive at my data.

Bharat Matrimony

Bharat Matrimony was started in 2001 and is a preeminent online matchmaking service and boasts websites, mobile sites as well as mobile apps to aid the search for a spouse in India and among the Indian Diaspora. The company also has 140 offline retail centers in various parts of India. It was ranked “as India's most trusted online matrimony brand by The Brand Trust

Report India Study 2014” (Hindi Matrimony, 2014) in 2015. Bharat Matrimony comprises 15 language-based domains, and has a number of personalized services, such as Assisted

Matrimony, Elite Matrimony, Community Matrimony, Matrimony Directory, Matrimony

Photography and Matrimony Bazaar. 44 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

The website is easy to navigate and creating a profile page does not take long. It starts with the Name (there is no scope of checking whether the name is real or fictitious). Some details culled from information you provide are placed at the very top of the page. If you upload a photo/s, that shows up on the top left side of the page. If you do not upload any photo, this message may pop up on your screen every time you log in:

“Photos are the first thing that prospects look at.

Add your photo and get 10 times more responses!”

You have to provide a cellphone number that the company verifies. Till this step is done, profile cannot be created. A unique member ID (alphanumerical) is also provided to your mail inbox after successful cellphone number verification. Thereafter the longer descriptions begin, starting with: In my own words. Here, you can write anything about yourself, what you are hoping to find in a spouse, any details of your life that a prospective spouse should know before they start scrolling down. Some people get very creative in this section, some are candid, and some cram it in with glowing praise for those they are placing the ad for. This last usually is done by parents/family elders/siblings of the bride.

This is followed by Basic details. This section includes the following:

Profile created for (you have to choose one): My Self, Relative, Friend, Daughter, Sister

Body type/complexion: Since this was my main area of interest, I looked at this part with greater care. The options to select from in Complexion are Very Fair, Fair, Wheatish, Wheatish Brown,

Dark. For Body type, the options are Slim, Athletic, Average, Heavy. 45 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

The other details that can be filled in include eating, smoking, drinking habits; height, weight, age, marital status. Next is the section on Religion information: This includes religion, caste, sub caste, time of birth. This is followed by details of Bride’s location, and then

Professional information. Thereafter comes Family details. This includes Family Value:

Orthodox/Traditional/Moderate/Liberal; Family Type: Joint Family/Nuclear Family/Others;

Family Status: Middle Class/Upper Middle Class/Rich/Affluent.

Next comes About my family: Here, you can write any descriptive text. In his study of

South Asian matrimonial websites, Shako (2004) found that the filters and descriptive texts point towards certain patterns regarding the family background of the prospective bride or groom:

“Most of these distinctions are based upon the cultural, religious, or ethnic characteristics of an individual and evidently they allow the users of these matrimonial websites to filter through all of the available profiles and determine levels of compatibility not only on a one to one basis, but also compatibility of families. The notion of compatibility of families is very much embedded the traditional structure of partner selection, where individuals are introduced to one another primarily because the mediator believes the families are of similar background and hold similar values” (pp. 58-59).

After the family details, you come to the Lifestyle section which includes Hobbies &

Interests, Favorite music, Sports/Fitness activities, and Spoken languages. Once these are done, the page directs you to Partner preference options. These include Groom's Age, Height, Marital status, Physical Status, Eating, smoking, drinking habits, Religion, Mother Tongue, Caste, Star,

Professional, and location preferences. 46 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Bharat Matrimony also offers a number of profile enhancers and states: “Enhance your profile to make it more lively and compelling! Connect your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles to your matrimony account and respectively exchange career details with your prospects, find out if you share similar hobbies and interests, discover mutual friends with them and so on” (Hindi

Matrimony).

The Latest updates (profile views, requests from prospective members), New matches,

Profiles you might also be interested in, Mutual matches, Who shortlisted your profile, Who viewed your phone no., all show up on the home screen. There is the option of round-the-clock online help too, should someone need any help navigating the pages and profiles. Any time someone checks your profile, you are sent an email from the company. Such emails mention the basic details of the profiles that showed an interest and urge you to read more and take due action.

How I Did it

To understand exactly how a prospective bride or groom navigates a matrimonial website, how respondents review a profile, how matches are sought and, crucially and ultimately, how colorism is manifest on such websites, I created a profile for myself on Bharat

Matrimony.com. In this section, I have explained the steps I followed in creating and uploading my profile and how I managed my profile.

I had been looking at matrimonial websites since I started graduate school to find out whether instances of skin tone depiction were visible or not, prior to finalizing my research topic.

Once I saw a number of profiles that mentioned skin tone of a prospective bride or groom, I wanted to understand the matter from closer quarters and, therefore, wanted to see for myself 47 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

how the process of creating a profile worked on this website. In his review of Indian websites,

Singhal (2012) noted, “Studies have revealed that 23% of the customers quit even before they register themselves at a particular site because they hesitate to register themselves” (p. 7). I thus wanted to look at registered profiles only, and since I was seeking to view full matching profiles,

I created a female profile. I did not upload any profile photo, and so a placeholder was put up by the website—a headshot of a woman with black hair. I had to give my mobile number, and once the company had verified it, I received an email that said I was now at liberty to complete my profile. The fact that the only verification the platform employees were particular about was that

I was a real person and had a phone number where I could be contacted at reveals that the platform producers and owners were not concerned with verifying the marital status or gender of the users. This in itself should be indication that the platform and those maintaining the platform merely facilitate connections—they are not concerned with the social or cultural aspects of relationships sought even though the platform is set up for the fostering of relationships. Yet, the contradiction here lies in that the website design is preformatted such that socio-cultural preferences may be filled in by the customers in the hope they are able to secure a suitable marital match. I was provided with a member ID and had to put in a password. I checked on the menu option noting that I created the profile for myself. The top half of the page listed me as 27

Yrs; 5 Ft 1 In / 155 Cms; No Religious Belief; living in United States of America. Education qualifications are listed and the employment status I chose was: “Not working”. In the descriptive section, I wrote: I am a fun-loving independent spirited woman and am currently looking for job opportunities in the US after completion of my degree. I am seeking a life partner who values integrity, honesty, family values and love of life above all else. 48 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

For my Basic details, I was not required to choose an option under the category

Complexion. However, I did fill in height, age, mother tongue, food and drink preferences, and smoking habits. I also checked the never married option for my marital status. I did not click on any of the options for Religious information; or for Caste/Sub caste.

In addition, I filled in details about my family; Family Values as liberal; Father's Status:

Retired; Family Type: Nuclear; Mother's Status: Homemaker; and Family Status: Upper middle class. I did not write any descriptive text for the family but filled in details for the Lifestyle section: Hobbies & Interests: Cooking, Nature, Traveling; Favorite Music: Film songs;

Sports/Fitness Activities: Cricket, Badminton; Spoken Languages: English, Hindi.

According to the website, the Partner preference field includes: “Preferred Age, Marital

Status, Height, Physical Status, Religion, Caste, Manglik, Eating Habits, Mother Tongue,

Country Living In, Citizenship and Education makes your basic partner preference, based on which you will receive daily matches. Profiles that match all the fields below will be tagged as

“Preferred Match” in the mailers and across the site” (Hindi Matrimony). I made certain selections here, because these would preferences would be used by the website to come up with matches for my profile. I made sure at this stage that I paid attention to my ethnographic notes from earlier work and clicked preference that were commensurate with that of the bride profile I had created. These were: Height: 5 Ft 1 In - 6 Ft 1 In / 154 Cms - 186 Cms; Marital status: Never married; Physical Status: Normal; Eating Habits: Non-Vegetarian; Smoking Habits: Never smokes; Drinking Habits: Drinks socially; Religion: Any Religion; Mother Tongue: Hindi;

Caste: Any Caste; Star: Any Star. I did not click anything for professional or location preferences or write any descriptive text for a suitable groom. 49 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

It is interesting to note here that since I clicked Hindi as mother tongue, I was redirected to Hindi Matrimony. So, this filter was automatically applied by the company as a means to narrow down my search accordingly. I was not asked at any point whether I would have liked to seek a match from someone who does not speak Hindi, or whose mother tongue is not Hindi.

Thus, every time I log on to the website and my profile, I am automatically redirected to Hindi

Matrimony. Further, since I mentioned any caste for the prospective groom, I was redirected— again, automatically—to Any Caste Matrimony. So, a filter was once again applied without checking with me, so that many matches that propped up later were from people who had also not clicked any preference for caste.

In describing the function and role of website in matchmaking in India, Titzmann (2011) noted, “The sheer fact that millions of profiles containing personal information are accessible via the internet proves how significant medialisation is. The media permeate very intimate and personal domains, thus becoming part of social change” (p. 239). This is evident in how my personal domains were breached due to the sharing of my mobile number on the website—a prerequisite to becoming a registered member of Bharat Matrimony.

Shaadi

Shaadi was founded in 1996 and calls itself “the world's oldest and most successful matchmaking service” (Shaadi). You have to register on the website and once this is successfully done, you are given a unique ID (alphanumerical) and have to log in using this ID and a password that you have set up. You can upload up to five photos to go with your Shaadi profile.

Once you log in as a member, you will see a notification menu on the top right-hand corner of your page. Here, you can view notifications for new interest, request or personalized 50 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

message, as well as when someone responds to your request. The Dashboard is like the epicenter of all profile activities and showcases in a simple manner New Matches, My Matches, and

Recent Profile Visitors. To make the search for a prospective spouse as hassle-free as possible, the Shaadi website comes with more than 15 search clusters to fine tune results. Some of these clusters are “Photo Settings, Marital Status, Religion, Education, Profession, Country, Lifestyle choices such as—Diet, Drinking / Smoking, etc. Use these filters to enhance your partner search experience and get closer to your match” (Shaadi).

The company also has a free mobile app service, so you can complete your profile and search from a computer or mobile phone. Like Bharat Matrimony, here too there is mobile phone number verification. The website offers certain Trust Badges that can be received by uploading a government-issued/approved ID proof. This ID is not shared with anyone else; the badge is proof enough that this has been vetted. You get one Trust Badge when your mobile phone number is verified.

Personal profile begins with basic information that is picked and placed next to the photo from among your responses to the guided descriptors throughout the profile set up operation.

It starts with Profile created by: Self, Parent/Guardian, Sibling, Friend, Other.

This is followed by gender, date of birth, marital status, height, body type, body weight, health information (ailments), skin tone, any disability, and blood group. Since my particular interest with this research was on skin tone, I looked at this field with care and found that you have to specify skin tone; profile remains incomplete if you do not do so. I will return and refer to this in later sections of the study. The options are Very Fair, Fair, Wheatish, Dark. 51 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Next comes religious background information, such as religion, mother tongue, and community. Thereafter, family details are to be filled up, including parents’ status, family values, type, affluence levels—and you can add descriptive text here to add to the pre-loaded fields too.

There are astro details to be filled in next, followed by the education and career fields. This includes Education, College Attended, Employer Name, Annual Income (You can mention the amount and then seek to keep it private).

This is followed by the Lifestyle section, which includes eating, smoking, drinking habits; thereafter details pertaining to the geographical location need to be mentioned, including residency status and ethnic origin. The More about yourself, Partner and family section is a space where you can write descriptive text and the website notes: “This section will help you make a strong impression on your potential partner. So, express yourself… This section will be screened every time you update it. Allow up to 24 hours for it to go live” (Shaadi). Here, you can write up to 8,000 words; and the company also provides its help to write it, if needed.

