Girish's Blog

The curry bashing of Indian immigrants has consumed thousands of column inches in various newspapers already with no end in sight to the travails of our citizen-students in Australia. I have already written in an earlier post what I think of the Aussies – I have painted them with one brush – which may not be fair to do so, but in the heat of the moment that is what I thought. Since then I have had time to ponder over a whole spectrum of issues which these episodes have thrown up. Let us start with why do Indians have to go to Australia to study and the profile of those going to study there. It is a known fact that Australia has waived the necessity of foreign students undergoing the mandatory English language proficiency test (TOEFL, etc) required to be taken for students going to say UK or USA. The Australians have done this so that they can compete unequally in the education market to woo students from the US & UK markets to Australia – one less exam to clear you see! The Aussies...

The growing and rabid racism being practiced globally and with more recent emphasis to Australia is becoming a cause for concern. India has been a tolerant nation, with an all are welcome attitude, having friendly people to help foreigners feel at ease when they come as tourists or on professional assignments. The culture of “atithi devo bhava” where the guest is akin to God is well known and has been ingrained in the Indian psyche. The fact that more and more foreigners are making India their homes and marrying into Indian families and staying back here is proof of the fact that India does assimilate and absorb other cultures like a sponge. Travel to Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Delhi and Kolkatta and you will see the increase in the number of foreigners in this country – I wonder what would happen if we decide to segregate the Australians and start giving them a bad time as is currently happening in Australia. We need to do a bit of historical research on the Australians to...