Roots with South Asian Today

The last two years have been tough for most of us in Australia. The impact of COVID and multiple lockdowns have many struggling to keep a check on both their mental health and identity crises.

Why were so many international students, migrants, asylum seekers and refugees left behind during such a difficult time?

Why should anyone have to be resilient to ask for basic needs?

To get answers to some of her questions, Dilpreet speaks with Samantha Ratnam, Leader of the Victorian Greens.

This interview is a part of our new series 'Coping with COVID', where we aim to highlight the mental, physical, social and financial recovery of South Asians in Australia post lockdowns. 

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Our guest is the impeccable Indian-Australian actor Pallavi Sharda.

Pallavi dreamt of acting in Hindi films and actually did it. In an industry laced with nepotism and favouritism, how did someone who was often the only brown girl in her dance class end up leading several Hindi films before turning global and working in movies and shows like Lion with Dev Patel and Gurinder Chadha’s Beecham House?

We talk about breaking into both Indian and western film industries and how one can find their own place in a profession that can turn overnight. Is it exciting, or is it scary to work in Australia where seeing South Asian women lead a show is still such a novelty?

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Earlier this month, South Asian Today reported 13 Academic Fellows resigned from the University of Melbourne’s Australia India Institute alleging restricted academic freedom and raising concerns around the Institute’s approach toward research on matters of Hindu nationalism. There is also a strong indication of interference by the Indian High Commission in the Institute’s operations. 

In May 2019, a public lecture by Thomas Blom Hansen on ‘violence’ was downgraded to an invite-only seminar. In a recent interview with The Wire, The Institute’s founding director Professor Amitabh Mattoo alleged it was changed due to security concerns and suggested the Institute’s then CEO Craig Jeffrey was responsible for it. 

Dilpreet speaks with Thomas about his lecture, if the Institute was in fact intimated by higher authorities in the Indian Consulate General and why must the University of Melbourne step up.

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Our guest today Leeza Mangaldas, is one of India’s foremost sex educators. She wants us to imagine a world where all sexual experiences are consensual, safe, and pleasurable. We talk about the western gaze on sex in India, why cis-het men dominate the comment section of a sex educator, and how we should listen to our bodies. 

Leeza's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leezamangaldas/

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Our guest today is sex educator and gender justice activist Dr Varuna Srinivasan. Varuna is a bisexual South Asian woman who breaks down myths, stereotypes and shame around sexual health. 

Varuna and I have a bunch of similarities which makes this episode really easy to listen to. We are both raised in India, both now migrated to the West and both consider ourselves “children of the internet”. We talk about how different it is to use the internet as people who literally got it in the first place, what is (un)sexy in talking about gender online as a woman and how important is financial and racial status when it comes to sexual health. 

Varuna's Website: https://www.varunasrinivasan.com/
Varuna's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drvarunasrinivasan/

Are identity politics and diversity really going to solve the world's problems? Can we talk about police brutality without talking about punishment in our personal relationships? Is it possible to understand oppression without understanding capitalism?

In our fifth podcast episode of Roots, we speak with Dr. Ayesha Khan about abolition, neoliberalism, justice and accountability in a world where disposing of people is an everyday reality. 

Australian media is overwhelmingly Anglo-Celtic and European. Why does a country that claims to be multicultural find itself to be white-dominated time and time again?

In the podcast's fourth episode, we speak with Afghan-Australian lawyer and the brand new CEO of Media Diversity Australia, Mariam Veiszadeh.

Mariam was born in Afghanistan and she came to Australia in 1990 with her family as a refugee. She talks about what her vision to diversity Australia's journalism sector is, when does she feel seen, and whatever shall happen to the many international students who come to Australia to study media but are not qualified to apply for any internships or cadetships - much like our host, Dilpreet.

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India has the largest Tribal and Indigenous population globally, yet there are only 20 National Open Scholarships for about 110 million Tribal people. Why?

Our third episode is a special interview with social justice scholar Ashok Danavath about the lack of tribal representation in Indian embassies in the west and the institutionalised casteism many Indigenous, Dalit and Tribal students face.  Those who screen students, take care of administration, or are responsible for allocating funds are overwhelmingly upper caste. As we know, wherever South Asians go, they pack caste along.

Ashok Danavath is a Tribal graduate scholar currently at the international institute of social studies in the Netherlands. His ongoing research pertains to the marginalisation of Tribal communities in India, and the host for this special episode is Mudit Vyas, a graduate researcher at Monash University. He specialises in the anthropology of creative industries.

They talk about the role of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs of India, how the lack of further support affects students who do get the scholarships, and what happens to the many students who don't.

Ashok's Twitter.

Mudit's Instagram.

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The second guest for Roots is Sharon Johal. Sharon is an actor, writer, presenter, and one of Australia's most well-known South Asian creatives.

But apart from acting, it is speaking up where I connect with Sharon the most.

Earlier this year, Sharon released a public statement about facing racism on the set of Neighbours, easily one of Australia's biggest and longest-running tv shows. 

Before her, two Indigenous actors, Shareena Clanton and Meyne Wyatt had come out with similar experiences. 

It's not surprising that people were dragged for talking about race, which is often the case in white-dominated Australia; topics including racism are not taken seriously and are often dismissed or painted as a cry for attention.

It isn't easy to speak up but Sharon believes she must, and even if it is difficult sometimes, she doesn't want to choose to stay silent. And she is aware that not everybody is going to like her. As she says "no one likes a strong woman".

But how did she get here?

What is it like to be an outspoken brown woman and a public figure in Australia, to grow up in rural areas to a Sikh-Punjabi family and to go against all odds to pursue acting?

Sharon has hands-down the most unique stories to tell. For half the recording my mouth was just wide open. 

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