There are options to connect with a profile that holds your interest by sending an email, posting on that person’s wall, via chat rooms, or by calling or sending text messages. Such action options are an integral part to seeking matrimonial alliances via websites such as Shaadi. In their literature review on the computer as a mediating force in arranged marriages, Maclaran,

Broderick, Takhar, & Parsons (2007) found, “this medium is being used very satisfactorily to establish relationships that can move into the offline world… [previous research] findings suggest that the online environment facilitates a more protracted communication and flirtation stage than in the offline environment, and that people often spend longer getting to know each other mentally, as opposed to physically” (p. 60). When searching for a suitable match, you can 52 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

do various types of searches by using filters such as Age, Height, Marital status, Religion,

Community, Mother tongue and Education & Profession Details. In explaining the site of their study—Shaadi—and how a particular Indian community uses it, Maclaran et al., (2007) observed: “The fact that multiple potential partners can be screened, with extensive background information readily available, makes the site very attractive to them and they see it as assisting them in their parental duties” (p. 61).

How I Did it

I set up my Shaadi profile at the same time as the one for Bharat Matrimony. Since I had created a female profile for the other website, I chose to make a male profile on Shaadi. This way, since on one website I could look at profiles and partner preferences of prospective brides, on the other website I could look at the same parameters from the other side—that of prospective grooms. I chose the name M Sen, and after successful registration, was allocated a user name and put in my password. I did not upload any photograph.

I selected Sibling for the option to Profile created by, from the dropdown menu. As previously explained, I clicked the male gender here, never married for marital status. For the others, I put height: 177 cm; body type: average. I did not click anything for body weight or health information. Again, as I have previously stated, I had to click on one option for skin tone from the dropdown menu options: Very Fair/Fair/Wheatish/Dark. I clicked Fair, because this is what my topic is about. I clicked none for disabilities and did not fill in a blood group.

For Religious background, I did not click anything for religion, community, sub- community; however, I did click mother tongue: Bengali. For Family information, I clicked retired for father's status; and homemaker for mother's status. I kept the rest here blank. I had 53 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

chosen the student option on Bharat Matrimony, but to allow matches from a different spectrum—and indeed allow more responses for an employed groom—in the education & career section, I chose the following—Education: Doctorate in Architecture; Working with: Private company; Working As: Architect; Annual Income: $100K-$125K, but chose to keep this private.

Under Lifestyle, I clicked non-veg for diet; drinks: occasionally; and smokes: no. I put in my current location for the Location of Groom section. Again, I put in a short descriptive text at the end—Educated, well-mannered and charming young man looking for a suitable bride—to see if there is a difference such text brings about, and to do something different from the Bharat

Matrimony profile.

For partner preferences, I chose the age range of 26 to 31 years; height: 5' 1'' to 5' 10''; marital status: never married; religion: doesn't matter; mother tongue: doesn't matter; country living in: India/USA/UK/Canada; state living in: doesn't matter; country grew up in:

Canada/India/USA; kept education and professional options blank, as well as other personal details blank too.

In-depth Interviews

Inductive in-depth interviewing techniques help scholars observe and record unique perspectives or experience that emerge out of conversations with respondents with regards to a particular issue. The questions in in-depth interviews are usually open-ended and the discussion is conversational in nature. In the case of this study, I prepared a semi-structured questionnaire for the interviews, since my study aimed to glean insights into a few specific issues. The conversational approach allows respondents or subjects to provide a first-person account without being interrupted or guided. This gives the interviewer an opportunity to fully understand the 54 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

positionality of the respondent (Lindlof & Taylor, 2011). In this phase of the study therefore, I used the results of the textual analysis to frame questions for respondents—married Indian women who have found their life partners through matrimonial ads.

Interview Settings and Tools

During the in-depth interviews, I specifically asked why these women agreed to their complexion being mentioned in the ads, how they felt about it then and how they feel about the issue now, and if they wish to suggest any steps or actions for those people posting such ads at present. The in-depth interviews were conducted with four women who had arranged marriages and found their partners through matrimonial advertisements. I asked open-ended questions to understand their feelings about skin complexion being an important attribute in deciding a woman’s marriageability.

I first made calls to all four prospective interviewees. In each case, I explained in detail what the project is all about, why I wanted to interview them, and explained the IRB

(Institutional Review Board) process. The IRB used for this thesis was part of a larger project I was working on with my thesis advisor; since my particular focus is an offshoot of that bigger project. I also stated clearly that their identities would not be revealed at any stage since I would be using pseudonyms.

I used basic recording devices to record my interviews. I also had a notebook handy to take down certain points that I would like to reference later, especially noting the particular gestures of my interviewees. This later translated into my memos and were critical during the coding process. 55 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

I asked each of my interviewees to recollect the exact wording of their matrimonial ads, and it was interesting to note that none of them could remember the exact words—though they said it had been very important at that time.

My interview guide was my questions, and the care I took not to ask any leading questions—neither questions with yes/no answers, nor questions where I gave them an option to choose from multiple responses. This also helped the conversational style flow through.

Participant Selection

The four interviewees were selected as a convenience sample—four women who acknowledged that they had arranged marriages while living in India and found their future husbands via matrimonial ads. All the women are currently in their late 30s or early 40s, married, and live in the United States with their family. They were all asked similar questions in semi- structured interviews, such as: You had an arranged marriage where your parents placed ads in newspapers. Do you recall the wording of the ad?; What was your reaction to the use of the term

‘fair’ in describing your physical attributes?; How important do you feel mentioning your fairness level was, in context of who you are?; And looking back, how do you react to similar ads that use the term ‘fair’?

Interview Data Analysis

In keeping with Rakow and Wackwitz’s (2004) model of representation, voice and difference as the three main themes of feminist communication theory, this study looked at how women are represented in matrimonial ads, the obstacles these create, the manner in which their voices are silenced in matrimonial ads, and explored how they feel about colorism in matrimonial ads. Feminist theory is also explanatory and polyvocal, meaning that it is generated 56 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

by multiple voices and experiences, with different interpretations of reality (Rakow & Wackwitz,

2004). Here, I recall once again what Charmaz (1996) noted in her study, “qualitative grounded theory coding means creating the codes as you study your data” (p. 37). As I closely read and re- read the ads, I found that, “Coding is the pivotal link between collecting data and developing an emergent theory to explain these data” (p. 37). This also helped me reach the final emergent themes and connect with the data from the two websites.

Researcher Location

I was born and brought up in India, where I lived for more than three decades. I started my professional career as a journalist there and have worked in four metropolitan cities of the country. Through all those years, I have witnessed family members, friends and colleagues choose the arranged marriage route to find their life partners. Most of them used a matrimonial platform to aid their quest to find a spouse; and I was witness to the processes as they unfolded.

Thus, I have observed how certain families go about selecting which words to put in to create a matrimonial profile, which photos to upload (if any), what they decide to focus on as criteria for prospective spouse profiles to shortlist candidates, and even till the final match is made and the marriage solemnized. Since I have always found myself questioning the point of mentioning skin tone of the woman during some of these processes, I am biased—as a researcher—towards issues related to colorism in these cases. I have kept careful cognizance of this bias throughout my study and have coded the data strictly according to what it contained. During the in-depth interviews of the four women, I used open-ended questions with a semi-structured format in order to reduce chances of researcher bias seeping into the conversation and ending up guiding 57 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

the answers of my respondents. Any follow-up questions that I asked them all flowed from their responses, thus leading to rich data that was not influenced by my biases.

Summary

In sum, Chapter III contains details of the methods and procedure I have employed in this thesis. I have enumerated how and why textual analysis fits my research agenda as well as the second tool of in-depth interviews that I employed to gather data. I have expounded in detail how the two Indian matrimonial websites under study were chosen; and how I negotiated the process of registering my profiles therein to gather data. The importance of grounded theory as a method that best suited my textual analysis has also been stated in this chapter.

58 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS & RESULTS

Analysis of Shaadi Profiles

As mentioned earlier, I copied and printed a total of 10 advertisements on Shaadi, where I was registered as a user. In what follows, I have looked at 10 profiles of prospective brides that I collected over two days.

I first assigned an alphabetical code to each profile in order to protect the identity of the member. Thus, for Shaadi, the profiles were: NJ, DK, J, R, DD, TC, PB, PY, JD, and L. The categories that emerged—and the color keys I chose—were: Profile creator (yellow),

Educational/professional qualifications (aqua), Lifestyle values (lavender), Traditional cultural values (green), Physical descriptions (bottle green), Skin tone (light green), Profile created by

(yellow).

Profile Creator

The first profile, that of NJ, had her photo uploaded and had been created by a parent. The profiles of DK, J, TC, and R had also been created by a parent, while those of DD,

PB, PYB and L were created by self. Of the 10 profiles analyzed, only JD’s had been created by a sibling. Words such as “I belong to”, “I am looking for”, “I am”, “M” (shortened form of I am),

“I am here to”, “I love”, and even “Welcome to my profile” were used to highlight the personal pronoun of the creator of the ads, viz. “Self”. Interestingly, although JD’s profile stated it is created by sibling, all the descriptions use the term “I”, indicating that the writer was the bride herself. This is in keeping with previous research I noted in my review of literature—Dwivedi

(2015) had found that women are hesitant about stating that they post their own matrimonial advertisements because they might be considered morally deficient in such cases: “Mostly, the 59 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

women’s accounts provide information that they are created by friends, parents, and relatives irrespective of the fact that they have created it” (p. 142).

Educational & Professional Qualifications

The descriptive text for NJ comprised only professional and educational information.

There were no descriptions of physical appearance here at all. Her family’s educational and professional qualifications were also mentioned in detail here. DK’s profile description also dealt with her and her family’s educational and professional qualifications. There were no physical or other descriptions here. However, J’s profile brought in her professional qualifications, and that of her family, towards the middle of the text, while in the case of R, her student status was highlighted here. DD’s profile itself was quite short, and her profession (“teacher”) mentioned once, right at the outset. She did not come back to this later. L referred to herself as “Software

Developer/Programmer”, while PYB noted: “Bachelors degree in Travel & Tourism; Air Hostess

/ Flight Attendant with a private company”. Some of the profiles had income mentioned, such as

DD: “Earns up to INR 1 Lakh annually”. Some of the profiles listed an annual income preference of a prospective groom; such as NJ: “Annual Income: Above INR 7 lakhs/Above PKR 20 lakhs/Above GBP 20,000”; PB: “Annual Income: Above INR 4 lakhs”; and PYB: “Annual

Income: INR 10 lakhs to 20 lakhs”. These preferred incomes were never less than what the woman is shown to be earning.

Lifestyle Values The lifestyle descriptors offered by Shaadi via a dropdown menu—that may or may not be selected—were answered by all profiles. Four selected “Doesn’t drink/doesn’t smoke; while one (R) wrote “drinks occasionally”. Non-vegetarian, eggetarian options are also selected in this 60 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

section by all. Again, for both the bride’s description, as well as Partner preference, marital status always turned up “never married” for all 10 profiles—the reason being that the moment anything other than this option is clicked, the candidate is taken to a different web page of the parent Shaadi website—SecondShaadi—which is for people looking for remarriage. I did not look at this purposefully, because I wanted to stick to the main Shaadi webpage.

