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Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Volume 11 Article 6

January 1998

Speaking of the Hindu Diaspora in

Purushottama Bilimoria

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Recommended Citation Bilimoria, Purushottama (1998) "Speaking of the Hindu Diaspora in Australia," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 11, Article 6. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1179

The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Bilimoria: Speaking of the Hindu Diaspora in Australia

Speaking of the Hindu Diaspora in Australia

Purushottama Bilimoria Social Inquiry, Deakin University Philosophy, University of

WHAT ARE THE distinctive character­ Anxieties about the likely treatment of . istics of the "Diaspora " who turned Hindus in Australia in view of their practice

! : up during the different phases in the of "idolatry" and "caste evils" did not deter I . Australian landscape? To address this private entrepreneurs from sponsoring question, this essay will briefly discuss the emigration of Indian "coolies". But fears of early, colonial, post-independent, and more a mass exodus of "Hindoos", led the recent phases corresponding to patterns in colonial Indian government to pass the migration, settlement, and temple culture of Indian Emigration Act 1839. Henceforth Australian Hindus, drawing on the history of only a few Indians migrated as itinerant their reception in the host society alongside merchants, and small shipments under other data, from the 1857 to 1996 national private arrangements continued throughout censuses. 1 the 1840s and 1850s.5 These latter recruits comprised larger number of Hindus, some I. Early History of higher caste groups. The 1857 census Hindus had long fantasized about the vast showed that alone had 277 persons (un)inhabited. landmass that lay farthest of Indian or "Hindoo race". (Race was a south of the dreaded seas where civilization common classification to register and colour ended. While Java-based Hindus had trading and religious roots.) contacts with· Moluccus and Timor, there is The "Hindoo hawker" only anecdotal evidence of their presence The next wave' of Indians came with Pathans dakshinahidvipaviit.2 . from Punjab, Sind, and Frontier Provinces; The "coolie Jlindoo" they were Indian nationals classified .as On board the first few fleets that brought "Hindoos". Some indeed were Hindus, the white settlers and convicts to terra australis, rest were Punjabi Muslims and Sikhs. They from 1787-1823, there were a few Indian worked as camel-drivers or servants on crews, and others came later as labourers or caravanserais. Later, some ventured to gold as convicts. As the hinterlands opened up mines in Victoria and a few to pastoral there were renewed calls for recruitment of projects. The men married local white or Indian labourers, although misgivings about aboriginal women, but otherwise "close the effects of ~"paganism" and "colour" of association with the infidel community" was 3 discouraged. (Their "half-caste" children I i the caste Hindus remained rife. But an ex­ British planter from argued in favour were not allowed to marry back into Anglo­ of Hindu labourers because they were "not Christian families. 6) addicted to opium, wine and spirit" and Hindus along with Sikh Pathans became worked hard, equal in some respects to hawkers and pedlars in rural outposts carting Europeans.4 In 1837 he recruited some 40 their bundle of wares, silk, and utensils "Hindoo" labourers to work in the fields; which they sold door to door. When a most were Dhangar tribal people from Hindu or Sikh among them died, he would Chotanagpur region. ~be cremated in the open eucalyptus-pyre.

- Hindu-Christian Studies Bulletin 11 (1998) 11-19 Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 1998 1 Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 11 [1998], Art. 6 12 Purushottama Bilimoria

