At a party last night, a friend asked me what was going on in Australia with so many recent horrific attacks on Indians. What could I say? It’s not pleasant to think that there are such bad incidents of racism happening in my own country.
In recent years, Australia has become very multicultural with huge influxes of Indians, Chinese, Saudi Arabians, and other ethnic groups. To put it in perspective, according to current news reports, an estimated 430,000 international students arrive in Australia to study every year. Almost 100,000 of them are Indians. That’s quite a lot.
I’m pleased to say that on the whole, Australians are very accepting of other cultures. Personally, political correctness aside, I think that some immigrants could make more of an effort to learn to speak English and integrate themselves into the Australian way of life. I also feel extremely irritated when certain religious groups, such as Muslims, call for occasions such as Christmas to be turned into a nameless “festival” in Australia. However, I accept that these people have chosen to make their home in Australia, and I’m not going to go around harming them. Nor will most other Australians.
In fact, immigrants have contributed so much to Australia with their work ethic and culture. Food is a good example of this. So many Australians would be lost without their favourite Indian, Chinese, or Italian restaurants.
Obviously, not everyone feels the same way about multiculturalism in Australia though. Especially, not the young guys who are carrying out racist attacks on people from other countries. (I’m not going to say that the attacks have only been directed towards Indians because I’m sure that other nationalities, such as Vietnamese and Saudi Arabians, have also been on the receiving end of this awful behaviour).
So, what in particular has brought on such aggression towards other cultures and international students in Australia?
There seems to be a growing anxiety in Australia towards the changing nature of society. It’s only compounded by the poor state of the Australian economy at the moment.
Australian universities have been facing severe financial pressure as a result of cutbacks in government funding, and competition for places is high. Universities have started offering more and more places to high fee paying foreign students, to supplement their income.
The job market is also suffering in Australia. Many of my friends have lost their jobs this year, and after months of searching, still haven’t been able to find new ones. Unfortunately, there is a perception that Indians take jobs away from Australians. No doubt this has been driven by the outsourcing boom in India, as well as the fact that Indian students are often seen doing menial jobs (such as serving in shops and petrol pumps) at all hours in Australia. This causes uneducated working class Australian males, who have apprehension about their own futures, a lot of anxiety.
Then, there’s the attitudes of Australian students themselves. One report in the Times of India today claimed that Australian students have been spewing hate towards foreign students on university message boards. Complaints have included that “they only speak in their own language to each other”, “they’re snobs”, “they don’t understand English”, “they gather in huge groups and block common walking areas”, and “it’s difficult to work with them on group projects”.
In an interview that appeared in the Mumbai Mirror today, an Indian guy living in Sydney told of how he was spat on and called a “filthy Indian” by a bunch of 20 year olds. He also said he felt like he faced an everyday battle to be judged according to his personality and not his ethnicity.
However, despite this, he said he was happier in Australia than in India. He said that he’d rather deal with ignorant and sporadic acts of racism in Australia than corrupt politics, inter-caste/religion fighting, nepotism, and the government’s lack of foresight in planning and developing infrastructure in India.
I think his mention of “ignorant and sporadic acts of racism” pretty much sums up the situation. It’s all too easy for the media to sensationalise this issue.
Therefore, I was very disappointed to discover that my favourite Bollywood actor, the Big B (Amitabh Bachchan), has reversed his decision to accept an honourary doctorate offered to him by an Australian university. He came out with a gross generalisation, stating “… my conscience doesn’t permit me to accept this decoration from a country that perpetrates such indignity towards my fellow countrymen”.
“A country”? How can a few perpetrators be classed as “a country”? The Australian government is just as upset about the incidents as most Australians are.
And what about the ORGANISED indignities perpetrated towards his fellow countrymen by his fellow countrymen, right here in Mumbai? I’m referring to the behaviour of the Thackerays and their political parties. They are well known for frequently resorting to violence to drive Indian immigrants from other states, particularly Uttar Pradesh, out of the city. They resent them coming here to find work, and perceive them as taking jobs away from Maharastrans. Very little is done to curb the violent actions of these political parties.
Now, what if a political party and its followers in Australia went around, in an organised manner, bashing up immigrants to get rid of them?
Like
Related Posts:
- Returning to Australia
- The Wisdom of Indian Politics
- Violence in Australia Isn’t Only Towards Indians
- The Rigors of Education in India
- Republic Day in India
- Vindaloo Against Violence in Australia
- The Indian Inferiority Complex
- A Tale of an Indian’s Adaptation Abroad
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
“ That is not always true 
...
{ 107 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
@ Sharell
“I’ll have to start deleting your comments!”
———————————————————————————————
Yeah sure , you can. After all , its your blog.
@ Praveen.
I can see , you are still discussing it from the different angle of Hinduis vs Other religion.when its not a religion thing.
What SC wanted to proclaim that the word “Hindu” and “Hinduva” are not religion-centric. Because originally the term was derived by some Arabian Traders ,who prefer to call resident of Indian subcontinent as “Sindhu” because of geographical position of India , which is across the Sindhu River.As time passed “Sindhu” became “Hindu” and “Sindh” became “Hind”.