Traditional Cultural Values

Apart from DD and DK, the others had some text that matched this categorization. J’s profile, in the About her section, had many such descriptions, such as “caring and down to earth person”, “traditional roots”. NJ’s profile also mentioned her “traditional roots”. Often, class distinctions were highlighted here; for e.g., NJ described family as “upper middle class family background with traditional values”; in the About her section for R, it was mentioned, “great family values and is a family-oriented, compassionate, and caring individual”, “has great family values”, as well as “affluent, nuclear family with liberal values”. TC’s profile described her as

“well groomed”, with “moral values” from an “upper middle-class family”, “respectable” family.

This last was reiterated in another section: “We come from an upper middle class, nuclear family with moderate values”. PYB’s profile too noted similar attributes thus: “follow life with principles and values”, “an affluent, nuclear family with traditional values”, and “We are a reputed family”.

Physical Descriptions

The short descriptive text for each profile also began with physical attributes, such as “30 yrs, 5' 3"”—a standard format. In NJ’s case, this was followed by: “Aquarius; Never Married;

Hindu, Bengali; Mahishya, general caste; Biologist /Botanist; Lives in Howra, India”. Thus, this 61 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

is a mix of information culled from the fields filled in later on. All posts began with physical descriptors of age and height. This is due to the way in which the website creates the profiles and how the fields are displayed and does not indicate the preference of the members of what order they want this short first description to come up. There was another similar description when it came to selecting an option regarding body type—the drop-down menu options were

Average/Slim/Athletic/Heavy—and three profiles listed average build, one athletic build, and the rest six had selected the slim build option.

Skin Tone

Coming to my particular focus category, skin tone was mentioned clearly in all profiles— very fair, fair, wheatish or dark. References ranged from “very fair skinned” to “wheatish skin tone”. It needs to be mentioned here clearly that wheatish is an Indian term, referring literally to the light brown color of ripened wheat, but also denoting a skin tone that falls in the zone between fair and dark—all within the Indian context. It is almost only used to refer to Indian skin tones; I have not heard the term being used to reference anything else. While NJ, DD, PYB, JD,

L selected the “fair skinned” option, DK and PB selected “wheatish skin tone” and J, TC and R chose the “very fair skinned” option. In fact, TC’s profile used the word “lovely” to describe her physical appearance, though none of the other 9 did.

None of the 10 profiles analyzed had any mention of preferred skin tone for their prospective grooms. This is similar to previous research that I had noted in my review of literature section—Dey (2016) argued skin complexion of the bride is more important as a factor in marriage compared to the skin complexion of the groom.

62 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Analysis of Bharat Matrimony Profiles

Following the same methods adopted for analyzing the ads on Shaadi, I copied and printed a total of 10 advertisements on Bharat Matrimony, where I was registered as a female member—a prospective bride seeking a groom. I now examined the 10 profiles of prospective grooms that came up on my member wall on two particular days. As explicated earlier, I adopted a process of random selection to come up with the particular 10 profiles I studied.

I first coded each profile with an alphabetical code to protect the identity of the member.

I used the same color keys as Shaadi here. Profile creator (yellow), Educational/professional qualifications (aqua), Lifestyle values (lavender), Traditional cultural values (green), Physical descriptions (bottle green), Skin tone (light green).

Profile Creator

Here, 50 percent of the profiles studied were created by parents—GG, N, AD, AP, DS. In the case of DS, it was mentioned, “This profile is created for my son”. It was also clearly mentioned at one point that the parent in this case is the father. In the Family details section, he wrote, “my wife” while elaborating on professions of family members. Other terms used by parents of prospective grooms were “my son”, “my lovable son”. It is interesting to note here that all used the singular “my”, and not a more collective “our”—indicating that the parent filling out the details online perhaps did so on his/her own, and not as a couple.

The profiles of PKG, HS and R were created by themselves. In these examples, the use of the word “I” came up often. Interestingly, GG’s profile stated that it was created by a parent, but the rest of the descriptions were all filled using the personal pronoun “I”, indicating that the would-be groom himself had filled it out. HS mentioned his likes—“I like”—and hobbies—“my 63 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

other hobbies”—too. R too shared a lot of personal likes, beginning sentences with “I also enjoy”, “I appreciate”, “I love”, to give details of personal preferences at the outset.

H and KP’s profiles had been created by siblings. In the case of KP, it was clearly stated:

“I am creating this profile on behalf of my brother”; while for both KP and H, “my brother” was used to highlight the identity of the ad creator.

Educational & Professional Qualifications

For all the 10 profiles analyzed, the educational and professional qualifications were enumerated clearly, with exact designations/educational degrees mentioned. For example, GG wrote “BFM (Financial Management); CXO / President, Director”, “studied Finance and

Economics” and even “Annual Income: USD 125,000”. N, too, gave details: “M.S. (Engg.);

Software Professional; USD 275,000”, while “MBA from highly reputed institute and is currently working with an MNC - Finance Company (package Rs. 20lpa)” was the descriptor for

AP. In the case of AD, who was described as “Business Owner / Entrepreneur; Rs. 20.00 lakhs”, this business was explained in detail in the Family details section: “Father: Businessman | Runs a manufacturing unit in a reputed industrial area of New Delhi | Deals in the business of manufacturing of Shrink Wrap Machine which is used for packaging purposes and Stainless

Steel Tanks used for storage purposes”. In many of the profiles, the educational and professional qualifications of all family members was provided, at times in details.

Lifestyle Values

Here, the drop-down menu options were used to indicate the applicant’s eating, drinking, and smoking habits as well as marital status; and was repeated for the Partner preferences section too. In most cases, the descriptors used by/for the prospective grooms were “never 64 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

smokes”, “never drinks”, “drinks socially”, while the food habits included “vegetarian”, “non- vegetarian” and even “eggetarian” (this last is indicative of a person who does not consume fish/meat, but has eggs, which is considered a non-vegetarian item by Indians). For Partner preference too, for this category, the selected criteria were “Prefer someone who never smokes”,

“Prefer someone who never drinks”, or “doesn’t matter”.

All the profiles studied selected “never married” for marital status, and also selected the same “never married” criterion for Partner preference. This result is due to the fact that there is a separate section for people seeking remarriage/second marriage, which is beyond the purview of the current study, as it is also in a different section of the website.

Traditional Cultural Values

The prospective grooms posted traditional and/or cultural values in different ways. For example, N wrote: “hobbies include dancing and playing sports” and “broad and modern outlook respecting family values and culture”; AD wrote “focused, confidant and an open minded man”, and “Keeping up with politics, economy, social issues and culture also keeps him charged up”. In

Partner preference, H wrote: “with family values best suitable Partner”. HS in fact mentioned his preference for a “sensible and down to earth person. DO NOT get in touch if you are just looking to date”. Some mentioned family values as “liberal”, and family type as “nuclear”; these options could be selected from the website’s drop-down menu options for these fields.

Physical Descriptions

The website design highlights physical descriptions such as the age, height, weight of the prospective groom at the very start of each advertisement. While PKG, AP, H, HS, and R chose not to divulge their weight, the other 50 percent mentioned an exact number for their weight. 65 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Further down, there was a Physical status field, again with a drop-down menu to select from two options: normal or physically challenged. All the 10 profiles analyzed selected Normal for this field; and the same for Partner preference. For Body type, the options to choose from were

Slim/Athletic/Average/Heavy. Each of the 10 profiles selected one of the first three options; none selected heavy.

Apart from the regular fields, in the space for additional descriptions (Personal information), AP was described as “tall”, while the terms “beautiful and smart” were used for the match sought. In the similar section for AD, it was written: “He is 5’8” tall and moderately built” and in Partner preference, the physical aspect is thus described: “beautiful girl with a killer smile and a spark in her eyes”. N was described as a “handsome guy”, while GG’s Partner preference mentioned him to be seeking a “slim, beautiful girl”.

An interesting thing to note here is that though the weight option for the candidate himself is given via a field to be filled on the website, for Partner preference, there is no given field to select weight for the prospective bride.

Skin Tone This was the point of maximum interest for me, due to the topic of my thesis. Eight prospective groom’s skin tone was described—PKG: wheatish; GG: very fair; N: fair; AD: very fair; AP: very fair; H: fair; DS: fair; KP: fair. However, two of them—R and HS—selected the

“not specified” option when it came to skin tone selection. Both these profiles were created by

“Self”, and the implications for this have been looked at later in the Discussion section of my thesis. In Partner preference, GG once again highlighted seeking a “fair” bride. AP’s profile 66 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

used the term “very fair” in the Personal information subjective section too, and later therein mentioned, “We are looking for a tall, very fair, beautiful and smart match”.

Two Ads, Calling Out Against Colorism

Before I discuss the emergent themes from my data in greater detail, I will elucidate the starting points which form the grounds of my current research. In other words, before I discuss the actual texts of the matrimonial ads of Shaadi and Bharat Matrimony and my analysis of these, I look closely at the two ads that purported to call out against colorism in the depiction of prospective brides and grooms. These two ads were released at a time when I was building up the groundwork for my thesis, one just a few days before my research topic proposal defense. Even as I built up my groundwork, certain events in my area of research took me on a further exciting journey; and have been instrumental in the final shape this thesis research has taken. I refer to the two particular advertisements—one in each media, online and offline—by two of the biggest sites where matrimonial ads are placed. The first one was a print ad, carried out by The Times of

India (TOI), headlined: Apologies to a country that only wants beautiful, fair girls. The second advertisement is in the online space, titled A Brown Girl's Guide to Beauty:

#WantedFairBridesAndGrooms. It was presented by Shaadi in poetry format by a woman, who stated that love comes in all “shades and sizes”.

These two ads, on two discrete platforms where matrimonial ads are placed, offline and online, gave an additional direction to my research questions. I felt compelled to look at how the ads by these two media behemoths affected matrimonial ads. In other words, I looked at whether the call to change the language of matrimonial ads affected public opinion (as reflected in the actual ads posted on matrimonial websites after the publishing of these two ads). 67 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

In April 2017, The Times of India’s Sunday matrimonial section—Times Matrimonial— printed an advertisement at the bottom right hand side of the paper with the headline Apologies to a country that only wants beautiful, fair girls. The world’s largest selling English language newspaper, with a daily circulation of 3,184,727 (Audit Bureau), has been around for over 175 years; the matrimonial pages are immensely popular across the country and with the Indian

Diaspora. In other parts of this document, I have pointed out how even a cursory glance at these pages over time reveals the prevalence of terms such as ‘fair’, ‘slim’, ‘beautiful’ to describe a prospective bride, among other attributes. Thus, this advertisement by the publishing behemoth deserved my close inspection, since my study area is colorism in Indian newspaper ads.

An analysis of the text of the ad showed the usage of negative words such as “unfair”,

“never”, “unfortunately”, “unknowingly”, “no control”, and “still not”. The first paragraph highlighted the negative connotations of certain terms that are commonly used in matrimonial ads. It began with a hard-hitting, direct question to readers: “Don’t you think it is unfair to ask a girl to be beautiful and fair?” Therefore, there was an immediate and direct correlation to the terms used in ads. Answering its own question, The Times of India then stated: “Unfortunately, this unfair practice has been rampant in our country for decades”. In the use of the terms

“unfortunately” and “unfair practice”, the company took a clear stand against the practice, decrying it as it were. Immediately thereafter, it acknowledged its complicity in the practice, though creating a distance from those actually committing the practice by using the term

“unknowingly” to underscore its involvement.