Most returned to the subcontinent to retire; proverbial welcome: "All black; have you some continued their small trading interests got no soap?" 11 Sanadhya commented on the or took casual jobs. The early signs of lack of community cohesion or religious public reaction to the presence of Hindus identity among the Indians scattered in appeared in 1893. A news magazine report different parts of the country. Most Indians, chided at the "niggardliness" of the hawkers Hindus among them, appeared to survive by and "the wretched manner in which Hindus inter-marrying and assimilating with the host and Mahometans live" only to hoard a society. The assimilationist practices in "pile" (of money) to take back to their .own Australia have been blamed for keeping country. While they begged for tea and alive the "white-as-snow" ethos, that among tobacco, they were less frugal with drinks, the indigenous inhabitants included contrived . under whose influence "they seem either mixed mating, dislocation of children, and horribly dangerous or irredeemably nasty".7 mission confinements. In sum, Indian/Hindu was The agitations in 1923 of a visiting a mixture of banished Ramas, "coolie" Indian diplomat and Hindu-rightist, Srinivasa recruits, domestic servants, farm-hands, and Sastri, over the plight of local Indians, plantation labourers, to camel-drivers and found support with the Council of Churches. hawkers. Estranged from their families, a This wein them electoral franchise, pensions, good few eventually left for their homeland. and some concessions. But Sastri also The ethnic-religious identity also came to . reviled the great heroic symbol of the Indian prevail among the few Indians. Thus, a diaspora, viz. Gandhi, pouring scorn on the Hindu merchant, Shri Pammamull, who "philosophic anarchy of the fervent fellow came from the Sind region as an opal believer lost to an extremist Hindu cause"! polisher, gradually built a family opal trade Prejudices about the religious characteristics that has prosperously continued with his of. the Indian were reinforced in the third to fourth generation descendants, who Australian psyche through Sastri's imagery too remain ,as devout Hindus, contributing of the "plucky little bloke in loincloth" and generously to Hindu-Indian causes. 8 the bizarre practices of Gandhian Hindus. and the absented Even the cremation rite witnessed by many Hindu in the outback aroused allusions to suttee The official barrage continued over (sati or "widow-immolation,,).12 immigration of Indians, indeed of all Asians. This culminated in the Immigration ID. The Post-Independence Hindu Restriction Act 1901, effectively heralding Settlement the "White Australia" policy. The supreme Post-colonial professional Hindu exclusivity of the "white race", with its By the 1950s the migrant community from supporting Christian base, was repeated by the subcontinent was just too sporadic and numerous leaders in Australia over several scattered for a sense of ethnic-religious decades. 9 Only five Indian visitors a year identity to grow. The 1954 census recorded came to Australia from 1905 to 1923, with 2647 Indians in the vast nation. With the no spouses. In 1911 of the 3698 "Hindoos", end of World War II and the subcontinental the majority were Hindus. Despite being Independence, was British subjects, they were denied equal open only for those with over 50 % status, even land leases. 10 European blood. The late 1950s saw a slight increase in the number of Hindus opting for II. The Modern Townwallas Australia rather than for , the United The activist Hindu States, and . What attracted most was In 1914 a Hindu activist, Totaram Sanadhya, certainly not the promises of an open visiting from the colony, received the "environment where religious aspirations

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol11/iss1/6 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1179 2 Bilimoria: Speaking of the Hindu Diaspora in Australia The Hindu Diaspora in Australia 13

could be freely pursued. Instead, for many adopted homes, and many looked to modern secular Hindus, the sixth continent Australia, although a greater majority from appealed as a safe refuge from the religious these troubled regions have settled in orthodoxies and caste-ridden life back in the Canada. subcontinent. When packing their tin-chests, Taking the 1986 census as an example, the emigrants asked: "What can we leave 21,500 identified as Hindus (which includes behind?" It might occur to them later that European converts to ). The break­ they have left behind some important down of overseas Hindus by country of birth ingredient of their identity. was given as the following: India 35.7%; After 1965, when the "White Australia" Fiji 21.5%; Sri Lanka 11.0%; Malaysia policy was officially dropped, the reception 7.1 %, U.K. 4.3%, South Africa 3.8%, New of immigrants changed, although Zealand 2.5%, other 14.1 % (this comprised reservations about admitting people with Hindus from other states of Africa, "different. standards of living, tradition and Southeast Asia, North America, Europe, and culture" did persist. The overall image of the Arab regions). 74% of overseas-born Australia too had changed dramatically, Hindus arrived between 1967 and 1976. from an open rural land to an Among Australian-born Hindus 28 % industrializing, developing nation with indicated Indian ancestry, 25 % reported professional opportunities. Thus while the British ancestry, 12.2 % Australian ancestry, 1961 Census recorded a total of 4,047 and the rest other ancestry. 14 Indians, by 1971 there were 22,930. The These Hindus arrived with their cultural, number nearly doubled in the 1980s, linguistic, and religious links with India or reaching 41,730 by 1981, and some 50,000 Sri Lanka. still intact. Hence the birth-place in 1986. By 1991 the India-born population of the parents of all Australian resident in Australia was 61,602 and by 1996 close Hindus in 1996 census is 43 % for India to one lakh (100,000). The figures of course (while, recall, only 35 % have come directly include pedple of a wider religious from India). Hindus from Fiji made up orientation and also of European descent 15,409 of the approximately 46,000 non­ . born in India. 13 However, 15 % of India­ India. born from a total of 67,270 Hindus. born in the 1996 Census are These disparate Hindus also came with more shown as Hindus (two-thirds being money, and. quickly found themselves in Christians, 6 % Sikhs, and the rest registered well-salaried positions, choosing to live in an assortment of faiths or no-faith, or select Anglo suburbs. The contribution of Parsis, and Jains). And they make up 31 % Hindus from these regions toward forging a of aU Hindus in Australia, i.e. 20,927 of a distinctive religious identity in Australia total of 67,270. cannot be overlooked. Professional Hindus are drawn from It is estimated that by now, March 1998, India and Sri Lanka, with increasing there are some 75,000 Hindus in Australia, numbers arriving from other parts of the 20 % of whom are Australia-born. world. Hindus living in other former Age profIle colonies began to migrate to Australia as Forty-two percent of Hindus are in the well: from Malaysia and Singapore, Fiji, 25-44 age group (compared to 30.8% for all , the United Kingdom, New residents), equal between males and females. Zealand, the southern and eastern African Most children are under 15 years of age, states, and most recently . Two and fewer adults are over 65, or widowed. recent Fijian-led military coups in the late The majority are married: 77% of women 1980s, and political upheavals in Sri Lanka by 30. The divorce or separation rate is low and some African states, increased the as is de facto relationship (although number of Hindus seeking to leave their vincreasing for Australian-born Hindus). The

