I turned to self-publishing as I could not find a mainstream publisher for it. OR may be I did not try hard enough, but whatever! Here it is. Some additions to suit my blog :P
The Indian mainstream media has openly declared Australia racist. Accusations of the country being unsafe, inhuman and unfair to it’s immigrants and international students are being hurled across throughout the nation. Opinion makers and the revered columnists of the country have also taken this opportunity to sling some mud at the education system in India. While all this is happening, it is perhaps time for us to hear the whole story from those who do not agree with the way this issue has been hyped up. The attacks on Indian students are much more complicated than just “racism”.
No one denies racism exists in Australia. Liam is an Irish construction worker here and is patient but firm when he says, "Australia is the most racist country I have seen in the world, and if I was given a dollar every time I have been asked to go home, I would be a millionaire now."
Sam Owen, a native of the Sunshine Coast studying at the University of Queensland opens up easily, “Australia is pretty racist mate! The media, the sports and our politics, we show it everywhere. But all of us are not like that, and the issue is different when it comes to attacks.” He is talking about online communities like “F*** On, We’re Empty”, which encourages Australians to accept other cultures migrating in, as opposed to hate-filled communities like “F*** off! We’re Full”. Moreover, while a lot of Indians did get beat up during the past few months, there were numerous incidents of white Australians being stabbed and mugged as well.
A famous Indian news website carried a story quoting statistics on how the number of attacks and robbery on Indians in Australia has gone up from 1083 to 1447 in the last one year. What they conveniently forgot to mention was that there have been more than 176,400 registered assault cases alone in Australia in 2007, up by more than 4000 cases since the previous year. It is evident that the statistics meant nothing in comparison to the overall situation and were just being thrown around to serve media's sensationalist attitude towards important issues. However, it is true that Indians are easier targets in a country where the crime is high anyway, as Liam says "Indians are visibly different and are defenseless and scared in a foreign country!"
Ramya and Deepak Kumar, a young family living in Melbourne since 2003, also have some other issues in mind. “We do believe some of the recent incidents have more to do with alcohol and drug abuse by the youth, than being racist in nature.” What they further say, and many others agree, is that while there are many instances of racism on the streets and the public transport, these attacks are not just because of racism.
For any new immigrant, it is very easy to assume that the culture here is rather nasty. “The culture makes you think that Aussies are brash and aggressive. They talk like that, they ask you frank, rude questions and they are harsh in their ways sometimes. But for them it is pretty normal. That is their culture and they still respect everyone.” says Gurtaj Singh Atwal, who was born and brought up in Australia. He sports a turban and a beard and plays cricket every weekend, typically Indian as he puts it, and he has been asked rude questions about his beard and turban, but disagrees that it is racism, it is just a misunderstanding of the culture on both sides, he says.
Some of these "curry bashings" are also due to ignorance. "They can’t easily differentiate between Fiji Indians, Malays, Singaporeans, Sri Lankans and Indians. We all look alike and our names don’t sound very different. We get classified in a broad group and type-casted.” says Rajesh*, who migrated 16 years ago and is now a respected member of the community in Melbourne. The type-casting is based on jobs and courses also. “Many Indian students here come for a hospitality course, and a taxi job. People are very surprised to hear if you come from a different faculty of studies.” says Shyam Mohan, a student at the Queensland University of Technology. So even if a few people of this wide demographic misbehave, the entire community is looked at as annoyingly inferior. Indians are victims of that misunderstanding. "I would say they are wrong, but no, they aren’t racist." adds Shyam.
But the burden of this misunderstanding falls heavily on the Indian camp. By and large, Indians have been known to form their own communities based on their religion or language and not mingle with the locals more than what is absolutely necessary. Shyam openly accepts it, “Most Indians here do remain in their communities, as they rarely hang out with Australian friends, and this itself projects a negative attitude towards the local people. They don’t get to know us properly.” Achuth Menon, who has lived in Brisbane for 12 years, has an instant example of what some think about India, “The other day my Aussie barber showed me a picture of an Indian barber shop – a guy sitting outdoors next to a banyan tree and cutting someone’s hair.” But Shyam quickly adds “We are the ones who have come here, we should go out and mingle, right?”
Achuth and Gurtaj also believe that students who study at the Universities and later settle here tend to do better than those who are placed here directly by job agencies. They have the advantage of knowing the Australian culture through their college lives. Also, people who come here in a mid-career stage for higher positions also do well. Nonetheless, the students who land here are definitely not completely equipped to face the culture and adopt it. “Indian students are far ahead academically, but on the social front – etiquettes, behaviour, language, etc., they need to be better.” says Rajesh*.
Videos of the supposed police atrocities on Indian protesters in Melbourne were rife in the media, but the news anchors chose to ignore the fact that the police had accepted the demands of the protesters and acknowledged their anger, and had requested them to move out of the roads to give way to the peak hour traffic. It was when they refused to budge, like they would in India, that they were subject to coercion.
The Kumars, Shyam, Achuth, and Rakesh strongly believe that some suburbs in Melbourne, Sydney and even Brisbane are indeed very dangerous and unsafe. But the reason is not racism alone. The roots lie in our education system, our misconceptions about the west and the Australian society and a misunderstanding between the people of both countries. As for the mainstream Indian media, the Kumars say it well, “More they call Aussies racists, more they will put all the Indians living here at risk. We should stand shoulder to shoulder with Australians and tackle the violence and not distract the efforts by putting a racism spin to it.”
*Name changed on request for anonymity.
The writer is a student at the Manipal Institute of Communication, Manipal and is presently on exchange with the University of Queensland, Brisbane.
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