The second of the two-paragraph ad was a message of “hope”, with suggestions for

“changing the format” of the ads to move away from physical descriptions and towards 68 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

educational qualifications of a prospective bride. It ended with the expectation that those reading this ad will “henceforth” focus on matches with girls based not “only” on their looks, but their education. In the usage of the term “only”, the ad seemed to acknowledge that physical descriptions are a part of matrimonial ads; the company only hoped to begin the ads with the educational qualifications of a prospective bride. In her study of “distinctive features” of matrimonial ads, Pandey (2004) observed that these have a “formulaic structure or similar wording; their similar and explicit goal—inviting marriage proposals from specified or exclusive audiences” (p. 415). Analyzing the language of such ads, Pandey (2004) also found that “from a critical linguistic standpoint, their educational accomplishments, when mentioned” (p. 417) were not provided in any details; in some cases, these were even “downplayed” (p. 417). By contrast, however, the prospective grooms’ educational and employment status were noticeably marked.

Clearly, this kind of distinction is what the above-mentioned Times Matrimonial ad speaks to.

However, the Times ad showed preference for educational qualifications of prospective brides by stating that this needs to be mentioned in the ads. It seemed to imply that educational qualification is a great marriageability factor. In creating a binary between “looks” and

“education”, many other aspects of how a woman may wish to be portrayed were overlooked. In

India, many women do not enjoy the material privilege of pursuing higher education or even proper primary school education. Thus, when a mass medium such as TOI advocates so strongly for education as a vital criterion in arranged marriages, it almost seems to be supplanting one unfair tradition for another. Further, a close analysis of the ad showed that the words “fair” and

“beauty” are almost used interchangeably here; thus, TOI is perhaps falling prey almost to the issue of fair = beautiful? 69 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

While the decision to not highlight the physical appearance of a bride is laudable, it might have been better to not offer a substitute in the form of educational qualification. This is because, as I have noted in the previous paragraph, not all Indian women have the privilege of securing quality education. Unlike many places in the U.S., in India good quality primary school education is not free. The government does run free elementary- and higher-level schools free, but these often suffer from lack of basic resources and good teachers. The number of such schools is also not adequate, so remain out of geographical reach for many needy families. Thus, families with even basic income levels send their children to charter or private schools, which are not as high priced as the ones in the U.S. Effectively, since primary education is not really free in many parts of India, a large number of women from poor families may not be formally educated though they may be skilled/trained in certain fields and have jobs. To preference educational qualification may lead to these skilled yet not formally educated women losing out on marital prospects, as the TOI ad suggests. As I had noted in my literature review, extant research has shown how people became categorized into one caste or another. Those with perceived superior social and economic standing came to stand for certain kinds of superior labor; the lower castes were subject to manual, hard labor, toiling under the hot Indian sun for their meagre livelihood

(for e.g., Mishra, 2015; Parmeswaran & Cardoza, 2009). Since it is this manual labor class that remains poor and is unable to afford expensive basic education, the caste system seems to be reinforced in the preference accorded to educational qualification.

In another similar instance, Shaadi presented a YouTube video that was also a call against colorism and other issues against how prospective brides and grooms are portrayed in matrimonial ads. It was in the form of slam poetry orated by an 18-year-old Indian “brown” girl

Aranya Johar, the protagonist of the video who calls out such colorism and body image 70 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

portrayals, for women as well as for men. Titled A Brown Girl’s Guide to Gender, the video was first presented at a physical location in Mumbai on March 6, 2017. At the time of writing this analysis, the video has 1,795,498 views, 59K Likes, 1K Dislikes, and 1,694 Comments. A few details of the presentation, as mentioned on YouTube: Performed by Aranya Johar; Music by

Pranav Kakkar; Edited by Simar Singh; Location Courtesy Tuning Fork, Khar, Mumbai.

This video was presented by UnErase Poetry, which was described below the video thus:

“We are a community for promoting and producing spoken word poetry through live performances and online content, based in Mumbai, India.” (YouTube).

Though the text and narration remains the same, this video was taken up by Shaadi after four months, and presented by the company on the same platform, YouTube, on July 7, 2017.

Interestingly, the title underwent a slight modification, and now read, A Brown Girl's Guide to

Beauty - Aranya Johar. So, the term gender of the first video had been changed to beauty in the second. At the time of writing this, the Shaadi-presented video has 1,825,918 views, 89K Likes,

1K Dislikes and 1,810 Comments. Below the video on YouTube, it was written:

“Love comes in all shades & sizes.

Watch Aranya Johar tell you how to give love a fair chance.”

The hashtag #WantedFairBridesAndGrooms followed this; and made it evident that the connection that the hashtag draws is to Shaadi’s core business, which is as a matrimonial website where prospective brides and grooms seek alliances. I will now provide a detailed analysis of the text of the poem. 71 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

The poem alluded to personal experiences that are meant to apply to other women. This was evident from Johar’s use of the personal pronouns “me”, “I” and “we”; possessive pronouns

“your”, “our”; and possessive determiner “my”. With clever word play, she called her skin tone

“ugly”, and said, “I had a voice and opinion, but they muted my sound”. It seemed the “they” here refers to societal diktats, and she jumps instantly to how she was told “boys only like girls who are fair and lovely”—descriptive terms that are found often in matrimonial ads, as well as reference for a leading fairness cream brand in India, called Fair & Lovely. The role and impact of cosmetics brands in perpetuating colorism in India has been noted in my review of literature, taking cognizance of studies by Karan (2008), Li et al. (2008), Glenn (2008), among others. To recap Karnani’s (2007) study, it may be recalled that the researcher had argued, “It is interesting to note that in the print and TV advertisements, as the woman becomes 'whiter' she also becomes noticeably happier!... Such advertisements have attracted much public criticism, especially from women's groups, in many countries from India to Malaysia to Egypt” (p. 1353). This YouTube video is an example of the criticism Karnani talks about.

The call against colorism or privileging physical descriptors is not restricted to women alone; the poem stated that men face such issues too:

“We forget that beauty for men also comes with a cost”.

The term fair is deemed “unfair” through the poem, while other physical attributes such as “curvy chick”, “chest bigger”, “big butt” also highlighted negative body image portrayals.

Going beyond what TOI did in its ad, privileging educational qualifications over beauty markers, the Shaadi poem urged women to seek such grooms:

“Instead of looking for grooms who are fair, let’s look for grooms who treat people fairly 72 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Because the color of someone’s skin isn’t what we should consider when we look to marry

Virtues, belief, opinions and decisions scale larger than his stand on a fairness scale.”

Thus, this moved to encompass a variety of attributes rather than any typical qualification. The poem ended with a call to embrace and love “all shapes and shades”, so it is not just urging an end to colorism in ads as well as societal norms in seeking marriage partners, but also to end harping on particular body types and body image as promoted by fashion magazines etc. That the video of such a poem was presented by Shaadi is interesting to note, because the website forces its member to declare their skin complexion (as I have explained with my own example and experience).

Emergent Themes

Using the categories I have enumerated for the Shaadi and Bharat Matrimony profiles as my guides, I revisited my data several times over the next few weeks to look for emergent themes. Following the basic tenets of grounded theory, I went into my analysis without preconceived ideas; I wanted to see what my data yielded. As I went about analyzing my data— from the matrimonial ads and the interviews—I remained “open to varied explanations and/or understandings of the data” and attempted to focus on “data analysis to construct middle-range theories” (Charmaz, 2008, p. 155). After analyzing the 20 advertisements and realizing that almost all themes were being repeated, I realized I had reached theoretical saturation since,

“gathering more data sheds no further light on the properties of their theoretical category”

(Charmaz, p. 167). The ads were similar in wording and format, and hence I found that the 20 I had studied did lead to theoretical saturation at this point for me. Emergence of interpretations 73 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

and understandings of my data occurred over the many times I revisited my data and the site of my data collection—the matrimonial websites—since I collected two sets of data, spread over some weeks. I examined if the TOI ad that spoke out against colorism, had impacted the wordings of online ads posted thereafter, and whether the Shaadi promoted video by Aranya

Johar—also opposing colorism—had changed how subsequent ads were textualized. As

Charmaz noted, “the unexpected may occur” (p. 157) and it did in my case too. I have enumerated this later on in this document. The Shaadi format had not changed, hence the ads all contained skin tone mentions. One of my guiding questions as I looked at emergent themes was—how have prospective brides who are posting their own matrimonial ads specifically addressed the issue of colorism in these ads? The emergent themes that arose from my data are:

a) Continued hegemonic control/covert colorism

b) Fair as beautiful

c) Privileging work and independence

d) Power over content creation

e) Traditional and cultural values reinforced

The following section elaborates on each of these emergent themes from the textual analysis and corroborates it with data emerging from in-depth interview transcripts, to contribute to the theoretical underpinnings of how whiteness and colorism operates in non-western, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic cultures. In doing so, I have followed the tenets of the grounded theory method.

Continued Hegemonic Control or Covert Colorism

The Shaadi website algorithm reinforced the hegemonic norm of colorism inherent within its system. However, this did not prevent spouse seekers from not posting their profiles on this 74 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

website—they selected from one of the choices offered by the website. Skin tone was mentioned clearly in all profiles. It ranged from “very fair skinned” to “wheatish” skin tone. Five of the 10 profiles selected the “fair skinned” option, two “wheatish” skin tone while three chose the “very fair skinned” option. One of these last three profiles (those who chose very fair skinned), also used the word “lovely” to describe their physical appearance, though none of the other nine did.

Interestingly, none of the 10 profiles had any mention of preferred skin tone for their prospective grooms.

Unlike Shaadi, Bharat Matrimony does not make it mandatory for advertisers to mention skin tone. Instead, this site allows a “not specified” option. However, only two of the 10 profile creators chose to use this option. These two profiles were created by self—by the prospective grooms themselves. Of the remaining eight men who selected an option for skin tone, two sought a fair/very fair bride. These two had also described themselves as “very fair”.

In her study, Hunter (2007) had noted, “Colorism is concerned with actual skin tone, as opposed to racial or ethnic identity” (p. 237) and may manifest itself in covert and overt ways. I argue that in these matrimonial ads, the action is covert in the sense that it is not openly acknowledged therein, much like the ad posters “are unaware of their preferences for lighter skin because that dominant aesthetic is so deeply ingrained in our culture” (p. 238). It is also important to keep in mind here that race is to be understood as a social concept, which is not notably tied to biology (Hirschman, 2004). As Omi and Winant (2004) had noted, “We utilize race to provide clues about who a person is” (p. 12). Skin tone is thus used in the ads as one of the factors of racial identification of a prospective spouse. 75 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Coming back to the Shaadi algorithm, this reinforced covert colorism in its inherent design plan. Until the skin complexion was selected, the profile registration remained incomplete and the profile not uploaded. It was not possible to study or examine therefore whether any or all the women/families would have preferred not mentioning skin tone in the ads.

Curious to probe deeper in to Shaadi’s rule, I established contact with a Shaadi representative using the website’s 24-hour online helpline option. I asked him whether I had the option to not include my skin tone in the profile. He confirmed that the website does not allow that option, and the field needs to be filled in.

