The archetype of the Indian woman has been grossly misrepresented throughout the movie industry. In India, colorism paved a path for pale Europeans to play main leads over darker-skinned, Desi natives. In America, the stereotype of an undesirable, thick-accented, GPA gunning IT guru manifested in side character roles. Therefore, one can confidently say Mindy Kaling has made major strides in bringing Indian women to the forefront of Western media. Through her characters, she ensured darker-skinned Indian women were brought out of side character roles and celebrated for more than a lack of social skills.
For all her progress, however, Kaling simply replaced one harmful stereotype with another: creating insecure characters that valued white-male validation. It’s one thing if the occasional character fits this role, it’s another when you spotlight Indian women in American media and intentionally make every single creation fit a one-dimensional, reductive archetype. Let’s delve into how each of her characters fail to depict Indian women with dignity.
1. Kelly from The Office
Kaling had forged a revolutionary path through Kelly’s characters, especially since The Office was created when Desis hardly played roles besides extras. I adored how Kelly’s personality extended beyond being “Indian,” rather being a woman who loved fashion, was highly sociable, and worked a job besides a doctor or engineer. As Kelly’s character obsessed over Ryan, the good-looking white boy of The Office gang, I fell for the appeal that an Indian girl found love beyond her ethnic community. However, I didn’t realize the toxic patterns of such characters until I viewed Kaling’s other shows.
2. Mindy from The Mindy Project
Yet again, I gave Kaling the benefit of the doubt. The fact that she made an entire show centered around an Indian character is impressive enough. Sure, Mindy Lahiri fits the usual doctor stereotype, and is it just a coincidence that every love interest is a white man? Maybe. With Lahiri, I admired how her culture, career, and love life intersected like most others, but what about the Desis who don’t want to be doctors? What about the Desis who don’t care for love? What about the Desis who don’t have strong ties to their culture? Unfortunately, none of these questions were answered in subsequent shows.
3. Devi from Never Have I Ever
Kaling found a beautiful way to represent familial trauma and turbulent teenage emotions impacting Indian women like any other woman, but above this, Devi was no different than Mindy’s previous creations—a girl thirsting for the lustful eye of men, all while inhaling AP books and aiming for Princeton. Although the characters were beautifully diverse in race, religion, and sexual orientation, it felt incredibly disappointing that Devi perpetuated what Desi women simply aren’t.
4. Bela from The Sex Lives of College Girls
I appreciated Bela’s uninhibited, adventurous nature; being the party girl of the group rather than the studious, introverted recluse felt liberating to watch. However, the fourth time around, Kaling presents yet another woman who obsesses over sex with white men. By this point, I could only conclude that Kaling was trying to live vicariously through her characters, possibly trying to fill a void of her “dull” high school and college past. One might think she is trying to dismantle conservative stereotypes towards dating and sex in Desi culture, but if every character prior accomplished that, it only seemed she was trying to use inaccurate, objectifying stereotypes to live out some fantasy of her youth.
Conclusion
To have proper representation, the ticket is diversity—not just diversity by race, gender, or sexual orientation, but by personality. With every character Kaling created, she had a power the rest of us don’t possess so readily. Although celebrities don’t necessarily vow to be good role models, I do feel they should be mindful of how their work reflects upon society. While Kaling did phenomenally in removing the Ravi and Baljeet stereotype, she created her own that can do just as much damage to how society views Indian women. She may have forged her own path for Desis in the media, but the rest of us can use our own platforms to speak up and embody what it means to be a three-dimensional, proud Desi of our own right.