Attack on Indian Students in Australia: Crime Against Humanity

The world is one family or “Vasudev Kutumbkam” is what defined the globalism enshrined in the Vedic thoughts. As is reality, the world is shrinking into a Global Village in terms of communication. However, there’s a cultural gap arching over the fissures of racism and bigotry that hinders the development of panoptic world. The spate of racial attack on Indian students in Australia once more breached the conduct of global peace and harmony. Curry bashing as Australian define it are incidents of mugging and bashing Indians. Curry bashing seems to have apparently evolved as the new fad for Australians. The entire Australian community may not be responsible for the recent attacks, but the authorities and police have been delinquent in the matter. Whatever the arguments or reason may be whether racial or opportunistic, its crime against humanity that calls for a panacea.

Murder of yet another Indian student by Australian hate gangs spills fresh blood from the healing wounds. This time its was a 21 year old, accounting student, Nitin Garg. The attack could impede the amending relationship between the two emerging economies. It’s high time to consider, which of the two nations will be on the receiving end.

Untamed chauvinism

It’s fact and no humbugging, the currying spree continued for over two months and still the cause of concern for aspiring students looking for future in the World’s top class universities in Australia. If not the entire currying episode it was in fact a bashing on their humanity. Thousands of Indians living in Australia and their near ones back in India are having sleepless nights after the spate of hate attacks.

Is it chauvinism or the sense of insecurity working behind the attacks? Overtly, if immigrants throng to their country and get PR, their chances of securing a job are slim. In a number of cases Indians working late night in petrol station, cabs and other odd jobs, have become the targets. However, these are just instances, which by no means rules out the fact that a majority of attacks on Indians were racial. Australian Premier Kevin Rudd, admitted the fact recently that the attacks were influenced by racism.

Series of attacks

There were a series of callous attacks on Indians that might have lacked a pattern but not motive.

4 May 2009: 21 year old Indian student, David was beaten unconscious in the Melbourne suburb of Glenroy. He was attacked by four men, one of them smash a bottle over his head before continuing to punch and kick him.

May 2009: An Indian student was assaulted and robbed by a gang on a train while traveling to his home in Werribee in Melbourne’s western suburbs in He said his attackers asked “Why the f— did you come here?

24 May 2009: An Indian graduate living in the Sydney suburb of Harris Park, had a petrol bomb thrown through his bedroom window. He received burns to 30 percent of his body and the blaze was extinguished by his Indian housemates.

25 May: A 25 year old Indian student was stabbed in the abdomen near Carnegie railway station in Melbourne. One of his two attackers laughed during the assault.

2 June: A 21 year old Indian student was slashed across the chest with a box-cutter knife in Frankston. The incident occurred a day after a Sikh temple in Shepparton was vandalised.

8 June: Indians were attacked in Harris Park, allegedly by a group of Lebanese men, which sparked a street protest.[18] The local police superintendent said there was no suggestion that these incidents were racially motivated.

11 June: a 22 year old old Indian student was assaulted in Rundle Mall in Adelaide. The fight, which resulted in the students nose being broken, began when the attacker struck at his turban

13 June: a 24 year old man was attacked by three people in Melbourne as he was about to enter his car. He was punched directly in the face by one while another hit him over the head from behind rendering him unconscious. He reported that they stole his mobile phone, wallet and car keys.

15 June: a 20 year old man was attacked by two men as he was entering his car in Boronia. He claims the men slammed the car door on his hand, punched him in the head and stomach, then racially abused him, calling him a “—-ing Indian c—”. He also identified one man as white and one appearing to be of African descent.

29 June: 22 year old Sikh man was attacked when a group of six teenagers tried to remove his turban and cut off his hair. Two of the attackers were later arrested by Victorian police.

According to Gautam Gupta, president of the Federation of Indian Students of Australia, “many more attacks went unreported and questioned why police were playing down race as a factor.”

Roots of the Hate Viruses

One of the burning issues in some parts of Australia such as Melbourne is the illegal asylum seekers arriving on boats referred as boat people. Usually they arrive from the Muslim dominated country such as Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Lebanon and Bangladesh. After landing in Australia, they seek refugee as victims of war-ravaged Afghanistan and Iraq. However, there’s a misconception induced in people out there that most of the outsiders are boat people.

Another feasible reason behind the attacks on Indians is insecurity. over 80% of taxi drivers in Melbourne are of Indian origin and most of the workers in the hospitality sector are of Asian origin. They feel that their jobs are being taken by outsiders. Indians as well as the other Asian nationals are predominantly visible in the white society. Over 80% of taxi drivers in Melbourne are of Indian origin. Most workers in the hospitality sector are of Asian origin. This attracts the attention of locals who feel their jobs are being taken away by outsiders.