This theme corresponds to the concept of covert colorism that also emerged during in- depth interviews, about matrimonial advertisements during their time. Since all these women were married at a time when online matrimonial websites were not popular or even available

(mostly in the 1990s), their ads had been posted in Indian newspapers’ print versions. The theme of resignation and acceptance of prevalent norms that the interviews throw up, reinforce the covert colorism that remains manifest in matrimonial ads even today. “Everyone does it”, “It was common”, “It was how most ads ran”, “I realize now that perhaps we all were in a trap of doing what everyone else was doing”—these are some of the ways in which interviewees described their feelings when asked about usage of the term fair or the mention of skin tones to describe a prospective bride in matrimonial ads. As one interviewee (DC) said:

“There are certain almost fixed adjectives that are used by most people to

describe a person, especially a woman, in what they think is not a negative way.

Those parents or girls who use the term fair perhaps do not find anything wrong

with it.” 76 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

When I asked another interviewee (TM) about how she felt about her skin tone being mentioned in her own matrimonial ad, which was taken out in a newspaper when she got married, she said: “I fumed because my parents had put in the adjective fair to describe me… I had asked once why could they [parents] not just write my educational qualifications, preference to teach, willingness to settle abroad as the catchwords; but those, they said, would give out mixed signals.”

Reiterating her feelings regarding the use of the term fair in the ad, she added: “I would never have used the term fair. It is really a fact that the British rule did leave many marks on Indian psyche, even those who have lived through the bitterness of India’s freedom fight… like my parents”.

It is evident from these conversations that the interviewees’ responses confirm the theme of continued hegemonic control, consistent with findings of previously studies (e.g.,

Subramanian & Jain, 2009). In their work Subramanian and Jain (2009) noted that women’s beauty within matrimonial ads in India are seemingly tied to allusions of “fair, slim, and physically attractive” (p. 264) which, they argued, “echo the messages found in media in general and, therefore, reflect an internalization of messages of skewed, culturally narrow, standards of beauty, wealth, and success” (p. 266). My interviewees’ responses are also consistent with Dey’s

(2016) content analysis results that 58 percent of prospective brides in India had their skin tone described as either fair or very fair; but that 93 percent did not mention the preference for any particular skin tone in a groom. The distinction between the two genders here (the matrimonial websites studied for this thesis focused only on the gender binary of male and female) is consistent with findings of previous work. 77 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

The lack of overt colorism in the online advertisements, however, could have more than one reason. One of the reasons for the absence of colorism in the main texts of the ads, could be because unlike in more traditional print ads, almost all online matrimonial ads have at least one profile photograph of the bride or groom uploaded with the text. Hence, the skin tone of a prospective bride or groom is clearly visible to anyone visiting their page.

Of course, there was also no need to mention skin tone in the descriptive text since almost all women who advertised seeking grooms, chose to mention their skin tones in the drop down descriptive section.

Textual analysis of the matrimonial ads therefore indicated two different, even conflicting results. On the one hand online platforms have indeed given agency to hitherto marginalized members of the family such as prospective brides and younger family members, with more and more young women and their siblings posting matrimonial than ever before. Unlike print ads, where almost all of them would be posted by parents of the bride, women themselves are posting a large number of online matrimonial ads. They have far greater access, and power to create their own content and depict the image of themselves that they want, and not necessarily their parents.

On the other hand, colorism continues to exist—albeit in a covert manner—in online matrimonial ads. Women today, especially prospective brides, have the choice to craft their own content and reject the notion of physical beauty as supremely important, and reject the notion of fair skin as being equivalent to beautiful. Yet, they elect not to, choosing instead to merely follow the existing stereotype, reinforcing patriarchal norms. CRT argues that colorism or whiteness favors lighter skin over darker skin and such beliefs and practices (e.g. fair skin being superior to darker skin) operate both within and across racial and ethnic groups (Bonilla-Silva, 78 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

2009; Gomez, 2008). I argue, based on my analysis, such practices do operate not just within and between ethnic groups, but between and within linguistic groups and castes in India. The caste or varna system in India is often equated with skin tone where higher castes have fairer skin tones.

By equating fair skin with beauty and implying the superiority of fair skin in these ads, I argue that online matrimonial ads reinforce the caste system through more covert means. (Utley &

Darity, 2016).

I noted earlier that scholars such as Béteille (1967) have argued that the “caste system has given birth to a variety of stereotypes that have a bearing on social conduct, although their influence on it is less marked now than in the past” (p. 452). My current study shows that the influence of the caste system is present through the covert colorism in matrimonial ads. Further,

Banerjee, Duflo, Ghatak, & Lafortune (2013) had found, “The institution is so prevalent that matrimonial advertisements… in Indian newspapers are classified under caste headings, making it immediately obvious where prospective brides or grooms can find someone from their own caste” (p. 34). Their data, collected from the print newspaper ads, had revealed overt colorism. I have shown that on online media, this is present covertly.

Fair as Beautiful

The interviews as well as the 20 ads highlighted that describing a prospective bride or groom as fair is indicative of a higher social stand—stemming from India’s colonial past and racist culture which privileges lighter skin tones in a brown nation (Bonilla-Silva, 2009; Mishra,

2016). Thus, eight of the 10 Shaadi profiles chose the fair or very fair option, while on Bharat

Matrimony—of the eight men who selected an option for skin tone—only one chose a non-fair description; the rest all chose fair or very fair. Even a close analysis of the TOI ad, which called 79 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

for an end to physical descriptors such as fair and beautiful, showed that the words “fair” and

“beauty” are almost used interchangeably here. Thus, TOI is perhaps falling prey almost to the issue of fair = beautiful?

The interviewees said that fair was a “bargaining tool”, with higher “marriageability” in the marriage mart if the ad described the woman as fair, “the adjective fair” would help secure a groom for the woman more easily. This spoke to using fair as a bargaining tool in the matrimonial ads. For example, TM said, “I had asked once why could they not just write my educational qualifications, preference to teach, willingness to settle abroad as the catchwords; but those, they said, would give out mixed signals.” Another interviewee (DC) summed it up thus:

“There are certain almost fixed adjectives that are used by most people to describe a person, especially a woman, in what they think is not a negative way. Those parents or girls who use the term fair perhaps do not find anything wrong with it. In India, there are many positive connotations of the word fair, and in matrimonial ads it is used to show that our girl is better than yours, I suppose, if you can use the word fair.”

The advertisement texts and interview data strongly suggest that practices of colorism are not fixed entities but are, as Ward and Robinson-Wood (2016) argued, socially constructed and constantly negotiated based on a group’s own social interests. Thus, much like the way in which

“CRT recognizes that racism is endemic in U.S. society” (Tate, 1997, p. 234), I also note that racism is “deeply ingrained legally, culturally, and even psychologically” (p. 234) in Indian matrimonial ads which seem to show that light skin as intrinsically more desirable than darker skin tones.

80 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Privileging Work and Independence

This theme emerged from numerous looks at the descriptive sections of the online matrimonial profiles I studied. These text boxes are made available by the websites where the ad poster can write anything they want to describe themselves or what they are seeking for.

Moreover, all profiles highlighted educational and professional qualifications (many in details), as I have noted earlier. Many reiterated these work and independence values in the descriptive text too. On Shaadi, only one of the profiles (TC) used the term “lovely” to describe any physical aspect—none of the others referred to any physical descriptors at all. As noted in my coding analysis, for e.g., NJ’s descriptive text contained only professional and educational information without any physical descriptions; in fact, her family’s educational and professional qualifications were also mentioned in detail here. As well, DK’s profile dealt with her and her family’s educational and professional qualifications—with no physical or other descriptions.

Some of the details across the profiles included: “Software Developer/Programmer”, “Bachelors degree in Travel & Tourism; Air Hostess / Flight Attendant with a private company”; “Earns up to INR 1 Lakh annually”; while some profiles listed an annual income preference of a prospective groom such as NJ: “Annual Income: Above INR 7 lakhs/Above PKR 20 lakhs/Above GBP 20,000”; and PB: “Annual Income: Above INR 4 lakhs”.

On Bharat Matrimony too, as noted in the coding section, all 10 profiles had educational and professional qualifications enumerated explicitly, with precise designations/educational degrees.

For e.g., GG: “BFM (Financial Management); CXO / President, Director”, “studied Finance and

Economics” and even “Annual Income: USD 125,000”; and N: “M.S. (Engg.); Software

Professional; USD 275,000”. In some cases, the educational and professional qualifications of all 81 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

family members were provided, often in details. However, none of the men mentioned any particular annual income preference for prospective brides.

This also ties in with the theme that emerged from the interviews of fair as negative: The respondents indicated that using mainly physical attributes to describe a woman was not a great idea. ‘Retrograde’, ‘degrading’, ‘insulting’, ‘regressive’, and ‘outdated term’: these words or phrases indicated that the interviewees, upon reflection during the interview process, had negative feelings about the usage of the term fair in matrimonial ads to describe a woman. “In

India or anywhere else when people think that only fair is beautiful, it’s a retrograde, medieval concept. It’s insulting,” said interviewee SC.

For the interviewees, whose ads were in print format in newspapers, there were constraints of space and money—as ads cost per word and space occupied in the newspaper. Given the option of free space to fill in with descriptions of the professional and educational fields, most profiles chose to write these out in great details. This theme directly takes me to the next emergent theme for this thesis.

Power over Content Creation

Online matrimonial websites allow much perceived power over content posted—though the Shaadi skin tone field remains mandatory. Using this freedom, many of the profiles were created by the prospective brides or grooms themselves. This is unlike the case in the print ads that the interviewees spoke of, which were all posted by their family elders. Thus, on the websites studied, words and phrases such as “I like”, “my other hobbies”, “I also enjoy”, “I appreciate”, and “I love” were used to give details of personal preferences at the outset. The

Shaadi-promoted ad/poem too focused on personal experiences that are meant to apply to other 82 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

women, as evident from the speaker Johar’s use of the personal pronouns “me”, “I” and “we”; possessive pronouns “your”, “our”; and possessive determiner “my”.

Even where the profiles were created by a parent (50 percent each for Bharat Matrimony and Shaadi), personal likes of the candidate and descriptors other than purely physical ones were mentioned. This power over content is what the interviewees lacked during their time and may be noted in their responses to pertinent questions during the interviews. Offering alternatives and protesting what their ads said, ‘vicious cycle’, ‘trap’ and similar phrases indicated that interviewees were angry in hindsight and wanted to protest usage of the term fair, though they did not do so when they got married. “Today I strongly feel that perhaps it (highlighting a woman’s skin complexion as a positive attribute) is a wrong term to use”, said one respondent

(DC) adding, “It was not quite a very socially conscious thing to do and I would never use the term fair alone recommend a woman to someone”. Alternatives were also mentioned, where instead of skin color, the interviewees felt matrimonial ads would do better to highlight attributes such as ‘well-educated’, ‘well-heeled’ or specifics of their degrees, personal nature or family background.

This is what the Times Matrimonial call to change ad also noted, where it ended with the expectation that those reading this ad will “henceforth” focus on matches with girls based not

“only” on their looks, but their education. In the usage of the term “only”, the ad seemed to acknowledge that physical descriptions are a part of matrimonial ads; the company only hoped to begin the ads with the educational qualifications of a prospective bride. Of course, as noted earlier too, the TOI ad preferenced educational qualifications of the prospective brides as the greater marriageability factor. In creating a binary between “looks” and “education”, many other 83 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

aspects of how a woman may wish to be portrayed were overlooked. In India, many women do not enjoy the material privilege of pursuing higher education or even proper primary school education. Thus, when a mass media such as TOI advocates so strongly for education as a vital criterion in arranged marriages, it almost seemed to be supplanting one unfair tradition for another. Perhaps the media behemoth’s ideas are best noted in what one of the interviewees said, responding to how she would reframe her own matrimonial ad were it to be posted today: “Age,

Last professional degree, job, something about nature; then what I am looking for in the groom, similar stuff. Nothing about my beauty, charm or skin complexion please”. As Johar extolled:

“…the color of someone’s skin isn’t what we should consider

when we look to marry

Virtues, belief, opinions and decisions scale larger than his stand

on a fairness scale.”

