Curry Bashings

Attacks against Indians in Australia.

A series of violent assaults against Indian students in Melbourne, Australia, has not gone unnoticed by the Indian press, Agence France-Presse reported:

Indian media have dubbed the attacks “curry bashings,” a term reportedly used by youths behind the violence in Melbourne’s western suburbs, where 30 percent of assault victims are Indian.

It is a grossly disproportionate figure in a city of almost four million with an Indian student population of less than 50,000.

According to A.F.P., there have been 70 attacks against Indian students in Melbourne in the last year alone – in addition to attacks in Sydney – prompting Indian students to hold demonstrations against the violence.

The Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police acknowledged an increase in attacks against students of Indian origin, and conceded that “some of these crimes are racially motivated.” However, he claimed “many of the robberies and other crimes of violence are simply opportunistic”:

We know that a lot of international students work and study late at night and are often travelling home by themselves on trains, equipped with their laptops and phones. Unfortunately, they are often just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

According to A.F.P., “curry bashing” could pose a threat to Australia’s $12.2 billion international education sector. China has already expressedconcern over the safety of foreign students in the country. And, The Business Standard reported that 50–60 percent of Indian students who were planning to study in Australia may now choose universities elsewhere.

Kevin Rudd, Australia’s prime minister, said “I speak on behalf of all Australians when I say that we deplore and condemn these attacks. … These are senseless acts of violence. Those who carry out these attacks stand condemned.” Rudd also told the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, that “the more than 90,000 Indian students in Australia are welcome guests in our country.”