Living in Fear: An Indian Girl’s Reality in Australia | by Vanshika Rathore | Jul, 2025

Imagine if you were in my shoes, 17 years old, born somewhere else but calling Australia home since you were 8, yet feeling more afraid than ever to step outside. That’s my reality. I’m an Indian girl, an Australian citizen, and I haven’t felt this kind of fear before.

The recent attacks on Indians here aren’t just headlines. They’re personal. So personal that my own father now tells me to “be careful” before I leave the house after hearing recent stories. When a parent’s words become a source of anxiety rather than comfort, something is deeply broken in our society.

The brutal assault on an Indian student in Adelaide shook me to my core. That the man who did it has already been released on bail terrifies me. He’s free. And there were five attackers, four still out there. Who’s to say they won’t strike again? Racism doesn’t get locked up with a single arrest. Hatred doesn’t disappear just because one face is named.

And the truth is, it starts at home. It starts with what we tolerate. First, it was just a “joke”, a lazy, slightly offensive stereotype. Next, a borderline racist post. Then, fully racist reels repackaged as “comedy” and shared widely. And then… a student beaten up on the street.

What’s next?

It breaks me to say this, but I’m embarrassed, ashamed, that some of the people I call friends take part in this. They like the posts. They laugh at the reels. They forward them without a second thought. And when I speak up, they tell me I’m overreacting. How can I be overreacting when it’s my identity you’re mocking? When it’s my safety on the line?

The casual racism that hides behind memes and “edgy humour” is anything but harmless. It dehumanises us. And slowly, it becomes a mindset. A dangerous one. According to a 2024 report by the Australian Human Rights Commission, racial abuse and attacks against people of Indian origin have increased by over 25% in the past year. And still, so many choose silence.

I think it’s time we revisit Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream, a world where boys and girls of every race walk together, learn together, and live as equals. Are we moving toward that dream, or drifting further away?

I am devastated. I am scared. But above all, I am determined.

Even though it’s hard, so hard, not to meet hatred with hatred, I still try to pray. I pray that the people who spread this ugliness come to realise that, at the end of the day, we are all human. I pray they learn empathy. Because if we stop seeing each other as people, what’s left?

No one should live in fear where they belong. No one should feel unsafe because of the colour of their skin or the country they came from. If we want real change, it has to start with us, with what we accept, what we laugh at, what we speak up about.

Because, silence isn’t neutral. It’s permission.

So I ask you again, imagine if you were in our shoes. What would you want the world to do?

Because this isn’t just my story. It’s our story. And it’s time we tell it, loud, clear, and without apology.