However, even with the greater perceived power over content creation, the websites revealed that the profiles continued to reinforce cultural and traditional aspects of a prospective bride or groom, even where professional and educational qualifications are highlighted. The question this raises for me is thus, are these websites empowering women, or do they continue to discipline the structure of matrimonial ads through the diktats of the interface itself? As I had noted in my review of extant literature, Dave (2012) had looked at how “the attitude of society and the inherent gender bias is overtly reflected through the language used in them” (p. 263) with a sample of newspaper matrimonial ads, to find “men are so vocal about their demand for a fair and beautiful girl, whereas 85 percent of girls were silent on this aspect in men. It is due to the deep-rooted socio cultural conditioning of the society, which teaches a woman to be silent and 84 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

non-assertive” (p. 268). Jha and Adelman’s (2009) study had also found an overwhelming bias among males or their parents, for brides lighter-skinned than themselves or their sons in print matrimonial ads. Both these studies looked at print ads, published in India’s leading newspapers.

In my study, I looked at two leading Indian matrimonial websites—to find that most bride seekers did not preference any skin tone (only two of the 10 sampled mentioned seeking brides with a lighter skin tone). Despite this, the Shaadi algorithm did not allow women any agency in deciding whether to mention their skin tone or not: a choice has to be made to click one of the skin tones from the drop-down menu of the website, else the registration process remains incomplete. On the other hand, the Bharat Matrimony interface allows women to make such a choice, since it is not mandatory here to click any of the skin tone options. Yet, all 10 women’s profiles I looked at for this study, had one skin tone selected from the options provided by the website. Applying the tenets of CRT here, I note that racism is “so enmeshed in the fabric of our social order, it appears both normal and natural” (Ladson-Billings, 1998, p. 11) to those posting the ads to mention their skin tone here. Thus, I argue that the issue goes beyond the platform because even when the online spaces seem to offer more agency to those who post such ads, that power is not used to completely denounce colorism. Instead, those who post the ads continue to select a skin tone preference, irrespective of whether they have the power over content creation.

Since I have used CRT as my theoretical base, I have integrated my observed knowledge

(Barnes, 1990) and the lived experiences that my interviewees narrated, to present my arguments about the deep entrenchment of racism in the skin tone bias apparent in the matrimonial ads I studied for this thesis. Thus, my final emergent theme is…

85 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Traditional and Cultural Values Reinforced

In the About section on both websites, words and sentences were used to show how the woman or man is steeped in culture and traditional values: “caring and down to earth person”,

“traditional roots”, “upper middle class family background with traditional values”, “great family values and is a family-oriented, compassionate, and caring individual”, “has great family values”, “affluent, nuclear family with liberal values”. “well groomed” with “moral values” from an “upper middle class family”, “respectable” family, “We come from an upper middle class, nuclear family with moderate values”, “follow life with principles and values”, “an affluent, nuclear family with traditional values”, and “We are a reputed family”, abounded across the

Shaadi profiles. On Bharat Matrimony, words and phrases such as “broad and modern outlook respecting family values and culture”, “focused, confidant and an open minded man”, “Keeping up with politics, economy, social issues and culture also keeps him charged up” were found; while for Partner preference, some wrote “with family values best suitable Partner” and

“sensible and down to earth person. DO NOT get in touch if you are just looking to date”. Some mentioned family values as “liberal”, and family type as “nuclear”—the options could be selected from the website’s drop-down menu options for these fields. As well, in most cases the descriptors used by/for the prospective grooms were “never smokes”, “never drinks” or “drinks socially”, while for Partner preference too, the selected criteria for many were, “Prefer someone who never smokes” and “Prefer someone who never drinks”. On Shaadi too, most selected

“Doesn’t drink/doesn’t smoke; while one (R) wrote “drinks occasionally”. In What she is looking

For, most profiles selected, “Don't include profiles who smoke”; “Drinks Occasionally/Never

Drinks”. 86 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

As one of the interviewees (DC) summed up: “The matrimonial ad is only placed to ensure that two families and perhaps partners who have no chance of meeting otherwise, can find each other through the ads... it does not contain everything, leaves out some very important things and mentions some superficial things, many of which may even be untrue.”

In enumerating and explaining my emergent themes, I have applied the grounded theory method and CRT to arrive at an understanding of skin tone bias in Indian matrimonial ads. I have used my guiding questions to address these themes and connected with extant literature studied too. Therefore, as previous research has shown,

“Skin color is only one mechanism used to assign individuals to a racial category, but race is the set of beliefs and assumptions assigned to that category. Racism is the dependence of social status on the social meaning attached to race,” (Pathak, 2015, p.

45). Manifestation of such racism, my analyses show, is perpetrated through the colorism noticeable in the matrimonial ads studied for this thesis. Moreover, as Béteille (1967) had noted in his study on how fair is used as a positive attribute of prospective Indian brides, the role of India’s caste system also needs to be analyzed. “Caste system has given birth to a variety of stereotypes that have a bearing on social conduct, although their influence on it is less marked now than in the past” (p. 452)—as an offshoot of this, those who belong to the upper castes are deemed fairer than those who belong to lower castes. I enumerate on the role of race and caste in the next section of this chapter.

Discussion

In my thesis, I sought to understand the manner in which women’s agency is handled by prospective brides seeking grooms on two leading Indian matrimonial websites—Shaadi and 87 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Bharat Matrimony. My main guiding question was how autonomy is mobilized by women today when dealing with the issue of colorism in online Indian matrimonial ads. Colorism—the privileging of a lighter skin tone over a darker one—was used on these websites through the words fair/very fair versus dark/wheatish to denote categories of skin tone of both prospective brides and grooms. I looked at whether women are exerting autonomy over the content of the ads through the textual analysis of matrimonial ads across the two websites, using CRT and a feminist perspective. Following the grounded theory method, I further sought to decipher whether there are changes to how matrimonial ads are worded in the online space, or whether caste and race continue to be reinforced through covert colorism in these ads. To understand the reasons behind a woman’s selection of words in such ads, I also interviewed four women who had previously gone through an analogous process during their wedding. In other words, in my thesis I looked at the prevalence of colorism in Indian online matrimonial ads, and married women’s perceptions of skin-tone bias in India. I also studied the impact of online sites on the way such ads are worded, and whether the identity of the person who posts these ads has an effect on the content.

The qualitative analysis of the matrimonial ads and four in-depth interviews offered certain interesting insights into the issue of colorism in India’s matrimonial ads. As well, the analysis of two ads presented by two of the largest sites where such matrimonial ads are located—The Times of India Matrimonial advertisement and the one by Shaadi—accorded a deeper look at whether there is any change possible/happening in this focus area. Many previous studies concluded that people across all age groups believe fair complexion is a positive physical attribute in women and that highlighting this attribute would land them a better groom (Jha &

Adelman, 2009; Dey, 2016; Mishra, 2015). The findings of this study suggest this is a more 88 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

complex, multi-layered issue. I tie the prevalent colorism to racism, and the caste distinctions in the Indian context. Much like Omi and Winant (2004) argued, I find myself looking at race as “a way of comprehending, explaining and acting” (p. 13) in the world of Indian matrimonial ads. In this, I am following one of the guiding questions of this research— are the women showing proclivity to challenge the status quo of how matrimonial ads are worded? Or is the Indian caste/racial system being reinforced through covert colorism in these ads?

As I have noted earlier, Maclaran et al. (2007) stated that prior research findings inform that the online medium “facilitates a more protracted communication and flirtation stage than in the offline environment, and that people often spend longer getting to know each other mentally, as opposed to physically” (p. 60). My analysis showed how this mental communication is being established from the outset by the profiles speaking more to the values inherent in them— traditional & cultural preferences, hobbies, likes & dislikes, family values and class—instead of focusing on the physical descriptors. The women and men themselves—the prospective brides and grooms—are taking the onus of creating their own profiles. Although most advertisers clearly stated the skin tone or complexion of the prospective bride/groom using one of the choices on offer in each of the two websites, they uniformly avoided any mention of skin tone in the textual descriptions. Instead, textual description spaces were utilized to reinforce the professional and educational background, even current salary structure and other cultural/social values of the matrimonial candidates.

Another interesting point to note here is that while the profiles of the men came with a selection to be made as to body weight (in exact pounds—e.g., 170 lb, 184 lb), there was no such field for a woman posting her ad. Instead, there was a Body type option 89 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

(Slim/Athletic/Average/Heavy) for both men and women. Thus, the interface plays a disciplining role by, on the one hand, making profile uploaders select a Body type, and not making women mention their weight—while on the other hand, forcing them to mention skin tone (compulsory on Shaadi). When my analysis showed that the first 20 ads I had coded, revealed that most of the prospective grooms did not actively seek a fair bride, I revisited my site to look at 10 new profiles on Bharat Matrimony to see whether my understanding of covert colorism and theoretical development on certain lines were founded in the fresh data. I did find that all the women/family members who had posted profiles on Bharat Matrimony had mentioned their skin complexion in the field demarcated for it. This, despite the fact that on this site, unlike Shaadi, one had the choice of leaving the field blank. Yet, all the 10 profiles had selected one of the options for skin tone. However, no mention of skin tone or other physical traits were found on the descriptive sections of their ads, which referenced educational, professional achievements and/or cultural, personal preferences. In this, these last 10 ads were similar to the first 20 I had analyzed. Why then do women select an option from the choices that describe their skin tone?

Working with my theoretical base and using grounded theory, I found that while “it is very tempting to appropriate CRT as a more powerful explanatory narrative for the persistent problems of race, racism, and social injustice” (Ladson-Billings, 1998, p. 22), the argument I present here is that it is the very nature of the interface—the website algorithm—that perpetuates the problems of colorism. Consistent with extant research on race by Omi and Winant (2004), my analyses showed skin color distinctions—as evidenced by the drop-down menu of the websites—are connectors to the other descriptive texts that the ads contain. Omi and Winant

(2004) stated in their study skin tone anomalies “are thought to explain perceived differences in intellectual, physical and artistic temperaments, and to justify distinct treatment of racially 90 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

identified individuals and groups” (p. 13). Similarly, on Indian matrimonial websites, other profile descriptors for “temperament, sexuality, intelligence, athletic ability, aesthetic preferences, and so on” (p. 13) also verily tie in with the skin tone choices that the ad posters make. To elaborate, I took each of the non-physical descriptions mentioned in the above quote and found positive notations in the matrimonial ads. I have earlier noted the categories and my chosen color keys for the profiles on both Shaadi and Bharat Matrimony (described in details at the start of Chapter IV) thus: Profile created by (yellow), Educational/professional qualifications

(aqua), Lifestyle values (lavender), Traditional cultural values (green), Physical descriptions

(bottle green), Skin tone (light green).

