A virtual riot of colours

Colours are what attracted artists to the natural world and make it Instagram-able today. However, beauty aside, these various tones are used by flora and fauna to attract, and identify friend from foe. They also serve as signals to warn and repel potential attackers, as food processing systems, and as camouflage.

Humans use colour in a variety of ways too — as a form of prejudice, as a standard during war and in national flags. They are applied in systems of regulation, administration and governance.  The LGBT community identifies with the rainbow.

In the everyday, many of us express ourselves and our emotions through these pigments. Even songs use its magic — Paul McCartney in ‘Ebony and Ivory’, and Nena in ‘99 Red Balloons’ used colour to share their views about the world. 

In fact, these tones are such an integral part of us that they have become part of our lexicon. When used in non-medical terms, colour blind refers to being secular, ‘white as a sheet’ describes a person’s physical or mental condition, while ‘seeing red’ is indicative of anger. Calling someone yellow suggests cowardice.  

Religion has imbibed colour, too. Catholics use blue when depicting Virgin Mary because to them, it symbolises purity and royal status. Many Hindu gods are also portrayed with blue skin, but, it signifies different things in relation to that particular god. For example, Lord Shiva is depicted blue because he drank poison generated by the sea being churned by gods and demons, thereby saving them. However, as the association with blue has also to do with bravery and moral character — therefore, Lord Ram is depicted blue. At the end of the day, in Hinduism, blue signifies the infinite, yet, it is the colour saffron that binds all Hindus because it is associated with fire and purity, asceticism and sacrifice. Saffron is also part of the Indian flag. 

Green, meanwhile, is linked to Islam, because of its connection to paradise. A passage from the Quran states that people in paradise ‘will wear green garments of fine silk’. Green is also a part of the Indian national flag, but these colours in the flag have nothing to do with religion.

Armed forces are identified through coloured uniforms. The Navy wears white. In India, the Air Force wears Blue, while the Army uses olive green.  

Political parties in the past have used facets of militarism to project strength and coerce citizens. Further, they have used quasi-military training to brainwash and instill nationalism in their cadre, giving them distinct uniforms. Often members of these outfits were known by the colour of their uniforms. For example, Brown Shirts, also known as Sturmabteilung, were the Nazi Party’s original paramilitary, while the Black Shirts or the Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale was the paramilitary of Mussolini’s National Fascist Party.  

White nationalists in the US wear khaki pants and white polo shirts — an everyday combination — to mainstream themselves and their ideology.

Colours have been used to mock the right-wing too. In 2009, the ‘Pink Chaddi’ campaign sprouted in India in response to fundamentalists attacking women in pubs. The attackers believed that it was against Indian culture for women to drink or visit such establishments. They also threatened to marry off young men and women found together on Valentine’s Day. Though these violent incidents occurred in the city of Mangalore, the campaign received nationwide support and media attention. 

In the US, Pink Pussyhats were used by participants of the early days of the Women’s March; the colour and suggestion of female anatomy was a nod to Trump’s misogyny and a symbol of feminism. 

However, many began to question the colour and the suggestion of female genitalia of this apparel. The objection was it excluded women of colour, trans and non-binary women. The life cycle that this metaphor went through — from an empowering and feminist paraphernalia to being viewed as exclusionary — indicates the variety of strong interpretations that colour generates even within groups with common philosophies. 

Political ideologies and parties have adopted colours to either serve as their name or be an easily identifiable visual representation of their tenets. 

In modern times, the Green Parties are associated with environmental protection and social equity. Red is associated with communism, black with the anarchists and saffron is identified with the growing Hindutva ideology in India.

In a Freudian twist, the US Republican party shares a colour with communists. Republicans raise the bogey of socialism and communism to tarnish opponents. They fail to see the irony of red becoming the background on which MAGA stands proudly.  

Though not anarchists, Hong Kongers protesting China’s growing influence have adopted black, even as white has become linked to marauding gangs violently targeting these protesters. 

Colours are once again shifting from innocent fashion preferences to potent ideological statements rallying the common person. 

In the process, they are taking over, if not muddying, traditional colour-ideology marriages. In the ongoing trade war between China and America, the only point of confluence is the red and the possibility that MAGA hats are manufactured in China.  In India, the saffron now espouses an ideology that has less to do with its ancient connotations. In fact, it would seem that the current concept of purity has more to do with establishing a Hindu mono-culture.

The fine symbiotic co-existence of colours in the natural world is an ongoing process of evolution. Similarly, in the human world, the understanding and use of colours is constantly unfolding. 

However, this push and pull becomes menacing when one tone desires to overwhelm and coerce the rest.  History has shown that such attempts to bowdlerise have finally led to failure.

Author has worked in the development sector