Does colour play a part in the social hierarchy?
No. Hair is the marker. People who have straight hair are believed to be of Indian origin. But we are also into colour textures here. A C.L.R. James short story describes a woman as so black that she couldn’t have been African. And a Muslim woman told me about a ruckus over a cousin’s marrying a Black Muslim. Do East Indians feel superior to Africans? People of Indian origin, although not from upper castes, will mobilise the ancientness of Indian culture to claim superiority. In indentureship over slavery, Indians were paid wages, allowed to keep their languages, religion and music. In the Black Power Movement (1970) the Blacks said, let’s recover our culture like the Indians. Since Africans had their cultural memory completely erased, they invent African names and dress. Then the Indians said, let’s recover Indian culture like them. The major source of this culture is Bollywood. Why do East Indians claim this `low’ culture, instead of what is perceived as the ancient classical `high’
