The incidents of the last few weeks have forced me to return to my blog. I have something to say. A few weeks ago, an Indian student was fatally stabbed on a dark evening, in a desolate public park. This followed several allegedly curry-bashing incidents over the last year or so. Then, just last week, an Indian man was set alight by a group of ruffians. Such incidents have caused considerable anxiety to friends and family back home.
An unanswered question is why are Indians finding themselves in the middle of most attacks when there are an astounding number of non-white races in Australia ? Doubtless, a majority of racist actions go unreported, but of those that do get reported after reaching an unfortunate outcome, most victims are Indian. Or at least that is what the papers would have us believe.
From personal experience I know that most Australians are too nice to be racist. I have met some wonderful people and I have probably met only one or two rogues. But you’d find nut-cases in every society, so why are these things getting out of hand here? Then again, there are at least over 500,000 Indians living in Australia. Relative to the number of racist attacks we’ve heard about in the recent past, the chances of such an attack turn out to be very, very low per person.
Having said that, we don’t want to wait to become a statistic. Melbourne is a safe place in absolute terms, but as compared to a few years ago, it has turned a bit risky. Statistically, the chances of dying of unnatural causes is still way too high in India than it is in Melbourne, but the bloody hell with statistics. I believe it is time for Indians to be careful and try not to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. The cops can’t be at all the seedy places at all times; it’s time we took our responsibility towards our own safety more seriously. Heard of pepper sprays anyone…? Surely, that’s not illegal…
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