An egalitarian understanding of colour

Very recently, the cricketing legend Sir Michael Holding of West Indies delivered an impassioned speech on racism and colour consciousness, prior to a test match between England and West Indies. The essence of his thought-stirring speech was— if we educate ourselves and evolve, these colour-based differences shall vanish forever. Yes, to eradicate this obnoxious and inveterate idea of racial and colour supremacy, we all need to evolve collectively.

It is not the skin-pigmentation that is of any importance or consequence, it is the inner fabric of an individual that is of paramount significance. Hadis (not Hadith, that’s erroneous and started by the Indian scribes) say—Aztam ul-faam ya niz insaan shghist (It’s the human not his/her colour that matters). Urdu poet Nooh Narvi says, “Seerat ke hum ghulaam hain, soorat nahin toh kya/Hoorein falak ki shaida theen, Hazrat Bilaal par” (I respect a person’s persona and not his/her countenance/The houries of the heaven were smitten by Bilaal).

It is worthwhile to mention that Hazrat Bilaal was the first muazzin (one who calls the devout followers to the mosque for prayers) of Islam who hailed from North Africa. His skin-colour was pitch-dark and he was of African origin.

What’s important is—we all need to have an egalitarian understanding of colour equality and consciousness. On what basis, can we call ourselves evolved if we still adhere to prejudices that this colour is desirable and that colour is undesirable? Urdu poet Sahir Ludhianavi aptly penned, “Rang aur nasl, zaat aur mazhab/Jo bhi ho aadmi se kamtar hai” (Whether it’s colour, race, creed or anything/Human is most sublime and supreme; all other concerns and considerations are subservient to the intrinsic greatness of a human).

We all need to rise above this quotidian pettiness to call ourselves to be veritably emancipated and really evolved. The ingrained misconception that the black is bad or a black person is a sub-human, belonging to a subaltern society must be removed and plucked out of the collective human conscience. Let’s look forward to having a seamless world sans any silly differences.