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common family size is two children. Language Education Hindus are by and large conversant in a Hindus show high levels of educational variety of languages, depending on their achievement. 21 % have at least a bachelor country or region of origin. 43,528 say they degree and a further ·12 % have graduate speak , 24,330 English-only, 24,790 qualifications. Hindu men have a higher speak Tamil, there are even 226 Chinese level of education than women; but more speakers among them, 1200 speak Bahaasa Hindu women have university degrees than (Malay-Indonesian). So bilingualism is a Ms Average. Indian and Sri common characteristic of the modern Hindu Lankan born immigrants rank highly in post­ anywhere. More Tamils than Hindi-speakers secondary education after Jewish and use their native language in the home. The Chinese groups. But Hindus do badly in other major language groups represented skilled vocational qualifications, largely comprise, Delhi-Hindustani, Gujarati, Mara­ because of their concentration in the thi, Konkani, Bengali, Malayali, , academic and professional sectors. They Punjabi, and various dialects of Hindi exhibit high levels of motivation, largely due (bhojpudi, Fiji-boli, and Bombay bhel-puri). to the postcolonial legacy to "succeed where the master once had ruled", backed by a IV. Spiritual and Temple Culture heritage of traditional learning. The second­ .Twentieth-century· Hindu migration elicits or third-generation Hindus go on to radically different perceptions and responses universities, but do not opt to become to the challenges that previously faced the doctors, psychiatrists, surgeons, academics, 19th-century counterparts. Both internal and and engineers with the same earnestness as external factors have contributed to the their parents did. Perhaps this is a sign of change and continuity, paving the way for a the post-postcolonial reversal. distinctive religio-ethnic identity to emerge. Unemployment among Hindus is Multicultural Hindu relatively low and they tend to be employed The diversity of regional, linguistic, and in more demanding professions and historical backgrounds of Hindus, of course, managerial areas. However, since 1986 the adds to the complexity of the baggage each situation has changed somewhat, with an group carries with it to a distant shore. The increase in migrants of Indian descent from migrants from India and of South Asian different regions and people with lesser descent, or ascent, who would otherwise call skills or with farming and trade experience. themselves Vaishnavas, Saivas, Saktas, Even professionals and highly qualified LiIigayats, bhaktas, or Vedantins, readily Hindus have during the recession decades identify themselves as "Hindus" (thanks to sought employment as tradesmen, the British colonialists whp transformed the machinists, gardeners, and public-tram .Persian appellation for people beyond the conductors. 15 Sind range). These "Hindu" migrants in Income recent years have borne the burden of Over one-third of the Hindus are preserving their respective traditions, and professionals or paraprofessionals. Most participating on platforms of earn between 35,000 to 70,000 Australian multiculturalism, or interfaith meetings. dollars annually. 16 The higher bracket Unlike western religions, Hinduisms' earnings render Hindus among the most abhiivasas are said to preclude fixed affluent group of all South Asian doctrines, tight-knit structures, hierarchical immigrants. This is reflected also in the governance, and a r,igid organizational base extent of support Hindus provide to with ecclesiastical control, etc. Nevertheless, community organization or building temples. the monotheistic model provided by the Semitic trinity has captured the imagination

