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‘Dark is Divine’: Why are Hindu Gods always fair-skinned?

Titled 'Dark is Divine', the project is a departure from the "post-colonisation hangover" and the belief that "fair is superior".

Most Hindus grow up with a defined image of a God or a Goddess in their minds — remarkably beautiful, covered in jewels and strikingly fair-skinned. Which makes one ponder, why are Hindu Gods often represented as fair when Hindus themselves are chiefly dark-skinned?

The same thought plagued the minds of Chennai-based production house Slingshot Creations co-founder Bharadwaj Sundar and forced him to question colourism in the portrayal of Hindu Gods and that is how the idea of a beautiful photo series, titled ‘Dark is Divine’, was conceived. The photo series reimagines Hindu Gods as dark-skinned. While they do not claim that all Gods aren’t fair, they only aim to normalise the dark skin in an effort to be more inclusive of a swarthy complexion.