A touring Indian superstar cops racist abuse. I’m sad, but not surprised

News that a South Asian superstar has copped a wave of racist and offensive abuse online during his current wildly successful tour of Australia is profoundly disappointing. But for members of the South Asian diaspora living in Australia, the trolling does not come as a surprise.

Punjabi pop star Diljit Dosanjh has been performing to sold-out venues and stadiums in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne during his Aura tour.

Dosanjh is one of South Asia’s most successful artists. His songs top the charts, and he has amassed an extraordinarily large following online. His arrival in Australia is a moment of enormous pride for the diaspora.

But amid that joy, I was embarrassed and angry. Scrolling through Instagram, I came across a video of Dosanjh speaking backstage ahead of his recent Sydney concert. Candidly, he was discussing the racist drivel he had observed in social media coverage of his tour of Australia.

“Some agencies reported when I landed in Australia,” he said. “Someone sent me the comments people were making. People said things like, ‘the new Uber driver is here’, or ‘the new 7-11 employee has landed’. I’ve seen a lot of these racist comments, but I think the world should be one and there should be no borders.

“I don’t mind being compared to a cab or truck driver. If truck drivers cease to exist, you won’t get bread for your home. I’m not angry, and my love goes out to everyone, even the ones who say things like that about me.”

The unfortunate reality is that very few Australians of South Asian background will be surprised by what Dosanjh observed. Go to the comments on news about anything South Asian-related (concerts, cricket, current affairs, Diwali celebrations – anything) and you will see the same gross stereotypes being circulated by trolls. Even the horror of the Air India crash, which claimed the lives of 271 mainly Indian nationals in Ahmedabad, became fodder for racist trolling.

It’s understandable to dismiss this as the actions of a few idiots on the internet. However, I can tell you as a serial doom-scroller and reels consumer, there’s something different about what many South Asians have observed online over the past two years.

The intensity, consistency and sheer volume of racist commentary targeted at the South Asian community on so many platforms and on the most innocuous kinds of stories is alarming. Sadly, that commentary has now moved beyond the online world and it has manifested into the physical.

South Asian cricket fans were this year subjected to chants of “where’s your visa?” Most recently, South Asians were singled out as targets of the March for Australia rallies. It has even spilled over into the mainstream political domain. Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said there was a “concern with the Indian community” and their “large numbers” arriving in Australia.

Some of Australia’s most lucrative exports include education and international students, a large portion of whom hail from Asia and the subcontinent.

The experience and words of celebrities such as Dosanjh, whether you know him or not, carry weight – especially in India. He has more online followers than the entire population of Australia and you can bet that a large chunk of them are young people.

The potential dissuasion of young people from, for example, studying in Australia does have a genuine impact on Australia’s economic capacity and overall revenue to build the houses, roads, schools and hospitals that Australians want to see.

But my embarrassment doesn’t just stem from Dosanjh’s experience of Australia and the corresponding impact on our international standing. Australians from a variety of multicultural backgrounds can still relate to the experience of being reduced to stereotypes and being denigrated based on race and class.

It is embarrassing that even today, we fail to fully appreciate that the success of Australia is built on the contributions of migrants from humble beginnings as teachers, doctors, engineers, business owners and more. That even today, many multicultural Australians feel the need (and perhaps I’m guilty of doing it right now) to prove to the rest of us that they’re also Australian – as if there’s a tiered system in which some people are more Australian than others.

Don’t get me wrong. I know this behaviour isn’t representative of Australia. I also believe we can certainly have healthy conversations about immigration and the level of intake. But we must understand where that discussion crosses a line – especially when the commentary is fed by venturing into hateful stereotypes and xenophobia that is harmful to both the multicultural and economic fabric of this country. We must remain above that.

Khushaal Vyas is a member of the Multicultural NSW Advisory Board and a youth rights lawyer.