What do Indians think of
the world outside their borders? How safe do they feel? How seriously do they
take the challenges from the neighbourhood and beyond, especially from China
and Pakistan?
Late last year, The Lowy Institute for International Policy and
the Australia-India Institute commissioned one of the most comprehensive
surveys of Indian public opinion on key foreign policy issues and critical
challenges of governance. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 1,233
adults, and questions asked in seven languages in cities, towns and villages
throughout most of India and at all levels of society.
Today we are releasing, in Sydney, the first part of those
findings, relating to how Indians view Australia. On May 20, we will release,
in New Delhi, the rest of the startling findings of this ground-breaking poll.
Getting over past
The most important message from today’s initial poll results is
that the Australia-India relationship is an idea whose time has arrived. That
there was strong convergence of values and interests between the two countries
had been intuitively obvious, but the bad press that Australia received over
student safety and Canberra’s refusal to export uranium to India (a decision
now overturned) had strained ties.
That chapter seems almost over, but there is no room for
complacency. