This article, based on original research from 57 villages in four provinces from North and East India, sheds light on a hitherto unexplored gendered impact of colorism in facilitating noncustomary cross-region marriage migrations in India. Within socioeconomically marginalized groups from India’s development peripheries, the hegemonic construct of fairness as “capital” conjoins with both regressive patriarchal gender norms governing marriage and female sexuality and the monetization of social relations, through dowry, to foreclose local marriage options for darker-hued women. This dispossession of matrimonial choice forces women to “voluntarily” accept marriage proposals from North Indian bachelors, who are themselves faced with a bride shortage in their own regions due to skewed sex ratios. These marriages condemn cross-region brides to new forms of gender subordination and skin-tone discrimination within the intimacy of their marriages, and in everyday relations with conjugal families, kin, and rural communities. Because of colorism, cross-region brides are exposed to caste-discriminatory exclusions and ethnocentric prejudice. Dark-skin shaming is a strategic ideological weapon employed to extract more labor from them. The article extends global scholarly discussion on the role of colorism in articulating new forms of gendered violence in dark-complexioned, poor rural women’s lives.

本文基于印度北部和东部四个省的57个村庄的原始研究结果，阐明了迄今未曾探索过的性别歧视对促进印度非常规跨区域婚姻迁移的影响。在来自印度发展边缘的社会经济边缘化群体中，作为“资本”的霸权主义建设与控制婚姻和女性性的回归父权制性别规范以及通过嫁妆的社会关系货币化结合在一起，从而取消了较黑肤色的女性在当地的婚姻选择。这种对婚姻选择的剥夺迫使妇女“自愿”接受北印度单身汉的求婚，由于性别比例偏高，她们本身在自己的地区面临新娘短缺的问题。这些婚姻谴责跨区域的新娘，在其婚姻亲密关系中以及与配偶家庭，亲属和农村社区的日常关系中，采用新的性别从属和肤色歧视形式。由于存在色彩歧视，跨地区的新娘容易受到种姓歧视的排斥和以民族为中心的偏见。黝黑的皮肤是一种战略思想武器，可用来从中提取更多的劳动。这篇文章扩展了有关色教在阐明黑暗复杂的贫困农村妇女生活中新形式的性别暴力中的作用的全球学术讨论。跨区域的新娘容易遭受种姓歧视和种族歧视。黝黑的皮肤是一种战略思想武器，可用来从中提取更多的劳动。这篇文章扩展了有关色教在阐明黑暗复杂的贫困农村妇女生活中新形式的性别暴力中的作用的全球学术讨论。跨区域的新娘容易遭受种姓歧视和种族歧视。黝黑的皮肤是一种战略思想武器，可用来从中提取更多的劳动。这篇文章扩展了有关色教在阐明黑暗复杂的贫困农村妇女生活中新形式的性别暴力中的作用的全球学术讨论。