How Indians won civil rights in Australia

In the winter of 1922, Dorabji Jamsetji Tata boarded the SS Naldera with his British Indian passport in hand, destined for the city of Fremantle in Australia. A bout of malaria had laid him low and his medical advisor recommended that what he needed was a “health trip”.

For a multi-millionaire industrialist with the resources of Tata, of course, buying a ticket to Australia was not difficult. But even for him, getting permission to travel to the country was an obstacle-ridden process. This was a time when the nation strictly enforced the “White Australia” policy, forbidding people of non-European ethnic origin from immigrating and even restricting their inward travel.

In an interview to the Maryborough Chronicle, Tata said there was considerable agitation in India over the way Indians were being treated in Australia and South Africa. For instance, the “Bombay Corporation passed a motion that owing to difficulties put in the way of Indians going to Australia, a bar should be put on the employment of Australians in the Indian services,” the Maryborough Chronicle said. “This attitude was fairly widespread. The Indians said they were members of the Empire, and did a great deal during the [First World] war. They were entitled as members of the fraternity of...

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