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol11/iss1/6 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1179 4 Bilimoria: Speaking of the Hindu Diaspora in Australia The Hindu Diaspora in Australia 15

of modern Hindu leaders, seeking political patronize these inner-SYDY-ashrams. gains in India, and moral and material Followers of Guru Maharaji, Osho support in the wider diaspora. (The coinage . Rajneesh, Swami Venkatesananda, "diaspora" itself being a borrowed notion Satyananda Saraswati, and the Woodstock­ from Hellenized Judaism.) In Australia that Rock Swami also established ashrams. impact is increasingly evident, while it tends Swami Sivananda's followers promoted an also to eclipse the humble beginnings of a integral ecumenism, followed up later by more diffused communitarian base aimed at Dom Bede Griffiths, who attempted infusing continuing Hindu practices and culture aspects of Hindu practices into Christian locally. worship, during his two Australian visits. Hindu gurus Two gurus have commanded a sizeable In the 1960s and 1970s gurus with a strident following in the resident Hindu community. universalist outlook and a narrower neo­ Swami Chinmayanda, with his flamboyant Hindu disposition embarked on a world erudition of the Vedanta, appealed to Hindus mission. An assortment of gurus, yogis, with a more conservative bent. Before his bhogis, babas, swamfs, Vedantists, tantrikas, death in 1995, he had publicly endorsed the self-anointed goddesses, spiritual mothers, Hindu tirade against Muslims in Ayodhya. and mute avatars, began seeking converts in The other is Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Not Australia as well. They included Paul without his own controversies in India, Brunton, Mauni Sadhu, Meher Baba, J. Sathya Sai Baba wields considerable Krishnamurthi, among others. But .it was popularity through his devotional teachings, Swami Ranganathananda· of the miracle healing, educational activities, and Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Mission, who speciality medical hospitals. His devotees since his 1964 visit helped found a firm hold regular weekly bhajan gatherings in the Order, the Vedanta Society of N.S.W., major cities and most towns around drawing in resident Hindus as well. Australia, and coordinate educational Maharishi ,Mahesh Yogi of the TM activities and services for the aged. movement gained a wider following in the Such incentives have inspired other larger community, establishing a closed Hindu community groups towards structure for its purported quasi-spiritual establishing vernacular baal-vikas (children's goals. outside-of-school classes) and even hospice In 1969 came the Hare Krishnas, and centres for the aged. Some wealthy Hindu over the next twenty years they built an families in Melbourne and have extensive network of ISKCON temples and provided funds or lent their commercial schools in the major cities, and a living-in premises for community activities, focusing farming community also. Before they built on welfare and counselling help. Working their own temples, Hindus payed regular . closely with volunteer groups such as the visits to the ISKCON temples. Salvation Army, the Brotherhood of St The Siddha Yoga syndicate arrived in Laurence, and the Sisters of Charity, some 1970 with Baba Muktananda, after his U.S. sanguine room is created for interreligious debut. Its popularity grows despite post­ activities that may go beyond feeding the humus allegations of intimate encounters needy, meals-on-wheels, and other charitable between the good Baba and some Australian work. "Who on earth is your orange-clad women disciples (New Yorker, February leader?" "Come (and) find out", invited 1995). His self-proclaimed successor now someone, or so it is reported. reigns over the multi-million dollar Siddha Yoga empire that stretches between New The Organized Temple Hindu York, Upper Thane, and Melbourne. But In each of the major cities in Australia local Hindus nowadays seem not to ~ Hindus have organized themselves into

