The land Down Under is a great confluence of cultures. It’s a microcosm of what comprises our entire humanity spread over the vast continental landscape. And the one-sixth population of the world that is Indian finds a substantial representation in this part of our planet.
Legend goes that the first Indian came in the 18th century with the entourage of Captain Cook, that famed cartographer of world history. But there is no documented fact so one takes it with a pinch of salt. What is relevant is that migration from the subcontinent is fairly recent in comparison to emigration to America or Europe.
Way before the advent of rail and roadways, it was the Afghans, erstwhile Indians, who came to this lavish land to run trains with the camel doubling up as the engine. They were brought by their British rulers. These men of great valour were the transporters of messages, good and bad, across the desert lands of Great Victoria in the north western areas.
But most of the emigration occurred in the 19th and 20th century when both these nations were British colonies. They comprised majorly the Sikhs of north-west India. They were a most enterprising lot and had a streak of entrepreneurial spirit in them. Today they are one of the rich immigrant communities owning the same farms that the once labored on for stingy daily wages.
Many a British settled here after India’s independence in 1947. What is pleasantly surprising is that the Australian census counts them as Indians since they were born there!
The third wave of large scale migration was seen more than 2 decades ago when Australia did away with its contentious Whites Only policy. To imagine that this land that is so diverse today was an only whites nation merely 2 decades back!
The fourth and last human wave, at least till the writer writes this page at least, descended on the Land of Oz in the wake of the IT revolution that gripped India from the late 90s onwards. Software studs are ubiquitous in Australia today!
And then there is a minor tide, if not a full-on wave, of Indian students who are coming to these foreign shores to pursue a good education. This has been speeded by the lack of government funding to the universities here. This leaves them with student funding by opening up their portals to all. But this has also led to a series of violent attacks on the Indian student section.
Despite these disturbing deviations, Australia remains a largely welcoming community in the comity of the commonwealth. May that be so forever and ever.