Even muslim called it “Hindustan” , what does that really mean?? It didnt really mean India is a place of “Hindu” people. It simply meant Its a place of people who basically followed very or some doctrines of “Sindhu Valley” and Vedic civilisation for mpst part of the History.
Infact many of your statements are contradictory while talking about assimilation and the Native americans.One hand , you strongly recommend assimilation to local culture and on the other hand you justify the alteration and conrnering of culture of Amerindians by European invaders.Why those Europeans didnt assimilate in Native-American culture??
Just because they had more power..isnt it???
Umm, Europeans who went to North America weren’t immigrants. They were invaders. I think it’s well acknowledged that what they did was horrible and not correct at all. Where, pray, did you get the idea that I was condoning that act? The only reason they were able to do it was because, yes, they WERE more powerful. That doesn’t make it right but it’s a fact. It’s also a fact that they are now present in far greater numbers than the Native Americans themselves. The Native American culture, however, is still alive and kicking wherever Native Americans are present and no American I’ve spoken to has much of a problem with that.
I’m still confused of exactly why you decided to confuse the issue by comparing twenty first century globalization to eighteenth century colonialism.
You haven’t answered me intelligently on the election code of conduct issue on which the judgement was actually based. Instead, you have just repeated your earlier argument.
Anyway, in deference to Sharell’s discomfiture with where this thread is heading, let’s agree to disagree and stop arguing. At least, I will.
@ Praveen
“I’m still confused of exactly why you decided to confuse the issue by comparing twenty first century globalization to eighteenth century colonialism.
You haven’t answered me intelligently on the election code of conduct issue on which the judgement was actually based. Instead, you have just repeated your earlier argument.
————————————————————————————-
Colonisation is in fact a 15th century phenomenon.But 15th century’colonisation or 21st century’s globalistion,parameter and standards of assimilation cant change so drastically.If someone think so then Its biased thinking.
Invaders or Immigrators,Nobody really has the right to supress people physically ,culturally ,socially in their own land.It happened all over the world , even in Australia , where aborigins were treated so badly.
My simple point is that , why is there a condition of assimilation when visiting European , American countries , when they dont reciprocate while visiting , invading or immigrating Asian countries.
I mean why should Americans , Europenas or Australians crib about their culture “beeing ignored” when they didnt and dont care about the native cultures of countries while visiting, immigrating or invading other countries.They changed the very culture of native people and now they object when just a littele bit of their social surrounding is shown a presence of new culture.(if all things are with-in the law of land)
It was you who brought Election Code of Conduct in the discussion of “Indian Culture” and “Hinduism”, which is not relevant to the issue.
I quoted Supreme Court ‘ verdict for the content about Hinduism and not for the background of Election.
Even If I completely ignore Supreme Court’s verdict , the fact about Hinduism and Indian Culture wont change.
I dont want to discuss Election code of conduct because ,firstly it is not relevant and secondly it will bring many issues related to it , like corruption , politics etc , etc , which have been already beeing discussed in other threads.
As for , Sharell’s discomfort, I would not stop discussing anything because , Sharell want us to do that.This type of thoughts-policing is really not appreciated by me, which literally violates the very objective of any blog, if the comments are not offensive enough to stop the discussion.
We are not machines , who can act in a linear way.
Baat nikli hai to dur talak jayegi.
The discussion doesn’t bother me… it bothers other readers who aren’t interested in it. They read the comments section in the hope of finding out more on the topic of the post… not discussion that has digressed into all manner of other things!
Yeah right, let’s all of us Asians team up and hold present day Americans responsible for what their Ancestors did hundreds of years ago. Is that what you’re advocating? Because the political and social environments are just the same today, right?
YOU mentioned the Supreme Court verdict first, and asked me what was so dangerous about it, to which I replied and expected an answer which you didn’t provide. Instead, you carry on writing a sodding essay about how much White Europeans abused Native Americans. Yes they did. But that was centuries ago. It’s NOT acceptable now and people born in the present day and age had no control over what their ancestors did and did not do. How do you know that “parameters can’t change drastically”? Upto the 1960s, and even later, racism was considered an acceptable government practice. It’s no longer acceptable. If perceptions can change that much in fifty years, how much do you think can change in five hundred?
I’ve already said I agree to disagree with you. Must you continue to argue? Because this is not a discussion, it’s an argument. You’re not willing to open your mind to my viewpoint and I’m not open to yours either. You can shoot my theory full of holes and I can shoot your theory full of holes but we still won’t agree. Therefore, we must disagree amicably. No one’s policing your thoughts. You can keep posting as much as you like. Just don’t expect any replies from me because I’ve discussed this topic as much as I wanted.
Ciao, mate.
@ Praveen
Agreed !!!
Because….
“Hungama Khada Karna mera mksad nahin,
Meri koshish hai suretin badalni chahiye,
Mere sine mein nahin tere sine mein sahi,
Ho kahin aag magar yeh , aag jalni chahiye.”
← Previous Comments