Mr. Saxena, I would like to let you know that things are not the way they look in Brazil. Brazilian society has a facade on top that makes it look very accepting, but there are big cracks in that society, which are only visible after you spend some time there. The European's are the dominating people in Brazil and contol everything, the Blacks and natives are always second. I would request you to research some more before writing articles.

Dear Saxena,
I totally agree with your view. I am here on a business trip and amused see the happy go jolly attitude of Brazilians, irrespective of their color, creed and race.

I think it’s high time for Indians take a tip from Brazilian on how to overcome the “color factor” from their thought process.

Suresh Kumar

Great obsevation. I used to live in Rio in 2002-2003 for a year and I had a wonerful time and pretty well experienced the same things. What you experieced in Brazil is also true throught all S. america and this may be due to the influnce of Pruguese and spanish culture, unlike British. The British wherever ther went did not use their power to exploit the women as much as the spanish did. The spanish totally changed the entire race in S America. Brazil is a beautiful country with long coastline, natural resources, jungles and has britghest future in the years to come. India and Brazil have lot to share and can prospure together.

Wonderful post! and 100% spot on...I have always wondered about this south american paradox myself, and now the answer is so clear. We need to overcome this bigotry ourselves...

An interesting insight into brazilian culture..to say the least.

you are right sir....india is the biggest market for cosmetic products.i see many boys like my friend spend lot of money for fairness, but still he cannot succeded.....
i am very glad to know about the brazilian paople mentalily,i hope they have more humanity then us...

ENJOY YOURSELF SHOBHAN AND HAVE AN EXTRA DRINK ON MY BEHALF COZ I TOO HAVE NO ISSUES WITH MY COLOR. MATTER OF FACT I QUITE LIKE THE OLD SAYING TALL DARK AND HANDSOME AND I AM ALSO REMINDED OF A PUNJABI FOLKSONG... KAALA SIYAH KALA, MERA KALA EI SARDAR, GOREYAN NU DAFA KARO!

Good lessons from Brazil. Really, differentiation on the basis of colour and caste should not be done. For our minds are polluted with myopic thinking, changes are required in our systems to broaden our horizons. We must appreciate intellect of persons irrespective of caste or colour.

I have been to Brazil a few times and I agree with what you are saying. Nobody gave a damn about my color and tried to speak with me in Portuguese. However, I disagree with your statement that there is no racism in Brazil. In fact, its pretty rampant. Anyone with dark skin is called Mullatta and you hardly see any dark skin in the Brazilian corporate sector. Everybody is white - mostly German descendants who never mixed.

The reason is simple: lighter skinned people are more intelligent than darker people, this is well proven fact, North Eropeans (German, Brits, Russian, Swiss, Swenden ...) and North Asian(Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Mongols) have alwasy dominated the world due to their higher IQs. THis won't change in the future.

Fantastic article and I asgree with the author on India bieng the most racist society in the world.

It is indeed heartening that people dont bother about the colour and i will not be noticed in the crowd, unlike in any European countries. As for the fairness creams, all companies marketing these items/FMCGs are criminals to creat this inferiority complex in ourselves. Thank god the advertisement - "Mr.Kale ki beti Gori" cannot be seen now a days. Shows how stupid and short sighted we are !!

Feudalism, colonialism, racism & casteism - all of these isms contribute to our mental make-up. Centuries of discriminatory attitudes would not disappear in 62 years of independance; Need much time to overcome these - extremists allowing.

Shobhan, one more great article from you. Congratulations. Your comparison of India and Brazil is superb. The two countries are similar, but we are mired in casteism and racism. I am looking forward to your post about the Carnival.

This is great stuff.

I agree with the author of this blog. Not only are we racists but also (in my opinion) the world's biggest hypocrites.

I totally agree with Karter, you must research before you post. This is like doing an AD work for an already visitor driven economy called BRA-ZEAL(Brazil)

There are people in India who will never accept there is anything wrong with their country. The fact is Indians are extremely colour conscious. The people with dark complexion are made fun of as 'Kaalu' and the so-called fair are worshipped as 'gora'. This attitude has destroyed many lives and made Indians a laughing stock of the world. The craze for whitening creams makes me wonder if India is going to become a country of one billion Michael Jacksons.