Now applying Omi and Winant’s “Temperament, sexuality, intelligence, athletic ability, aesthetic preferences” (p. 13) categories to some of the ones above, I found that the profiles I studied all had positive attributes for each. For e.g., all the 30 men and women were educationally well-qualified (college degree and/or higher clearly mentioned) and professionally successful (as evidenced from average/above-average salaries mentioned or current ranks in professional organizations); they had great family values (‘well groomed’, ‘moral values’, ‘upper middle-class family’, ‘respectable’, ‘focused, confidant and an open-minded’); and mostly didn’t smoke or drink. This is in keeping with what Hunter (2005) noted in his study: “light skin tone is interpreted as beauty, and beauty operates as social capital for women. Women, who possess this form of capital, are able to convert it to economic capital, educational capital, or another form of social capital” (p. 37). Thus, all the categories I noted within the 30 ads highlighted such capital in the way they selected options on the website interface or wrote in allotted spaces. The

“distinct treatment” (p. 13) that Omi et.al (2004) referred to, comes to mean favorable/positive results in the quest to find a suitable spouse in the matrimonial ads. 91 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Writing about how such perceptions of capital and skin tone bias play out in India, I recall a family room discussion of many years ago, when my family elders were discussing a prospective bride for a male cousin. The female family elders had visited the bride-to-be’s house unannounced, to catch her “without any makeup” to see if her skin was really blemish-free and fair, and whether her hair was really as thick and silky as it had seemed the day they had visited her house on a planned visit. “Koney dekha aalo” is the term they used—loosely translated, this refers to a particular light (aalo) in which to see (dekha) a bride (koney). To my younger self that day, it meant the harsh light of critique and judgment of physical attractiveness. There was no similar reciprocal action that any bride’s family could take to ‘check out’ a prospective groom.

There, the action would entail checking whether the work credentials he presented were true— job position, salary, job prospects; and in some cases, whether he really was a teetotaler or smoker. I remember protesting that the woman my family had visited had certain rights not to meet them, or to let herself be scrutinized with a magnifying glass for physical flaws. Indeed, I feel livid even today remembering the incident. Since I was still a teenager, my anger was laughed off as post-adolescent angst. Well, if that was angst, then I remain deeply angsty even today. I know that if at some point, I was the woman who was visited by prospective in-laws, I would exert my agency and autonomy by resisting such a visit. I do understand that I now speak from a position of a different experience during my own marriage. Whether I would have ultimately bowed to social diktats or stood my ground is purely speculative at this later date.

However, I concur with Kakali Bhattacharya’s (2016) argument that “Speaking from the heart— integrating raw emotions, in/tangible incidents, and a state of being—is a legitimate form of negotiation for those situated within de/colonizing epistemologies. Anger, compassion, and confusion are legitimate states of being in conflicting places, and de/colonizing ontologies drive 92 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS these emotions. Such emotions can be recorded, documented, explained, contested, and interrogated as scholarly, as worthy of publication, and as a means of documenting social history as it unfolds” (p. 317).

Indeed, traces of similar raw emotions may be found in the transcripts of the four interviews I conducted for this thesis. The experiences of these women were vastly different from that of people who post ads online. The four women I interviewed had arranged marriages in India where ads were posted on the print media of newspapers. These women said that when older people such as parents have power over content, the ads are framed in a manner that portrays women predominantly as beautiful commodities. Given the choice and chance today, they all categorically stated that they would not post similar ads but would word them differently—more like the descriptive texts of online ads of current times. One of the women became steadily outraged in retrospect, even telling me that just recollecting the issue had angered her greatly.

These four women were married without profiles on online platforms. Their ads were on newspapers—print media. On the online matrimonial websites, even the ads posted by parents are different, privileging academic achievements of their daughters/sons where they are portrayed as independent men and women instead of homely, timid, pretty, fair objects of desire.

Especially for the portrayal of the women, one reason for the change could be the perception that online ads are seen more by men and families who live abroad or in metros, who are seen as being more ‘progressive’ and open to working, successful women compared to traditional Indian families that read newspapers and where women are still considered primarily in the role of homemakers or homemakers. 93 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Another reason of could be, as some previous studies have mentioned, the change in who has the power over posting ads in an era of rapidly changing technological innovations. Many older people such as parents are unsure about technological tools and how to post ads in online matrimonial sites. Even when they post such ads, their children have a lot more say in the content of those ads, and also in updating the content from time to time at no extra cost. In comparison, in a newspaper ad one has to write down the message on a piece of paper (a physical form) and hand it over to a sales associate at the matrimonial desk of a newspaper office and where a message once printed cannot be changed unless more money is paid for a fresh advertisement. As prospective brides and grooms gain more control over how they are described in matrimonial ads, the presentation of skin complexions as a very important attribute, should be reducing. However, my analyses showed that although the overt presentation of skin complexion as a critical attribute or quality in a woman, has significantly reduced—colorism is still rampant in the way these ads are presented. The reduction is only in overt display of colorism but consistent with CRT, the concept of fair as beautiful is very much alive in Indian online matrimonial ads—it is just more covert in nature today. Later in this section I analyze the ways in which such reduction is taking place, and whether it is enough.

At this point, I note an issue that disturbed me greatly in the course of my cyber ethnography and pertains to online safety. This forms a finding for my study—Indian matrimonial websites have data that are not really strictly verified by them. Beyond checking that a user has a valid phone number, I did not notice that the websites have any way to verify who said user is. A phone number may be active, but the user’s claim of being a woman may be false. The website does not verify whether the prospective bride is indeed a woman, or a man registering himself just to look at women’s photos. Further, whether the user is actually married 94 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

or not is not discernibly verified by the website. As well, phone numbers become accessible to registered users, and advanced membership options allow live-chats with prospective spouses.

Thus, there is every possibility of personal data being misused by miscreants. A woman or man may end up being hounded by phone calls, WhatsApp calls, and/or messages since their mobile numbers are accessible. There are many other myriad ways in which such data may be misused.

Thus, I argue that while these matrimonial websites present themselves as safe spaces, these are actually as exposed to chances of data misuse as other platforms. Here too, it is much like the physical and cultural spaces we inhabit—as a woman, I always think twice before walking along some deserted road at night alone, am careful about sharing my mobile number with someone, and even about adding someone I don’t know too well on social media such as

Facebook or LinkedIn. There are risks—some real, some perceived—and, I note, such similar risks are pervasive on matrimonial websites too. In their critical analysis of how digital footprints may expose people to all sorts of crime committed against them, Das and Sahoo (2011) recommended that “stringent measures should be taken to curb the menace. Cyber laws have to be fortified with advancement of rules as if violators cannot escape committing a crime, at the cost of societal values” (p. 227). I suggest that such measures should be applied by matrimonial websites too.

Coming back to one of my guiding questions—in the cases analyzed, are the women showing proclivity to challenge the status quo of how matrimonial ads are worded—I have earlier mentioned that only two of the 10 male profiles had specifically sought a lighter skin tone in their prospective bride. So, I ask here now: Even when men are not actively mentioning the word fair in seeking alliances, why then are women continuing to mention their skin tone— 95 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

whether it be due to website design or by choice? Note: Eight of the 10 Shaadi profiles chose the fair or very fair option, while on Bharat Matrimony—of the eight men who selected an option for skin tone—only one chose a non-fair description; the rest all chose fair or very fair. In Partner preference, one (GG) sought a ‘fair’ bride while another (AP) profile used the term ‘very fair’ in the Personal information subjective section too, and later therein mentioned ‘We are looking for a tall, very fair, beautiful and smart match’. Thus, the demand for a fair-skinned spouse was low in my data; yet, skin tone was selected by almost all. I argue that this is rooted in India’s colonial past where colorism and caste played a key role in social structures. In my review of previous studies on the subject, I noted that racial biases across discrete castes and classes of people have existed in India for many centuries. Indian epics of 2,000 years ago showed Aryan Gods and kings as fair-skinned, usually noble characters, while the non-Aryans were dark-skinned and/or

Asuras (demons), monkeys or evil people. Parameswaran and Cardoza (2009) have argued that colorism in India may be related to interwoven beliefs and assumptions about light skin and its historical signification of superior racial, regional, and upper-caste/class status. Of course, there are many scholars such as the ones mentioned above who connected British imperialism and the

British rule over India as one of the causes of skin tone bias in the sub-continent. “The experience of imperialism where the European 'races' were viewed as advanced, and those of the colonised, as 'lesser breeds', reinforced” (Thapar, 1996, p. 4) skin tone differences, among others identity markers. Going back to understanding its roots in historical facts, Thapar (1996) argued,

“The Aryans… were fair-complexioned Indo-European speakers who conquered the dark- skinned dasas of India. The arya-varna and the dasa-varna of the Rigveda were understood as two conflicting groups differentiated particularly by skin color, but also by language and religious practice, which doubtless underlined the racial interpretation of the terms” (p. 5). 96 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Further, colorism is deeply entrenched in the social system, the very fabric of several communities across India, and even if the men do not specifically advertise seeking fair brides, women continue to believe fair skin is an unspoken expectation that they need to fulfil. This is consistent with studies by a number of scholars such as Mishraa, Monippally, & Jayaka (2012);

Ramakrishnan (2012); Ramasubramanian and Jain (2009); Jha and Adelman (2009); and Dave

(2012).

In the context of Indian matrimonial ads, colorism may also be attributed to caste distinctions. Gerald D. Berreman (1996) noted that “a caste system may be defined as a hierarchy of endogamous divisions in which membership is hereditary and permanent. Here hierarchy includes inequality both in status and in access to goods and services” (p. 120). In detailing their professional and educational qualifications, the matrimonial website users did reinforce—whether consciously or subconsciously—their ability to procure educational goods and services. This is because it order to get a decent elementary and high school degree in India, students have to pay hefty school fees, while textbooks and other supplies do not come cheap either. Later, business schools, medical schools, airhostess training academies all require heavy monetary capital that may not be readily available to many Indians. To give some numerical data, 270 million Indians are poor, 45 percent of the poor are illiterate while 26 percent of even the non-poor are illiterate (World Bank, 2016). Thus, PYB’s ‘Bachelors degree in Travel &

Tourism’ costs money to complete, while L’s ‘Software Developer/Programmer’ job would have necessitated her completing a course in computer software after her school education, while AP’s

‘MBA from highly reputed institute’ and GG’s ‘financial management’ degree too cost more than many Indian families can afford to cough up. Although I did select the no caste distinction option when registering on the websites for my data (going into how different castes negotiate 97 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

these matrimonial websites would entail a study that is beyond the purview of this current one), class distinctions were evident in some profiles—for e.g., ‘upper middle-class family’ (TC, NJ), and ‘affluent, nuclear family’ (PYB).

Further, many Indian scholars have noted that the caste system divides India into a nation of hierarchies of caste, where one is superior to the other. This may be viewed as the ‘upper’ and

‘affluent’ classes that some profiles mention, that throw up the allusion of higher versus a lower class, and poor/not rich as opposed to the affluence. I have also noted in my review of literature that the higher caste is perceived as fairer skinned, reinforcing colorism. During the Indian nationalist movement of the early and mid-19th century, “Aryan and non-Aryan differentiation was of an ethnic and racial kind, but was also beginning to touch implicitly on class differentiation” (Thapar, 1996, p. 9). I theorize, further to Berreman’s (1996) argument that

“caste in India is passively accepted and indorsed by all on the basis of religio-philosophical explanations which are universally subscribed to” (p. 121), this passivity continues on online

Indian matrimonial ads where, even when given the chance and choice to desist from colorism,

Indian women and their family members continue to—seemingly passively—support colorism when they describe their skin tone. The historical underpinnings of colorism may be summed up as the “deeply embedded race-based ideologies in nation’s darker skinned common man who was ruled by the whiter skin masters: first by Mughals then by other European rulers like the

Portugese and the British for over three hundred and fifty years… This shaped the common man’s association of white colored skin with the ruling class, with power, with desirability, and also with beauty” (Mishra, 2015, p. 732). Such associations are what make people even today equate fairness of skin tone with beauty; which beauty, in turn, is equated with social capital for women as they negotiate agency on matrimonial websites. Thus, even more than 70 years after 98 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

gaining independence from British dominance, many Indians continue to accord perceived fairness of skin tone a higher value as evidenced in the matrimonial ads studied in this thesis.