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Hindu societies and erected temples. The Banaras. The community had to initially initial impetus almost invariably comes from lobby the shire council to overcome north Indian Hindus. But the religious opposition, mostly from Christian outlook and practices of this group appear to denominational groups.I8 the southern Hindus, especially Tamils, to Meanwhile, foundations for a third be limited in scope and compromised by the temple have been laid in the Sydney pressures of modern life. This scenario has metropolitan region by Tamil and Telugu been repeated across three major Saivites from Malaysia and similar regions. metropolitan regions, notably, Sydney, The modest temple dedicated to Murugan or Melbourne, and , creating both an Subramaniya is pending completion. atmosphere of cooperation and tension, even In Victoria, a Hindu Society was rupture. Tamil groups then clamour to incorporated in the late 1970s. A major assume responsibility for completing the temple project, incorporating adjacent temple complexes and instituting attendant .shrines to Vishnu, Siva, and Dev! under one rites grounded in Sanskrit Agamas. massive canopy, was eventually built costing Before the mid-1970s, there was an over one million dollars. Again, help ·came absence of spiritual fellowship among the from the TTD. However, contentions within Hindus, apart from ad hoc gatherings or the temple committee, amidst suspicions of retreats around visiting Swamis. Solemnizing laffna connections, drove Hindus from "rights of passage", such as marriage and Malaysia and other regions to build an Ii death, via Vedic rites was even difficult. alternative Vinaya (Ganesh) temple in the However, a· catalyst brought home this outer suburbs. North Indian Hindus likewise desperation. left to de-establish a permanent structure, The spouse of a Sri Lankan Hindu man, preferring instead the weekend home or who had suddenly died while shopping in hired-hall based religious meetings and Sydney, enquired after proper final rites, but ceremonies as needed. The Arya Samajis without success. The community then moved among them were doubly pleased as they to establish a venue for religious and have no need for a temple, happily offering cultural practices, in a decrepit old church the homa or havans in various Arya homes. building, with the help of voluntary Lay members within the community gained functionaries. Shortly afterwards, the Sri registration as religious celebrants and Venkateswara Association, performed the priestly functions wherever as 'I" echoing Pittsburgh, erected a charming part of their calling. . ,·'.·.. "il I edifice in "virgin" surroundings, that A third temple is to be added to 1':li Ii,!! blended the aesthetics of traditional south Melbourne, namely, a Durga Maa temple Indian temple with the natural reserves. 17 proposed by the Sri Durga Bhajan Mandali 'i Tamil priests and financial support came Inc. A parcel of land has been purchased. from the Tirupathi-Tirumala Devasthanam Like this Mandali, there are a number of (TTD) in Andhra Pradesh. Largely informal groupings around one or other of patronized by south Indian and Sri Lanka the neglected Hindu gods or goddesses, with Hindus, the temple is an elegant symbol of aspirations toward cultural advancements in Hindu accomplishment in Australasia, their own terms. Some members are anxious inspiring similar projects in other states. that the larger temple complexes have A group of upper caste Gujarati become routinely ritualistic and impersonal, worshipers of Siva, under the aegis of the neglectful of diasporic needs, in particular Indian Heritage Research Foundation, has education in ~he vernaculars and built the world's first "Underground Hindu transmission of values, Hindu mores and Temple". The major deity housed is Sri customs to the younger generation, although Vishvanatha, after the famed Lord of this is not true of all local Hindu temples.

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol11/iss1/6 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1179 6 Bilimoria: Speaking of the Hindu Diaspora in Australia The Hindu Diaspora in Australia 17