Visitors will always get enchanted by the facade. Karter is the only one who speaks sense. I have been in the US for 10 years and my view is much different from what it was 10 years ago. The grass always appears greener on the other side! But that is not to say that we Indians should adhere to our stupid casteist and religious bigotry!

shobhan I guess that recessive genes also play a part in deciding our genetic traits, so its not just with amalgamation of different races..........
Anyways good observation........

Well, the fact Yao Ming is Chinese does not prove all Chinese are taller than Russian. The fact there have been 5 Indian origin Nobel science winner does not prove darker people are smarter than white/light people. After all, 98% of all Nobel _science_ prize winners are Europeans and East Asians, likewise, 95% of all NBA players are black. What proof is sufficient ? How do you know Mahatma Gandhi& Nelson Mandela are more intelligent than Washington, Franklin, Lenin, Mao ?

What a poorly written article! About as superficial and shallow as the Bollywood stars peddling skin lightners.

Racism is alive and thriving in Brazil, as it does in India, the USA, Australia, Africa, Germany and China. That said, the gringo/white man fairs positively through this mess just about everywhere except in Zimbabwe...learn your facts. And TOI, c'mon, you're getting to be worse than a supermarket rag.

Mr. Saxena thanks for sharing your observations. I live in USA and I have known many Brazilians in California. They are wonderful people, full of life and they are like you said color blind. You will find similar societies in Americas, not counting USA and Canada. Also Cuba is another example. Remember the most racist western societies originated from England, Germany and Northern Europe. Wherever English went they took their racist mentality with them. Now Indians themselves have deep admiration for white skin while 99.9% Indians are between brown and black. But other prejudices also play important role in Indian social behavior, like caste, language, religion. We should realize it has a devastating effect on our children. Some Indian children growing up in US think they are black and lots of them feel misfit. I do agree that lots of societies and to a lesser extent Brazil and Cuba a fairer skin is desirable may be because our exposure to white races where fair is beautiful. I think it is the success of European society which attracts us. It is the law of the jungle(natural instinct) which dictates female species to pick the rich and powerful to support the next generation. After years of dating women of various races I have come to conclusion that brown is actually the most beautiful skin to have. so let us all say brown is the real beautiful.

Nice glimpse of brazil given by the writer but cannot seem to understand the logic behind the brahminical structure remark. This shows the writers rudimentary state of mind ... hello this is 2010 not early 1900s or before that. I am a brahmin and till now i havent asked any of my friends what their caste is unless they themselves have mentioned somewhere. My cousins are not even brown , they are black as they n their father were born n brought up in chennai, but they are brahmins so how does your theory hold true here? its true that my ancestors where due to their descrimination, but my parents and even my whole family or extended i have not heard anyone teaching anything bad about other castes, my brother married a muslim, we had no opposition but it was there from the girls side. But its sad that indians who are not brahmins put the blame on us for their deficiencies.. dont know what is going on in north india .. but here in south india no brahmin will care what caste the other person belongs to .. india means india it does not constitute only the northern part, and its appalling that leading newspaper like timesofindia allows blogs to be displayed in their website by the people who dont even know about their own country let alone brazil.

The writer has pointed out our(indian) mentality of getting fair at any cost, which is a good point.
But here instead of doing research on equality of black n white color in social economic structure, he seemed more interested in party culture there. To take anything influential and ideal, we have to check all the facts about it. Just partying cant help it.

Kill all the dark people, and world will be all white and rich! Look at the countries with dark people, Africa, India, bangeladesh... poor and dirty!

5 Indian scientists have won because they have got good opportunity to work not that they were more or less intelligent than Europeans . If Nobel prize is the only way to guess that someone is intelligent , then me and you are duffers since what is the proof that you did not receive nobel prize

Indians will never learn to love their skin nor will they accept that they are racist.

All the invaders who came into India startng with the Aryans were light skinned as compared to the original inhabitants of india -- the dravidians and indigenous tribals. the obsession with fair skin is very much a north indian, upper caste obsession. in the south, people were comfortable with their dark complexion. also the lower castes did not care about fair skin. but now it has become a national obsession to be fair.

