Contribution of migrants from Indian subcontinent hailed

By Neena Bhandari, IANS

Sydney : A granite plaque commemorating the contribution of migrants from the Indian sub-continent to Australia has been installed at the roof garden of the New South Wales state parliament.


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Organised by the Deepavali Festival Committee of NSW in partnership with the state government and Parliament House, the plaque commemorates the joint achievements of Australians of the Indian sub-continental heritage in promoting harmony and mutual respect in the wider Australian community.

Politicians, dignitaries and people of the sub-continent present on the occasion emphasized the relevance of Indian tradition, culture and unity in diversity in today’s world.

The Australian social fabric is a rich tapestry of migrants from nearly 200 countries. Here, pizza, sushi and laksa are a gourmet’s everyday delight and bhaji is fast catching up with India becoming the second largest source of skilled migration and overseas students to Australia.

Meanwhile, an online exhibition ‘Packing to Leave: Saris, Suits and Spices – Migration Stories from South Asia to Sydney’, features a dozen stories of Sydneysiders of South Asian background. Documented by the NSW Migration Heritage Centre, it presents poignant stories of migration to Australia and settlement in Sydney in the form of mini video documentaries.

Kalyan Ram arrived on the shores on Sydney in 1970 from New Delhi to establish an office for the State Trading Corporation of India. He recalls: “The funny thing about the Australian dress … It’s totally unusual for me, in a way it’s scandalous – people coming to work in an office come in short pants and stockings, and a tie, and a sleeve shirt! People in India are used to going to an office with their tie, suit and everything, but here it is so completely casual. Then, later, I got the feeling for it and I said, ‘Yeah, it probably is alright’.”

He says, “I think culturally I’ve changed – I’ve become more open. My children have also had cross-cultural involvement because they’ve married outside their community.”

Migrants from South Asia hail not only from the sub-continent and Sri Lanka, but Fiji, Malaysia, Singapore, and southern and eastern Africa. Since 1960s migration from these countries has increased manifold.

Vasant Sheth, who arrived in Australia in 1959 from Mumbai with her 18-month-old son to join her husband, who was working for the New India Insurance Company, was baffled when people asked, “Oh, did you go to school on elephants and did you find snakes in your house?”

She says, “I could very honestly say that I did not think you went to school on a kangaroo; I knew what Australia was all about.” India is better known today as the country of mouse clickers rather than elephant riders.

Sheth says: “I was stunned by the beautiful wide streets, the scrupulous cleanliness of the streets. You couldn’t even find a paper flying around, or a matchstick, or anything – and the emptiness. Because even in those days, 1959, Mumbai was a busy place and you’d never find a street with nobody there. Here, when we were driving from Melbourne airport to Brighton, which was about 40 minutes in those days, there were streets where there was nobody, not a soul outside in their gardens, nobody in their houses.”

The Australia of those days was quite different to what South Asian migrants today take for granted. From flour and spices to Bollywood DVDs and brocade, one can buy it all here.

Yasmeen Islam, who arrived in Australia in February 1971 from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) with two very young children to join her husband, remembers the only Indian Jewish spice shop in Bondi and the journey her family made in her neighbour’s small car to the shop. She recalls, “It seems like life cannot be lived without spice!”

She says, “In those days hardly any people used to go overseas… just for studies maybe, but not for living. In geography we used to read about Australia; it is a very strange place. It is a western world, it is a continent, but it is very strange. The animals there are different, the trees are different and everything there is totally different from other continents… and I appreciate that now, that it is different… the love and respect for a human being is something I wouldn’t have known it so well unless I’d come to Australia.”

The Migration Heritage Centre is an innovative virtual heritage centre. Each month new interviews sharing personal experiences, photos and memorabilia will be uploaded on the oral histories section of the website.

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