The recent onslaught on Indians in Australia has raised the question of authenticity of the Australia's Multicultural policy. Indians rank tenth in the list of immigrant influx to Australia. The first groups of Indians who arrived in Australia were mainly Sikhs and Muslims from the Punjab region in north-western India. From 1860 to 1901, there was an exodus influx of Indians. The Indians who went there basically worked as agricultural labourers, hawkers and domestic help. A number of them also worked in the gold fields. Migration from India was curtailed after the Australian Government introduced the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, but following India's independence in 1947, the number of Anglo-Indians and Indian-born British citizens immigrating to Australia increased. These British citizens decided to settle in Australia in large numbers but were still considered as 'Indian' Nationals in the census. The third wave of Indians entered the country in the 1980s, after the termination of the white Australia policy. After the policy was abolished many Indian teachers and doctors settled in Australia. Another huge influx began with the IT revolution. Large numbers of Indian software professionals arrived in Australia from 1976 onwards. After the successive military coups in Fiji in 1987 and 2000 a significant number of Indo-Fijian migrated to Australia resulting into a presence of large Indo-Fijian population in Australia. Indo-Fijians have significantly impacted the character of the Indian community there. While the earlier Indian migration was comprised primarily of educated professionals, the Indo-Fijian community not only comprised of the professionals but also small business owners and entrepreneurs.

The current wave of Indian migration includes engineers, tool-makers, Gujarati businessmen from East Africa, relatives of settled Indians and students.  According to Indian Diaspora Report (2001) Indians are 1.2% of the total Australian population mostly PIO. The percentage includes forty thousand Indo-Fijian and more than ten thousand PIO's from Africa, UK, Malaysia, etc. They are mostly Hindus and Sikhs, while there are also small number of Christians and Muslims.

The recent incidents of racial discrimination are not the first evidence of Australian racial mentality. Several other instances in the past highlight racial hatred of Australians against the overseas communities. Therefore there is a need to examine Australian Multiculturalism. The question arises here, is Australia really a multicultural country? In 1901 the Australian Government introduced the Immigration Restriction Act, later called it as a white Australian policy which intentionally restricted non-white immigration to Australia from 1901 to 1973. Over the time this idea was compounded by the Liberal Party Government under Robert Menzies, with the fear of Asian expansion and Communism. From 1973 onwards, the white Australia policy was for all practical purposes defunct, and in 1975 the Australian government passed the Racial Discrimination Act which made racially-based selection criteria illegal.

Last update : 09-06-2009 16:59

Keywords : Jeopardising Australian Multiculturalism, Amit Singh

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