An ominous incident during the visit of PM Narendra Modi to Australia underlines the growing hostility Indians and people of non-European ethnicity are facing in Australia.
While the rest of the bilateral visit of the Indian premier went ahead smoothly, this incident of heckling should not be dismissed as an isolated issue. In fact, it is symptomatic of a far more insidious sentiment— white nationalism.
White nationalism is an ethnocentric, exclusivist, far-right movement that is based on the premise that a country belongs to members of a particular sociological category—European descent. It argues that a country belongs to only the white people and non-white people in general and non-European social origins in particular either do not belong to the country or at best must live as second class citizens.
Origins of White Nationalism in Australia
Being a former colony of the erstwhile British Empire, Australia’s social core, as per the far-right neo-Nazi groups has always been ‘European’. In that regard, the origins of this ominous form of nationalism can be traced back to the “White Australia Policy”. This policy was the outcome of the Immigration Restriction Act, 1901, which was formulated shortly after the unification of the six former British colonies to form the Australian federation.
The objective of this policy was to restrict immigration from ‘non-white’, ‘non-European’ people, particularly from Asia in order to preserve the pristine nature of Australia demographic core.
Even though this policy was formally dismantled in 1973 with the adoption of multiculturalism, the mentality of ‘White First’ continued to linger in the minds of many Australians of European origin even today.
Indians, who account for the largest share of immigrants in Australia, have played a key role in promoting Australia’s prosperity. Constituting one of the most skilled labor groups, people from India and Indian-origin occupy high positions in the fields of IT, finance, engineering, medicine, among others. In addition, they have contributed heavily to the generation of local jobs and wealth.
The Indian Diaspora, in monetary terms contributes $12 billion to the Australian economy; this is evident from the fact that they constitute the second largest cohort of international students to the country. Apart from this, people from Bharat account for one of the fastest growing, high value tourist constituencies to Australia, contributing $1.4 billion in yearly visitor spending.
Given this staggering evidence of how the Indian Diaspora in Australia has contributed to the country, it is baffling to see how the Neo-Nazi groups in the country are targeting Australian citizens of Indian origin in general and Indian people in particular. Issues like high inflation and the housing crisis can be attributed to the changes in the political economy of the world, particularly the adverse impact of geopolitical events like the Strait of Hormuz crisis.
Singling out Indians can be understood as something that the political theorist Hannah Arendt called “otherization”. This idea posits that communities develop a consciousness where they realize themselves to be social entities that are attached to the land of their existence through sociological categories like ethnicity, myths, and religion. This, she argues, ultimately results in the sacralization of their sense of belonging, thereby leading to the growth of the phenomenon of tribalism in which communities develop a worldview characterized by the possession of certain specific social traits. These traits, rooted in the socio-cultural worldview of such communities, are considered beyond scrutiny.
Those who do not possess those traits are considered to be members of the “out-group”. In the context of Australia’s white nationalists, Indians belong to the ‘out-group’. Therefore, the rise of white nationalism in Australia that has led to a concomitant rise in hate crimes against Indians represents the complete failure of the Australian government in making the country safe for people of other ethnicities, races, and religions. The rise in hate crimes, further highlight how Neo-Nazis in Australia drew their ideological inspiration from the insidious far-right, racist ideologies prevalent in Europe, underlining how the issue is not just limited to Australia, but is essentially a problem emanating from Europe.
Pranay Kumar Shome, a research analyst who is a PhD candidate at Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Bihar, India
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