About The Diaspora

Holla explores the Indian-Australian diaspora in this nonfiction work.

The author, an Indian-Australian health entrepreneur, seeks to provide the “missing link in the India-Australia story” with this book. In the preface, Holla notes that he has “consciously deviated [from mainstream templates] for objectivity.” These mainstream ideas, he explains, do not show the full story of Indian people, either generally or, more specifically, in Australia. The author opens with a discussion of ancient migrations (“The development of human settlements is the result of migration, which is one of humanity’s oldest traits. These migrations played a pivotal role in the dispersal of humanity across continents”). Holla, an “ardent student of Indology and an independent researcher,” goes on to discuss influential colonialist institutions like the British East India Company and the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (“CSR’s exploitation and domination of the Indian indentured labourers in Fiji is considered one of the worst crimes in humanity to this day,” asserts Holla). The author also explores the linguistic connections between Australia and India: “Experts suggest that India and Australia are connected through vocabularies derived from colonial legacies such as cricket, curry, and the Commonwealth.” Holla unpacks concepts like caste and Hinduphobia (“in colonial Australia, until the end of the 19th century, cremation, a common Hindu practice, was considered an evil practice of heathens and pagans”), asserting that many Western academics conflate caste with racism “to divert attention from historical and ongoing issues in the West, such as slavery, colonial exploitation, and atrocities linked to Abrahamic religions.” This work is an impassioned, focused, and detailed exploration of the “transformative” role of the Indian diaspora as it exists currently and as the author hopes it will develop. Holla’s treatise is highly recommended to those seeking a basic understanding of the subject.

An illuminating examination of India’s diasporic history in Australia.