Sixteen years ago, Snohi Grewal arrived in Melbourne with a suitcase full of her belongings and a heart full of hope. She was a student at the time — wide-eyed, eager, and certain that Australia would become her second home. Now, the 39-year-old mother is raising her two children in Melbourne’s Berwick, in a house where the sounds of Bollywood lullabies and backyard kabaddi (a contact team sport) can often be heard.
For Grewal, who hails from Amritsar in northern India, Diwali has always been the thread connecting her past and present. “I’ve always loved celebrating Diwali here,” she tells SBS News, as diyas (oil lamps) flicker in her living room, echoing those her mother used to light back home. “It’s how I pass on my culture to my kids.”
Often called the festival of lights, Diwali is a major celebration in Hindu, Sikh, Jain, and some Buddhist traditions — symbolizing the triumph of light over darkness, good over evil, and hope over despair. But as Grewal strings fairy lights across her porch ahead of this year’s festivities, the glow of Diwali feels somehow dimmer. A recent wave of anti-immigration protests in Australia — some of which have singled out the Indian community — has left her feeling unsettled.
Rising Tensions Amid Diwali Celebrations
“For the first time in years, I’ve felt like a guest again,” Grewal says, her voice soft but steady. “Like maybe this isn’t really mine to claim.” The tension deepened last month when Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price falsely claimed the government had geared its migration program in favor of Indian Australians because they tend to vote Labor. Her remarks drew swift backlash from across the political spectrum and from members of the Indian Australian community, who called them “un-Australian and divisive”. The fallout culminated in Price’s removal from Opposition leader Sussan Ley’s frontbench, after a week-long standoff within the Coalition.
For many in the Indian diaspora, which now numbers more than 900,000, this Diwali feels different. Grewal says it’s no longer just a cultural or religious celebration. “It’s about showing that we’re part of this country, too,” she says. “We’ve built our lives here. We contribute. We belong.”
Diwali Endures, But Shifting Sentiments Give Pause
Grewal’s unease isn’t universal, but it’s not isolated either. Across the country, as families prepare for Diwali with joy and anticipation — spring-cleaning homes, buying new clothes, exchanging gifts, and planning feasts — there’s a quiet undercurrent. It’s present in WhatsApp chats and conversations over chai, where some members of the community are asking: how do you celebrate when your sense of belonging is under threat?
It’s a question that weighs on Arun Sharma, who arrived in Australia in the mid-1970s and has since seen Diwali evolve from small family gatherings into large-scale festivals supported by councils and embraced by multicultural communities. Sharma tells SBS News his connection to Diwali goes beyond lights and sweets: “It’s also about community, social cohesion, and belonging.”
Since arriving in Australia in the mid-1970s, Arun Sharma says he has watched the Indian diaspora grow from a quiet minority into a vibrant, visible part of the country’s multicultural identity.
Each year, Sharma, who is the chair of the Celebrate India Inc. group, organizes one of the country’s biggest Diwali celebrations at Melbourne’s Federation Square — an event that draws thousands, complete with music, markets, and cultural performances. As part of week-long celebrations, the group also hosts similar events at other venues across Victoria. But this year, Sharma admits, the atmosphere feels a little different.
“The fact is, this sentiment is revisiting us after a couple of years now, when things were not very pleasant,” he says. “People are scared, and they are a bit worried about it, [asking] ‘What’s going to happen, where’s the future here?'”
Government Response and Community Resilience
Amid community concern, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese publicly reaffirmed the government’s support last month, calling Indian Australians a “vital part of modern Australia”. Speaking with the ABC’s RN Breakfast show, he said: “I just say to the Indian community: you’re valued, you’re welcome here, you make our country stronger by being here. And thank you for everything that you do to make Australia a better place.”
Proportionally, Australia’s overseas-born population is one of the largest in the world outside of the Gulf states and Singapore. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, as of June 2024, more than 8.6 million people living in Australia were born overseas — making up 31.5 per cent of the population.
James O’Donnell, a demographer from the Australian National University, tells SBS News that sustained migration has brought cultural richness and economic strength — but it has also fueled rapid population growth, putting pressure on housing, infrastructure, and public sentiment. “After the COVID-19 pandemic, actual immigration levels did spike sharply. While this looks like it was a temporary spike, it did also produce a spike in the proportion of people who think that immigration is too high,” he says.
