Racial attacks in Australia: Reasons and solution

The governments of India and Australia have to take urgent steps to douse the flames. Australian government's initiative after the recent spate of attacks is laudable, what is important is to instill a sense of security among the Indian students

CJ: Wayfarer

Tue, Aug 11, 2009 11:44:53 IST

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racial attack on Indian students :

THE RECENT incidents of attacks on some Indian students in Australia have left a bad taste in the mouth in both India and Australia. This has reminded me of my own stay in Australia for three months on a fellowship in 2005. From my personal experience, I can vouch for the fact that I have never faced any racial slurs/attacks in Australia during my stay across various cities of Australia.

One of the main reasons for the recent spate of violence could be the worldwide economic downturn. Many Australians have lost their jobs and have either seen their jobs vanish or have seen that their jobs have gone to someone sitting in Bangalore or Hyderabad who is willing to work for much lower wages. This could also be the reason for the rage against Indians among some of the recent attackers.

The Indian students in Australia generally prefer to stick to their close friends (which sometimes means fellow Indians from the same part of India). This is a natural human instinct, especially when one is far away from one’s country. However, this may be taken by some Australians as being unwilling to accept Australian culture and customs.

Most of the recent attacks have taken place in outlying areas of the bigger cities, which are generally crime-prone. So these attacks may be more of rowdies attacking some innocent victims rather than Australians targeting Indians. Many of the Indian students who are in Australia now come from smaller towns and cities and are not as fluent in English as their earlier counterparts. This proves to be a handicap in their interaction with Australians and Australian society. Then there is the element of culture shock when these students land up directly in Australia from middle-town India.

Besides some of these students are duped by agents in both India and Australia with a promise of admission in some of the best universities in Australia, which is not always the case. Obviously it leads to a great degree of frustration and resentment in those students once they land up in Australia and find that they have been cheated (as has been proved by some recent incidents wherein some institutes have shut shop after these frauds were discovered). Ragging by seniors could be another reason for the recent outbreak of violence. However, it needs to be added that there have been many instances of students committing suicide in India after being ragged by seniors and/or subjected to physical or verbal abuse. A big difference between the earlier generation of Indian students and the present generation is the fact that the new generation of Indian students see themselves as citizens of an emerging superpower and expect to be treated as such.

One of the main lessons to draw from the unfortunate incidents of the recent past would be to increase the amount of interaction between Australian and Indian students and introduce pre-departure briefing for Indian students. Another step forward would be an increase in the number of fellowships for Indian students to go to Australia and vice-versa.

During my stay in Australia, I have got help from numerous people including some perfect strangers. I have kept in touch with some of these Australians ever since and have met them during their visits to India. Australia and India have some areas wherein both the governments have agreed to disagree but this does not mean that the two countries have no similarities.

The governments of the two countries have to take urgent steps to douse the flames. While the initiatives taken by the Australian government after the recent spate of attacks is laudable, what is most important is to instill a sense of security among the Indian student populace.

The Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna’s visit to Australia will help the two governments to devise a joint strategy to address the issue. The Australian police also needs to bring to book immediately the culprits involved in the recent attacks on Indian students.

There will always be some bad apples (in both Australia and India) but they should not be allowed to spoil the barrel.

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Posted comments (1)

	dude...you're a complete idiot. you have no idea what the hell your talking about. Racial attacks are based on race, skin color, ethnicity. Aussie thugs see us desi's as easy targets BECAUSE we are away from home. Why the hell do u think it's so easy to get bulliet at boarding school or to get bullied at school period? Because you are not in your familiar surrounding. Those who are familiar will take advantage of that fact. You say to increase the interactions between desis and aussie, but in the beginning you say desis stick to their own kind...Hypocrite much?
	aussie withrawal \| 12 August 2009 Reply to Comment \| New Comment \| Report Abuse

You are entitled to your own opinion..however, the article is based on my personal stay in Australia(for a few months) and my interactions with Aussies..in Delhi, NCR..people from the Northeastern part of India are called Chinkies, harassed, raped etc-is that not racism?

wayfarer | 13 August 2009