It is, perhaps, well-explained in Iyer’s blog (2015): “Despite understanding the problem with the colorism inherent in Indian beauty standards, I still struggle to break free of the decades of socialization that make me look in the mirror and think that fair is lovely… Maybe, no matter how hard I try to shatter these stereotypes, I’ll always hear that little voice in my head when I look in the mirror, making me feel both inferior for my darker skin and guilty for feeling inferior in the first place”.

In their study on matrimonial ads appearing on newsprint one particular Sunday, Utley and Darity (2016) argued, “skin shade is described far more often in advertisements placed by prospective brides or their families than prospective grooms or their families, and, whenever complexion is mentioned, the possession of lighter skin shades” (p. 129). I add to their finding by arguing that this is done also on online platforms, and even when there is the choice to abstain from it. Also, as I noted in the literature review, “colorism would fail to exist without the presence of racism, which is a symptom of the construction of race. Therefore, colorism adds a color component to the social capital women might seek to possess in order to present themselves as marriageable” (p. 130).

This brings me, once again, to the main guiding question for my study: how autonomy is mobilized by women today when dealing with the issue of colorism in online Indian matrimonial ads. I further wanted to understand that in exerting or not exerting autonomy over the content of such ads, are women reinforcing a certain form of patriarchy through the continued usage of terms such as fair, in their ad profiles? 99 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Therefore, although the women I interviewed opined that they would word their ads differently now if they had a chance to rewrite them, today’s prospective brides and their family members do not show a similar predilection, insofar as the study of the online profiles reveal.

Some scholars have argued that darker skin tones at times indicate agrarian classes instead of landowners (Russell-Colle, Wilson, & Hall, 2013), or even manual laborers who toil under the hot Indian sun and have tanned and more brown skin tones than those who spend their work hours inside air-conditioned office buildings without exposure to sun tan. As well, “northern

Indians are lighter than their southern counterparts and within each group the upper-class tends to have lighter skin. This would indicate that, even though social status may be primarily associated with caste, social status is also related to skin color” (Utley & Darity, 2016, p. 133). I argue that in privileging their educational and professional qualifications, along with the mention of usually lighter skin tones, women/family members who place online matrimonial ads today continue to promote the connection between social status and skin color.

Significance of Research

The fight to change perceptions regarding covert colorism in Indian matrimonial ads is one where shift may be painfully slow. Thousands of matrimonial ads are still posted through newspaper matrimonial columns where parents still have greater control over the content. Unless such ads stop seeking suitable matches from the same caste, religion, ethnicity or linguistic groups (Banerjee et al., 2013), it will not be possible to wish away people’s belief that fair- complexioned women are more beautiful, rich, and trustworthy (Mishra, 2015) and therefore more sought after. Also, the belief that fair complexion equals more beautiful is not limited to the 100 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

older generation alone. Many young Indians even today prefer going out on a date with a fair- complexioned person compared to a dark-complexioned one (Mishra, 2015).

On the brighter side, the findings of this study indicate that more young prospective brides (and their siblings) seem to be refusing to highlight or mention their skin complexion or physical attributes in matrimonial ads that they are posting on online sites’ descriptive texts. The rising tide of resistance and progressive thinking was also reaffirmed through the in-depth interviews. All four interviewees clearly stated that highlighting or giving great importance to a woman’s skin complexion in a matrimonial ad was no longer acceptable and an idea whose time had clearly passed. They acknowledged that they regretted the fact that their parents had used their complexion as a selling point when they got married and that they would never repeat the mistake were they to even post such an ad nor would they recommend it to anyone. As well, the two ads I have analyzed in this thesis—the one by The Times of India Matrimonials and the

YouTube ad presented by Shaadi—seem to imply that change is being sought and spoken about.

Further, a number of Indian celebrities have started endorsing campaigns that clearly object to colorism. For example, a noted Indian actor started a conversation around how many Indian artistes endorse fairness creams, and his call to end such endorsements received widespread response across social media. There are many advertisement campaigns being created these days for various commercial brands that address regressive social issues. Many of these call for an end to colorism too.

These findings offer hope that technological advancements are not only changing power dynamics within families but also bringing about positive changes in how prospective brides and grooms are portrayed in matrimonial ads. 101 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Summary

Chapter IV details the results and analysis of the data—the 20 profiles viewed on two of

India’s leading matrimonial websites Shaadi and Bharat Matrimony; and the transcripts of in- depth interviews with four Indian women who had gone through the process of arranged marriage. For the 20 ads, I first placed them into six categories that emerged after close readings and re-readings of the data several times, and gave each category a color key thus: Profile created by (yellow), Educational/professional qualifications (aqua), Lifestyle values (lavender),

Traditional cultural values (green), Physical descriptions (bottle green), Skin tone (light green).

After placing relevant information into each of these categories, I showed how open coding helped me arrive at the emergent themes which I then noted and explained in detail.

These emergent themes were:

a) Continued hegemonic control/covert colorism

b) Fair as beautiful

c) Privileging work and independence

d) Power over content creation

e) Traditional and cultural values reinforced

I then presented the discussion section of my study, where I used my guiding questions to arrive at my understanding of the issues at hand. I explained how I revisited my site and looked at 10 more profiles to build up theory and my analysis. I also noted how grounded theory methods and Critical Race Theory guided my study, and the findings I came up with. I ended the chapter by noting the significance of my research.

102 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION

The title of my study is Fair-unfair: Prevalence of colorism in Indian matrimonial ads and married women’s perceptions of skin-tone bias in India. Starting with locating my entry point into the subject, and then moving onto scholarly research on the subject that informed my conceptual framework, I have looked at how colorism plays out in Indian matrimonial ads.

Although there are a number of matrimonial websites in India, each catering to similar and variant clientele, I chose to focus on two of the top websites, Shaadi and Bharat Matrimony. The historical overview helped me understand how these issues have played out in academia till date, as per my extensive—though by no means conclusive—readings. I have in pertinent sections of this thesis, elaborated on the methods I employed for sampling, coding and analyzing my data, and how grounded theory was critical in helping me arrive at my emergent themes. I have discussed, at length, the implications of the study and how it is significant in understanding the role of colorism in Indian matrimonial ads.

Even as I worked towards the completion of my research, I witnessed a huge upsurge in media advertisements calling out against colorism in India. In some of these ads famous Indian artistes endorse a clarion call to stop privileging fairer skin over darker skin tones. While two ads played an important part in the development of my research and hence were analyzed and discussed in the relevant chapters, the sheer number of ads—some promoted by FMCG giants such as Unilever and Proctor and Gamble—offer hope that the system may be facing changes.

Such changes are important, in my mind, because until society is able to stop equating fair with beautiful, it may well keep the binary alive too, viz., dark equal to not beautiful and unfit for fair treatment. 103 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

Limitations & Scope for Future Research

This study has some limitations. The sample chosen for this study is cross-sectional, meaning that the advertisements were all from the same year. Samples of matrimonial ads collected over a longer time period may be necessary to understand if online platforms are gradually (even if slowly) providing greater agency to women and reducing covert colorism.

Further, I only examined matrimonial ads on two leading online matrimonial platforms—

Shaadi and Bharat Matrimony—exploring the issue of colorism therein. Whether newspaper matrimonial ads, as well as other matrimonial websites in India have similar issues of colorism in their advertisements, is something I did not examine.

India is a multi-lingual, multi-cultural nation with 18 official languages and dozens of distinct cultural groups. Matrimonial ads are sharply divided along caste, and community lines

(e.g., Banerjee et al., 2013). Whether differences exist between linguistic groups and whether different linguistic groups in India have different styles of framing matrimonial ads, is a study waiting to happen.

There are other layers or distinctions between online and newspaper ads that were beyond the scope of this study. A content analysis of such data may add to that knowledge. I also looked at the ads posted at a particular date; then some weeks later; and finally, a few months later after my initial coding/data analysis. This was to look for the impact of the Times Matrimonial ad calling out against colorism, and the Shaadi presented poem that also requested a rejection of physical descriptors. This was in keeping with the grounded theory method that calls to revisiting site/adding data after initial analyses. I did not check for whether the people posting the matrimonial ads were aware of these two ads. That might have been done with a survey 104 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

instrument which was, again, beyond the scope of this study. A focus group may also be useful in gaining deeper insights into the issue.

The qualitative interviews did answer some of the “why” questions that the analysis of text threw up. However, more interviews, perhaps with younger or more recently married women who have undergone arranged marriages, would provide new perspective on changes that may have taken place in how and why ads are being worded the way they are today on online platforms. Lastly, more ethnographic studies can add to scholarly knowledge about how these ads are differently interpreted in specific cultural contexts. This would be able to take into account the large and widely spread Indian Diaspora and how this section of people post and react to matrimonial ads online.

Summary

As I conclude my study, I look back at the point where it all started, my topic and how I went about my research, without getting into repetitive details of each step of the process. The limitations and scope for future research were also mentioned here, even as I noted how winds of change are blowing across India—calling for an end to colorism and the myriad issues it brings with it.

105 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

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APPENDIX A: IRB APPROVAL LETTER

DATE: March 16, 2017

TO: Radhika Gajjala, PhD

Bowling Green State University

PROJECT TITLE: [735880-5] South Asian Digital Diasporas

SUBMISSION TYPE: Amendment/Modification

ACTION: APPROVED

APPROVAL DATE: March 16, 2017

EXPIRATION DATE: March 31, 2017

REVIEW TYPE: Administrative Review

Thank you for your submission of Amendment/Modification materials for this project. The Bowling Green State

University Institutional Review Board has APPROVED your submission. This approval is based on an appropriate risk/benefit ratio and a project design wherein the risks have been minimized. All research must be conducted in accordance with this approved submission.

• Sriya Chattopadhyay has been added as a co-investigator.

Please note that you are responsible to conduct the study as approved by the IRB. If you seek to make any changes in your project activities or procedures, those modifications must be approved by this committee prior to initiation. Please use the modification request form for this procedure. 118 COLORISM IN INDIA’S MATRIMONIAL ADS

ALL UNANTICIPATED PROBLEMS involving risks to subjects or others and SERIOUS and UNEXPECTED adverse events must be reported promptly to this office. All NON-COMPLIANCE issues or COMPLAINTS regarding this project must also be reported promptly to this office.

This approval expires on March 31, 2017. You will receive a continuing review notice before your project expires. If you wish to continue your work after the expiration date, your documentation for continuing review must be received with sufficient time for review and continued approval before the expiration date.

Good luck with your work. If you have any questions, please contact the Office of Research Compliance at

419-372-7716 or [email protected]. Please include your project title and reference number in all correspondence regarding this project.

This letter has been electronically signed in accordance with all applicable regulations, and a copy is retained with Bowling Green

State University Institutional Review Board’s records.