Venkat Raman reviews Invisible for Indian Newslink:
‘There could soon be representations from the members of the Indian community appealing to the government to issue an apology for the excesses that some of them and their forerunners suffered in New Zealand for long.
That is, if a book dedicated to Indians and their sufferings, to be released next month impacts on the community and prompts them to debate and act.
Such an appeal could also be motivated by the government’s recent announcement that it will apologise to the Pacific Island communities over the ‘Dawn Raids’ of the 1970s. Fijians (mostly of Indian origin) have asked the government to include them in the ‘Dawn Raids’ apology, stating that their parents and grandparents were also victims of the infamous actions of officials, especially the law-enforcing authorities.
Indian community leaders agree that while there have been private talks of the trauma, insult and discrimination that their forebears from India suffered over several decades in New Zealand, there has been no concerted effort to appeal to the government.
There are well-documented incidents of discrimination based on racism that Indians had to endure — late 1890s through to almost the first half of the 20th Century.
Now, this all-revealing book, written by researcher and writer Jacqueline Leckie should make New Zealanders pause and reflect on the injustice that migrants from India had to suffer. They were not indentured labourers but were subject to inhuman treatment.’
Read the full review here.
