As my name indicates, I am of Indian heritage. Now 83 years old, I arrived in Australia more than five decades ago. Whenever I meet newly arrived Indians, they often ask me about racism in Australia when I arrived.

My answer has always been, “I never experienced any racism 55 or so years ago, but in recent years I have had my share of unfortunate encounters at a personal level”.

Surendra Verma with friends of more than 50 years.

When I arrived here, institutional racism was in full force: the White Australia policy did not end until 1975. In those happy days, you could walk into the Australian embassy in New Delhi and enquire about your application. I noticed that my file was clearly marked “non-European”.

But still, I was here, a non-European, as they were the dying days of this abominable policy. Yet no neo-Nazis were shouting to keep Australia white. There were no crowds of anti-migration Australians marching in the........

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