It's no secret that Indian culture, society, and people are obsessed with fair skin, and equate it to beauty.
Inherent to the worship of fair skin is the harmful and stupid implication that dark skin is undesirable.
Multiple movements have been launched to ban fairness products and celebrate dark skin over the years...
But, perhaps, none has been as viral as this selfie that a woman took with her cousins a year ago.
The image, titled "The Faces Of India They Won't Show You", was uploaded on a Facebook page called The Uncanny Truth Teller 2 page two weeks ago, and has been shared over 40,000 times already.
The photo was originally posted on Instagram by Singapore resident Abirami Ravichandran Pillai, as part of #UnfairAndLovely – a global campaign to celebrate dark skin.
"I had no idea a simple selfie with my cousins would go so viral. At one point, I was uploading a picture to my Instagram, as I do. The next thing I know, it's being shared on Facebook a few thousand times," Pillai told BuzzFeed.
The image has prompted people from around the world to applaud dark skin, and show a big middle finger to the idea that fairness is a virtue.
People even started posting their own selfies in the comments to announce that they were proud of their complexion.
"I was darker than most of my siblings and cousins and was always compared to them. There was always a sense of inferiority complex," Pillai told BuzzFeed.
"But as I grew, I learned to accept and embrace my complexion and I found myself to be a much happier person."