Even the mannerism and language of the Indians such as thank you, sir, welcome or sorry offend the locals. For the locals these words are annoying and arrogant.

According to a sociologist working with a Melbourne publishing firm

Unfortunately, the Melbourne police are understaffed to deal with such incidents. We need a specialised police unit to investigate racial crimes,

Another feasible reason behind the attacks, as explained by an Indain student in Australia

They may have attacked because of hatred, since we are smart enough to take their jobs and give them stiff competition in business too. I also blame Indian students; they choose Aus for PR and easy job prospects and above all getting admission in Australian universities is a piece of cake, just IELTS is enough. One can easily figure that they(aus) are making money out of us. Only when analysts warned govt that they are having high chance of loosing money from prospective Indian students for Aus, they realised the impact on economy. I would rather suggest my compatriots to pursue education in India, we also have good universities,consider them first. Remember, no one can be assured that one is safe anywhere in world. Not even in our home. Pls realize this truth.Now a days getting PR is tough and so is job(for many jobs require PR). Australians nationals and PR holders get first preference. I have seen many students who chose a odd profession (security guard, cab driver, cleaner etc) as they had to pay back their loan. Think twice my fellowmen. Think twice whether you should spend your parents or loan money, For there is lot of uncertainty(Job, PR) in coming to Aus.

Indians Protest

The spate of attacks on Indians students in their houses train stations, streets and petrol bombs thrown inside bedrooms was followed by protests from the students of Federation of Indian Students of Australia. They organized furious demonstrations and rallies against the people in Sydney and Melbourne. The federation organized self defense classes for the worried students. In one case, there was a violent retaliation where rough justice was meted out to those who are suspected of targeting young Indians.

Some excerpts

7 June: Hundreds of Indians students and supporters rallied in the Sydney CBD. The rally started at Sydney Town Hall and marched to Hyde Park. According to the marchers Harris Park was the area of Sydney where Indians were frequently assaulted, and called on police to do more to make that suburb safe.

8 June: 300 Indian students staged a protest in Harris Park late into the evening in response to an alleged assault, claiming they were considered “soft targets”. The protest were sparked by an attack on Indians earlier in the evening allegedly by Lebanese men. In retaliation the protesters attacked three uninvolved Lebanese men, who sustained minor injuries. This was believed to be the first violent reaction by Indian students against attacks on them.

10 June: 70 Indian students gathered again in Harris Park, saying they were being attacked by Lebanese youths and being ignored by the police. Indian community leaders called for an end to the protests,

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd denounced the vigilante action, discouraging the abuse of foreign students, he said it was

equally unacceptable for so-called reprisal attacks.

Kangaroos love curry: Why?

Does the Australian Premier love Indian curry over kangaroo meat. Not exactly, but exercising his curry diplomacy he’s had been all praises for Indians in Australia. He said

Our Indian community has been such a vital contributor to our culture, to our life, to our food, to our music,

What’s the curry diplomacy for

Indians students form the second largest community in Australia after Chinese, who come for tertiary education. The number of Indian students going to Australia has increased from 30,000 to 97,000 during 2004 to 2009. A majority of students 45,000 live in Melbourne, 32,000 in Adelaide and the remainder in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. It is cost of living in posh Australian cities that has driven many students to live in cheaper and more distant suburbs that are zones of violent crime.

The most apt words for the used for Indian students in Australia could be that of Indian consul general in Australia, Amit Dasgupta

It has got the goose that lays the golden egg,

He claims a tighter regulation of this multi-billion dollar industry from the state and federal government, and believes it is now happening.

Yellow Journalism

Out of the several elements that dictated the Indian reaction was media coverage in both the countries. Let’s have a look into the media coverage

Reports of attacks on Indians students in Australia received wide coverage in Indian media. India’s robust media, specifically the scores of news channels, have pursued the student attacks relentlessly. There were a host of satellite news programs broadcasted on news chanel’s such as NDTV, Times Now and other news channels covering the plight of Indians in the alien land.

There has been a flurry of ministerial visits since the student crisis flared but they are no antidote to the graphic images of battered Indian faces that keep appearing on TV. A step ahead of conventional media, the online Indian bloggers freely exercised their freedom of speech to call for tit-for-tat attacks on Australians.

Still the question remained unclear whether Indian media coverage bias? Was the coverage extracted from authentic sources or it was an element of Yellow journalism used to spice up the facts.
The Australian media could offer no better coverage as we could cite in a burning instance. Let’s involve into what Matt Wade, South Asia correspondent for the Australian media The Age had unfurled. He provides a mixed view of the media coverage on Indians attacked in Australia. His arguments on Indian media coverage of the assaults on Indians read.