Nonetheless, it is in this absent space that even Indian) and to underscore the not only radical Tamil groups but also pragmatic affinities between Hinduism and Hindu organizations, such as the Vishwa Judeo-Christianity against the alleged Hindu Parishad (VHP) , occasionally with heterodoxy of Islam. Such is the price for the Rasthriya Swayam-Sevak Sangh (RRS) global interreligiosity or "radical a­ (or its representative in Australia, Hindu pluralism"! 19 Rasthriya Sewak-Sangh), and even the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) step in with Conclusion promises to promote just such causes they As with all people who leave their too claim to stand for. The sway towards the homelands for distant promises, Hindus in Hindu Right is likely also to bring Hinduism Australia have endured many hardships, into a somewhat more confrontational stance persevered despite social and cultural with the larger host society or its more alienation, and encountered racial prejudices liberal platforms. Indeed, alliances have and disempowerment because of their colour , already been drawn in the politically-hot or religious background. Only in recent ", centre of Australia between a largely white­ times, with the demise of colonialism, has collar Hindu group and the family of the the community been able to resist pressures present Prime Minister of Australia, who is of an assimilationist ideology that all but one of the more conservative leaders in the erased their earlier distinctive presence in Western world, presently on the warpath to the vast expanse of the Australian landscape. abolish native entitlements for the This was exacerbated by the numerically Aborigines across a number of sensitive small and tightly controlled migration with areas. specific biases, such as gender preference In the nation's capital territory, and labour-base. , there are two different Hindu The Indian and especially the Hindu collectives, namely, Mandir Society of community in Australia has been slow in Australia and the Hindu Temple and celebrating its ethnic identity and internal Cultural Centre of A.C.T. Both societies are differences, or·· evolving a selfconscious controlled by north Indian Hindus even as ethos with a heritage of values and customs they each declare allegiance to the Vedanta­ which it could pass on to the next Bhakti traditions, and constructed their own generation. There are always tensions for Hindu temple on the outskirts of the capital. the immigrants, between their cherished Clearly, unlike other Western cities, the expectations and the awareness of their division within the Canberra Hindu "otherness", in the naya-dunt'ya ("new community is not along the. north and south world"), which is at the forefront of the Indian divide, but rather reflects personal "modern" or rather "Western" world. and ideological differences prevalent both in Nevertheless, it is significant to note that India and in this nation's capital. after a period of gestation the amorphous North Indian Hindus in Australia have collective perceives the need for a firm growing links with the Hindu Right, which Hindu cultural base and temples. Imagining is also a cause of tension and split among the temple presents a pretext for the coming' the Hindus. Anti-Muslim sentiments exist together of Hindus in the diaspora. As a among the Hindus, although not expressed signifier for prescribed ritual and in public. Just as at one time forums for interiorized practices, the temple enables interreligious interactions were being hogged greater confidence in one's practices. As a by radical Sikh elements, nowadays permanent presence, the temple makes the representatives from Hindu groups earnestly Hindu identity publicly visible. It also attempt to foster "dialogue", so as to stamp provides a matrix for ironing out differences their own authority on all things Hindu (or ., and tensions among the different sectarian

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and regional groups, or alternatively to Sikhs in Australia: A religious community bolster political interests of their respective Profile (Canberra: Bureau of Immigration homeland movements. and Multicultural and Population Research, With at least one temple in every major Government of Australia, 1996); in 1997 city and a community or bhajan-mandali in John Hinnells included my chapter on "The i Australian South Asia Diaspora" in his Iii each remote town, Hindus can now readily I,I:! newly revised, edited, and reworked A New seek out their fellow affiliates, share Handbook of Living Religions (Oxford/ auspicious events and ceremonies, call on Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, kindred souls to help with wedding 1997, pp. 728-55). Unmarked references to arrangements, and organize baal-vikas so sources and information are from these that their children can learn a smattering of works. the home-spoken lingua and tracts from Since then the data from the 1996 mythological and moral doctrines (Le. Australian Census have been trickling in and Krishna's life, karma, rebirth, and I am making an effort to incorporate them Ayodhya). They may even seek advice on into my on-going narratives. Since I the proper execution of the final rites for received requests for two articles at ·about one of their deceased, and witness the same, the same time from different ends of albeit under the closed canopy veiling the Canada, and without thinking twice, accepted to write them, although with rapid snatch by the smokeless electric Yama. different focus, there is some overlap (There is however a lobby calling for a between this essay and the article solicited return to the erstwhile ghee-fired eucalyptus­ for 'the Proceedings of the International pyre, but for stringent health regulations.) Conference on Hindu Diaspora, Concordia In the broader Australian society, the University, Montreal. (I have not been Hindu temple, along with the smoke from informed if indeed my article will be used.) the Arya Samaji fire-oblation, symbolizes I also wish to thank the Christian Research the struggles of a muItiGultural and Centre in Melbourne for once again helping ethnically p,lural ethos. The resulting me out with religions data from the 1996 interaction of cultures and fusion of Census. discordant horizons promises to produce a 2. P. Bilimoria, Hinduism in Australia: society that· is critically tolerant, more Mm:q.alafor the Gods (Melbourne: Spectrum enlightened, artistic, and truly democratic - with Deakin University Press, 1988a), note 4-6, and pp. 16-17. Historians of Southeast or so it is hoped by some leaders of the 20 Asia disclaim any evidence that suggests that nation. Religious diversity is a reality that Indian contact went further, or to the Australia can no longer ignore, despite the Australian continent, in ancient times. occasional anxiety to preserve the dominant 3. A. T. Yarwood, Attitudes to Non-European Anglo-Celtic- against the Immigration Problems in Australian History challenges of pluralism, and despite the (Melbourne: Cassell, 1968) p. 12; see also growing lag in critical intellectual re­ Marie de Lepervenche, Indians in a White appraisals within the religious communities Australia: An account of race, class and themselves. But it has taken some two Indian immigration in eastern Australia., hundreds years to reach this sagacity, in (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, , 1984) P 36; see which the contributions of the diasporic also R. Jayaraman, "Indians" in James Jupp Hindus, along with lains, Sikhs,· Parsls, (ed.) The Australian People: An Muslims, and Buddhists from South Asia Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People, and Their Origins. (Sydney: Angus Robertson, and elsewhere, have been quite significant. 1988) pp. 542-545. 4. M. Willard, History of the White Australia Notes Policy to 1920. (Melbourne University Press, 1923, 2nd edn. 1967), p 4. Further 1. In 1996 I published a book on Hindus and discussion in P. Bilimoria and R. Ganguly-

