Abstract
This chapter explores a number of standpoints on representations of Indian women, including those from Orientalists, cultural anthropologists, postcolonial scholars and feminists. It traces the development of the ‘new Indian woman’ and the historical factors which led to the conception that beauty is defined by white skin in the global marketplace. Some of the themes and tensions prevalent in the literature help to inform the framework used for the analysis of beauty/lifestyle features and skin care/fashion advertisements undertaken in other chapters. Complex ideas relating to skin colour are elucidated in order to help the reader to understand the socially constructed nature of whiteness, a phenomenon which, it will be seen, is subject to a multitude of influences.
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