Sections of the Indian media have exaggerated the story and stoked unfounded fears about Australia. But it would be dangerous to simply blame TV channels and newspapers for the damage.

Having said that, he also admits the discrepancies in Australian media. As he writes Australian officials have made the matter worse. The most recent attack on two Indian nationals attacked outside the Melbourne pub on September 12. Victoria Police didn’t offer an immediate statement for the incident that went unreported by Australian media.

The Indian television station Times Now broke the story with an exclusive interview with the victims nearly three days after the incident. Another headline in the Delhi-based daily Asian Age read a headline Oz mob of 70 attacks 3 Indians. Eventually police denied the claim and said that only four or five people were directly involved in the attack while about 20 looked on.

Clearly the delay in the official account distorted the picture as it had been framed by tens of millions of Indians by tabloid TV editors in Mumbai and Delhi. It provided the belated police response that made it sound like Australian officials were playing down the issue. The Indian media could smell the fissures.

Searching for the facts: An Interview

We conducted an Interview with Association of Australian Education Representatives in India (AAERI) on 17th November 2009. We had a telephonic interview with Mr. Gulshan Kumar, President of AAERI and face-to-face questioning with Ravi Lochan Singh, Editor of AAERI Newsletter. Our CEO Mr .Angsuman Chakroborty was personally concerned over the plight of innocent Indian victims and presided over the interview himself.

The interview typically revolved around the issue safety of Indain students and AAERI role in the event. From what Mr. Gulshan Kumar explained to us AAERI plays a strong advisory role in ensuring the safety of the students in the area. According to him there were

“..there are two types of students who have been going to Australia. First type of students are going to Universities and quality providers and the second type of students are going to private providers and education is a second priority to them. They are going to work in Australia and acquire permanent residency. The maximum of attacks has happened on these type of students who are economically poor and they live in distant suburb areas which are considered to be unsafe. Most of these students work in night shifts driving taxis, working in petrol pumps and 24 hour stores. These make them soft target for the criminals. These type of attacks can happen in any metro.”

Going further into details Mr. Gulshan Kumar said that there were multi-dimensional problems acting behind the spate of attacks on Indian students. He classified the problem into two categories - the type of students who had been attacked and pressure on the local population due to recession. Talking about the later reason, he specified that

In 2004 there were less than 4,000 students going for the vocational courses and in 2009 the number of students have gone up to 52,000. So, 13 times increase in this particular category. They are from poor economical background and they take up the jobs which are meant for the local residents.

From here on Mr. Ravi Lochan Singh took over the interview. Summarizing the interview with Mr. Gulshan Kumar, Mr. Ravi Lochan Singh said

the qualities of the universities and he was trying to explain that there are two types of students who are going to Australia, one, are those who are going for the vocational courses like cookery, hair dressing and there is others and there are people who are going to universities. The students who are goimg to the universities have not been affected at all. It is the students who have gone largely to the small colleges where the fees is low and the VISA has been used as a way to reach those countries who have been affected. Gulshan mentioned that they aren’t students at all. In fact, large number of students are going for diplomas.

He outlined the profile of attackers. He mentioned that most of the attacks were not by the white Australians. And in fact many of the attackers were by the migrants and including one of the attackers happened to be an Indian.

On the issue of unemployment and job security being the root cause of attacks he said

Most of the attackers were teenagers, especially the people trying to get easy money from easy prey. Moreover, there are a lot of students who go there working at a wrong time at a wrong place traveling late at night or staying at areas because of low cost.

He made an attempt to define the patten of attack, mentioning that attacks were mostly concentrated on people from Punjab and Hyderabad involved in blue-collar jobs such as taxi driving or hair dressing.

Mr. Ravi Lochan Singh also cleared the air over the attacks were not on targeted at students coming for university courses and degree courses, and that the Universities were safe places.

He indicated that

if you look at the numbers coming out of Punjab, it is totally reversed. 90% are at the diploma level and only 10% at the universities.

Conclusion

From what we could make out reading between the lines of AEERI representatives that the attacks were grossly concentrated on a specific strata of students, especially those in vocation courses. Form their stance it seemed that the attacks were opportunistic in nature with no colors of racism. Ostensibly, it appeared that Indians students in Australia were attacked depending on the kind of job they do and course they pursue in Australia.

Overtly, this was in contrary to the statement given by Australian Premier Kevin Rudd who said who admitted that the attacks were racial.