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol11/iss1/6 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1179 8 Bilimoria: Speaking of the Hindu Diaspora in Australia The Hindu Diaspora in Australia 19

Scrase, Indians in Victoria (Australia), 11. Bilimoria et al (1988b) pp. 27-30. (Melbourne: Victorian Ethnic Affairs 12. ibid. Commission and Deakin University, 1988b), 13. Extracted from 1991 Census of Population pp. 18~32. and Housing, State Comparison series ABS 5 .. Jayaraman (op cit); Willard, p. 7; Bilimoria Catalogue No. 2731.0 and other comparable et ai, 1988b, (op cit). catalogues on birth by country, languages, 6. Ernstine Hill, The Great Australian etc. Loneliness (London: Jarrolds, 1937) p. 281 14. Bilimoria, 1988b, pp. 78-86. 7. Australian News, 1 May 1893. 15. Bilimoria, 1988a, pp. 59-60. 8. Parnmamu:ll family archives (personal 16. 1996 figures from the Australian Bureau of access). Cf. Watammull in Honolulu, who Statistics Census Profile. are also renowned for their patrcmage of 17. Bilimoria, 1988a, p.59-60.fg Indian culture in the diaspora. 18. "Hinduism Today", June 1991, pA. and 9. Presbyterian Minister's defence in 1901 of Prem K. Misra, "Report on Proposed Sri "the noble ideal of a White Australia - Vishvanath Temple at 201 Eagleview Road, snow-white Australia if you will" (in Minto, N .S. W. " (Parmarth Educational Bilimoria, 1988b, p. 33). And, Alfred Centre, Indian [Hindu] Heritage Research Deakin, later Premier of Australia (after Foundation, 1990). whom my University is named), who had 19. I have discussed the situation of the Hindu­ visited India and was a spiritualist by Christian dialogue earlier in my report in persuasion, although he gave exemptions to Hindu-Christian Studies Bulletin, vol 7, . Indian travellers and students; see also 1994, pp. 31-18; also in my article, "A , Temple and Tomb in India, problem for radical (onto-theos) pluralism,", (Melbourne: Melville, Mullen & Slade, in Sophia, vol 30 no. 1, 1991, pp. 21-33; 1893); and Allan Walker, Plan for a and "Hindu-Christian Dialogue - some Christian Australia (Melbourne: Methodist thoughts from the diaspora" (unpublished). Church of Australia, 1955) outlines the 20. BIPR Bulletin, Number 9, July 1993 history of this movement and its persistence (Canberra: Bureau of Immigration and in the church, especially the Methodists. Population Research), p. 16. 10. de Lepervenche (op cit) pp 66-9.

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