Indian-born migrants have driven much of the growth in immigration. The community has expanded from nearly 80,000 people in 1996 to more than 900,000 today, and is now the second-largest overseas-born group in Australia, after those born in the United Kingdom. In the past two years alone, the Indian-born population has grown at nearly twice the rate of those born in all other countries.
A Newcomer’s Diwali — and First Reality Check
Among the new arrivals is 20-year-old Krishita Sharma, who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity from Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology. She describes Diwali as a time of comfort and familiarity, evoking memories of her youth in India. But as she prepares for her second Australian Diwali, she says it comes with an unexpected dose of reality.
“I came here thinking this was a really multicultural place. And in many ways, it is,” Sharma tells SBS News. “But seeing the recent protests and the way people talk and think about migrants — it was shocking. I wasn’t prepared for that.”
Sharma says her colleagues and the people she shares accommodation with have helped her find her footing in Australia. This Diwali, she will be busy working but plans to set aside a few hours to share sweets and exchange gifts with her “borrowed family”. For a little while at least, it will feel like home, she says. “It’s not the same, of course. But it still reminds me who I am, and why I came here — to grow, to learn, to be part of something new.”
According to O’Donnell, who co-authored the Scanlon Foundation’s Mapping Social Cohesion 2024 study, racism, prejudice, and discrimination are continuing problems in Australia. “More than one-in-three overseas-born Australians from non-English speaking backgrounds in the Mapping Social Cohesion 2024 survey reported experiencing discrimination in the prior 12 months on the basis of skin color, ethnic origin, or religion,” he says.
Sharma says her first experience of racism in Australia came just two months after arriving, while she was at a train station in north Melbourne. She says the incident left her scarred. “I was standing at the Donnybrook station and going about my business. It must have been around 9am when a man shouted at me, ‘Go back!'” she recalls. “I went home and cried so much; it was so traumatic.”
“Such experiences scar you, and for someone like me who came here with an intention to stay long-term, it makes me rethink my choices. You start questioning, ‘If people can’t accept me, when I have wholeheartedly accepted them, then what does the future hold for the likes of me?'”
Looking Ahead: Building a Cohesive Future
O’Donnell says while the Scanlon Foundation’s study did not have an indicative sample size for Indian-born respondents, many still reported experiencing discrimination. “We consistently see around 40-45 per cent of Indian-born respondents say they experienced discrimination,” he says. He says it’s hard to predict the long-term impact of recent anti-immigration sentiment, but research shows discrimination leads to lower levels of social cohesion.
“I would strongly suggest that anti-immigration sentiment, especially when it is personally felt in terms of discrimination and mistreatment, is detrimental to an individual’s sense of belonging and our overall cohesion,” he says.
Preeti Nalavadi, an academic and PhD scholar at the University of Adelaide, who is passionate about community advocacy, says the current debate around immigration cannot be limited to intake caps or housing supply. “Migration defines Australia’s character,” she tells SBS News. “Sustainable migration isn’t just about getting the numbers right. It’s about offering migrants their dignity and valuing their partnership.”
Nalavadi points to the contributions of the Indian Australian community across a diverse range of industries, such as business, medicine, and academia, as well as civic life and cultural leadership. Yet, she says, many still feel unseen. “We work, contribute, belong and yet are treated as outsiders. Australia must do more to protect and respect those who call it home,” she says. “Australia cannot move ahead without Indian migrants.”
For Some, Diwali Says What Words Can’t
While some migrants are feeling the weight of recent events, many still experience Australia as a place of genuine opportunity and feel welcomed. And Diwali, for those in the Indian diaspora, remains a joyful and unifying celebration — a time to reflect on progress, pride, and shared identity. But even among the hopeful, there’s a growing awareness that inclusion must be actively nurtured, not passively assumed.
“Celebrating Diwali is not enough,” Arun Sharma says. “We need to make a little bit more effort from our side as well.” “I’d like to see people inviting their neighbors [from non-Indian backgrounds] and getting them aware of our culture and participating in festivities so they can learn more about us, our backgrounds and contribute towards integration.”
Meanwhile, as diyas flicker across Grewal’s windowsill, she reflects on what Diwali means this year — not just for her young family, but for herself. “We’re celebrating,” she says, as her children laugh and dance to Indian beats. It’s also her way of saying: “We’re here, we’re part of this place, and we matter.”
