Kerala CS sparks discussion on her skin colour (2025)

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 26 (UNI) Kerala Chief Secretary Ms Sarada Muraleedharan has sparked a discussion on discrimination she faces due to her skin colour.
In a Facebook post, the Chief Secretary said, "Heard an interesting comment yesterday on my stewardship as chief secretary – that it is as black as my husband’s was white. Hmmm. 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 said in her post on March 25.

"Why did I want to call this particular one out? I was hurt, yes. But then these last seven months have been a relentless parade of comparisons with my predecessor, and I have become quite inured. It was about being labelled black (with that quiet sub text of being woman), as if that were something to be desperately ashamed of," she said.
"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."

"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," she said.
"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 said.

"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 concluded.
UNI DS KK