Yellow Yellow Dirty Fellow

 Why is yellow associated with fear? Do the origins lie in colonialism.."Yellow yellow dirty fellow!", as a kid this rhyme was recited with gay abandon and God save the kid who was dressed in yellow that day. Orientals are normally different from the black or white people, they are yellow and then there are the South Asians who are brown. Colour became the distinguishing factor with white assuming supremacy, and the others were obviously lower down in the pecking order. The Western civilisation perpetuated this myth on the lesser mortals more so since they were practically the rulers of the rest of the world. Since we were colonised for so long that we internalised this myth ourselves despite the fact that our own Gods did not adhere to this philosophy, with both Lord Rama and Krishna being depicted as dark in complexion. Generations after generations have been fed on this colour supremacy  so much so that even as kids we were subjected to all kinds of creams to achieve that divine glow. God forbid if a girl was dusky, parents would consider themselves doomed as  difficulty in looking for a suitable  groom would multiply manifold. 

The yellow flag area in the military is raises a stink. Yellow journalism is the flavour of the day, even BBC is  afflicted with the malaise, local electronic and print media is already beyond redemption. Jaundice infects the liver and there is a yellowish tinge in the eyes, nails etc as a result. No wonder yellow came to be associated with all things which are subpar. So much so that Yellow River was christened as ‘Sorrow of China’.

In contrast yellow is associated with spring in the Indic philosophy. Goddess Saraswati is worshipped on the Basant Panchami, people are dressed in yellow, eat keasariya bhat (saffron rice) which itself is yellow.  In fact saffron is associated with valour and sacrifice.

The Haldi (turmeric) ceremony is considered very auspicious on the occasion of marriages, where the bride and the groom are applied turmeric paste and the guests are all dressed in bright yellow. The stage is normally decked up with marigold flowers which too are bright yellow and look very elegant. Who hasn’t admired the bright yellow mustard fields, in fact Punjab is synonymous with the “Sarson da Saga”, which is not just the green gooey Sag but is laced with romance and fragrance of love which is in the air. You can’t help but fall in love with the picturesque setting, no wonder all Shahrukh’s romantic films have a this in the backdrop. Some of you who are more versed in the vernacular would probably recall, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan’s famous poem, “वीरों का कैसा हो वसंत (Veeron ka Kaisa Ho Vasant, How should the Spring be for the braves)” “फूली सरसों ने दिया रंग, मधु ले कर आ पहुंचा अनंग..(Fooli sarson ne diya rang, Madhu le kar Aa pahuncha anang, The flowering mustard has coloured the earth, Lord Kamdev has arrived with honeyed ecstasy…”) Even artistes can’t have enough of this bright colour, Vincent Van Gogh once said, “There is a Sun, a light that for want of another word I can only call yellow, pale sulphur yellow, pale golden citron, How lovely yellow is!” So the very source of life on the Earth is yellow. Van Gogh and his Sunflowers are absolutely bewitchingly beautiful, his favourite colour was obviously yellow. Yellow is one of the three primary colours, green is associated with vegetation, nature but metaphorically with envy and red is the colour of either romance or violence. 

Looking through the prism, we would recall we obtained the rainbow of VIBGYOR, violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red all together form part of the spectrum. Thank God for colours otherwise world would have been a very boring place if it was only black and white.