Siddharth wrote: What was the color tone of Mahatma Gandhi?What is the color tone of Nelson Mandela?And btw are you aware who Obama is? ---

Well, the fact Yao Ming is Chinese and he is 226cm tall does not prove all Chinese are taller than Russians/Germans. Likewise, the fact there have been 5 Indian origin Nobel science winner does not prove darker people are smarter than white/light people, these are exceptions only! After all, 98% of all Nobel _science_ prize winners are Europeans and East Asians, just like 95% of all NBA players are black. To say Nelson Mandela is smart is like saying Mahatma Gandhi always wear a shirt! What? Nelson Mandela are more intelligent than Washington, Franklin, Lenin, Mao ? Washington smarter than Einstein ?

People should boycott all fairness creams and also the film stars who do propoganda for these products.

Brazil is Brazil and India is India. India will never change itself to become an inclusive country.

Very interesting article. great job.

Hi folks i'am brazilian we are know as one of the people who have the most mixed breed in the world.
So no one in Brazil is completely white and eveen green eyes and blod hair, there is always features black nose and a thicker,fuller lips, and black has characteristics of white peoples.
To say that prejudice is no exaggeration, but bias can guarantee that exception, in Brazil we have law to combat racism, can not nobody inferiorizar otherwise that person receives arrest.
In general we live very well.
I'm white, i have green eyes and my mother is dark black hair and there is no problem with that.
I fink the beaultiful black and white, mulatto,mestizo,whate matters is the human being is not his color.
I hope that India my learn to love the color, in Brazil we have learned it,black and white and native brazilians are also citizens.

Ps: Sorry for my English !!!

Hi folks i'am brazilian we are know as one of the people who have the most mixed breed in the world.
So no one in Brazil is completely white and eveen green eyes and blod hair, there is always features black nose and a thicker,fuller lips, and black has characteristics of white peoples.
To say that prejudice is no exaggeration, but bias can guarantee that exception, in Brazil we have law to combat racism, can not nobody inferiorizar otherwise that person receives arrest.
In general we live very well.
I'm white, i have green eyes and my mother is dark black hair and there is no problem with that.
I fink the beaultiful black and white, mulatto,mestizo,whate matters is the human being is not his color.
I hope that India my learn to love the color, in Brazil we have learned it,black and white and native brazilians are also citizens.

Ps: Sorry for my English !!!

All the bad things said about India (1.1 billion )is actually the the market potential of India.If all the poor people of India - 750 million (as said) and if they are to buy TV sets... how many TV sets...so to make them rich is what India Govt is trying to do since independence..and thats why MNCs are coming to India nad there is no recession in India. but it will take another 25-50 years to achieve this.pls wait..ref to TV is just for indication..
Regarding color bias...its human nature.. i am dark but i like white..vice versa... i do not know..

I.m pretty sure that Indians were racists even before the coming of the Raj.With the Hindu caste system it was inevitable that racism and intolerance were deeply ingrained in the Hindu psyche. Have a look at the paintings of the rulers of pre Raj India and you will see that the maharanis and womenfolk of the upper classes were invariably white or near white.
Most Bollywood female stars are invariably fair skinned and i have never heard of a famous black Indian.Yes you are up there with the worlds worst racists

reply to Eric .I agree with your assesement of the worlds worst shithole and only hope that Indians can make it better.

This is the normal response of a tourist - to go gaga over a new place and its positives. Yes Brazil is colour blind as it has seen great miscegenation over centuries at the plebeian level though there is an aristocracy that is of European extraction that controls the society and politics at the top. Yet Brazil faces severe social problems. It has one of the highest crime rates in the world, great inequalities, a callous government and aristocracy, mafia who control the teeming drugs and prostitution trades and poor governance overall. Despite being nominally catholic, sex is the second only to football as the chosen pastime of Brazilians. It has the largest number of AIDS sufferers in the world!

Yes, while one must admire the absence of colour consciousness and absence of the "caste" system among the ordinary people of Brazil, let us no overboard and assume they are a role model for India.

its very true that we are still stuck in those narrow minded thoughts, which we very badly need to break away from...we all need to learn something from Brazil and its ever welcoming people.