Sarada Muraleedharan, Kerala’s Chief Secretary, has hit out at social media users ridiculing her for her dark complexion and colorist barbs comparing her work with that of her husband — former Kerala Chief Secretary V Venu. Ms Muraleedharan succeeded Mr Venu in the top bureaucrat’s post.
In a long post on Facebook, the 1990-batch IAS officer said she heard a comment on her performance as Chief Secretary: “that it is as black as my husband’s was white”.
“I need to own my blackness. This is a post I made today morning, and then deleted because I was flustered by the flurry of responses. I am reposting it because certain well wishers said that there were things there that needed to be discussed. I agree. So here goes, once again,” she wrote.
The senior officer wrote of the “relentless parade of comparisons” with her husband ever since she took over. “It was about being labelled black (with that quiet sub text of being woman), as if that were something to be desperately ashamed of. Black is as black does. Not just black the colour, but black the ne’er do good, black the malaise, the cold despotism, the heart of darkness.
“But why should black be vilified? Black is the all pervasive truth of the universe. Black is that which can absorb anything, the most powerful pulse of energy known to humankind. It is the colour that works on everyone, the dress code for office, the lustre of evening wear, the essence of kajol, the promise of rain,” she wrote.
Ms Muraleedharan wrote of her childhood insecurity over her complexion. “As a four year old I apparently asked my mother whether she could put me back in her womb and bring me out again, all white and pretty. I have lived for over 50 years buried under that narrative of not being a colour that was good enough. And buying into that narrative. Of not seeing beauty or value in black. Of being fascinated by fair skin. And fair minds, and all that was fair and good and wholesome. And of feeling that I was a lesser person for not being that which had to be compensated somehow,” she wrote.
“Till my children. Who gloried in their black heritage. Who kept finding beauty where I noticed none. Who thought that black was awesome. Who helped me see. That black is beautiful. That black is gorgeousness. That I dig black,” she added.
The senior bureaucrat’s brave words have drawn appreciation from across the spectrum. Among the ones who praised Ms Muraleedharan is VD Satheesan, Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly. Mr Satheesan wrote that every word in her post is “heart-touching”. He also said his mother had a dark complexion and that this issue must be discussed.
Ms Muraleedharan has earlier served in key roles, including as Director General, National Institute Of Fashion Technology, at the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, as COO at National Rural Livelihoods Mission and as executive director of the Kudumbashree mission.
