"...Because He (Tagore) Was 'Dark-Skinned'": Row Over Minister's Remark

Subhas Sarkar said that Rabindranath Tagore's mother discriminated against him because he was "dark".

Rabindranath Tagore is in the headlines quite out of the blue and for the most unusual reasons. This time, Union Minister Subhas Sarkar has controversially commented on the Nobel laureate's complexion and has suggested that his mother treated him differently because of it. During a visit to Visva Bharati University that was founded by Tagore, Mr Sarkar said that the Nobel laureate's mother discriminated against him because he was "dark". The colour of his skin, the minister added, was a "darker, more reddish shade of fair than the rest of the family". "Tagore's mother and some other relatives would not hold him in their arms because he was 'dark-skinned'," the minister claimed. "There are two kinds of fair complexions.  One that was bright yellowish and the other that was reddish. Tagore was fair but of the second variety and therefore was cuddled by his family less often than other fairer children," he said.