Indians in Australia

Over a decade ago at a party in Singapore, a more than slightly inebriated graduate student who had just arrived from India turned to me and mumbled "Indian culture is the BEST culture in the world." Yes, he emphasized the word "best". "What do you mean?" I responded. "Well, you know what I mean." I said I did not. He walked away with a half-smirk on his face. He had just arrived from India, and was obviously going though the simultaneously painful and exhilarating process of dealing with a dramatically different cultural environment. The absurdity of descriptors such as the "best" culture or the "best" country was highlighted once by the American comedian Bill Maher who had fun poking fun at some fellow-Americans - and non-American unhinged nationalists - who sometimes proclaim that their nation is without a doubt, "the best". Well, pointed out Maher, it's like claiming my "wife, husband, partner" is the best. Sure, he/she may be best for somebody, but not necessarily for everyone else.

In a recent BBC piece on recent Indian migrants to Australia, some of the respondents express similar sentiments. According to Amitabh Mattoo, an academic who has just recently re-located from Delhi to Melbourne:

"There is something unique about India and even though it is a difficult country and you want to probably work elsewhere, there is something about the richness of Indian culture and the affection of the people around you which keeps pulling you back," said Professor Amitabh Mattoo, the Kashmiri-born director of the Australia-India Institute at the University of Melbourne.

"Of course, then there is also nostalgia, which can often make you dream about things that probably didn't exist," he added.

Of course there is something unique about every country or even locale within the same country, and yes, all cultures are "rich" - at least for those who happen to be immersed in it. 

The narratives of imminent return to one's place of birth are also quite predictable, the chances of such sentiments fuelling social action are rare. 

Another respondent, when asked if he ever thinks of going back, says: 

 "There's a very good chance it might be sooner than I realise."

More than a century ago Max Weber wrote about the "persistent effect of the old ways and of childhood reminiscences [that] continues as a source of native-country sentiment among emigrants even  when they have become so thoroughly adjusted to the new country that return to their homeland would be intolerable -this being the car of most German-Americans, for example" (Economy and Society, Vol. 1, p. 388)

It is however not just the immigrant who tries to adjust to or rejects a new cultural environment. The cultural environment they move to also, slowly but surely as the cliche goes, is also transformed in the process. Part of this process also involves - globalization and hybridization notwithstanding -  varying degrees of cultural chauvinism and ethnocentrism, both from the "host" culture as well as the new arrivals. And then there is of course the outright racism that taps into and feeds off these powerful emotions and structural locations. As well as the defensive and reactive chauvinism of those dealing with the challenges of dealing with a new structural and cultural environment.

Indians in Australia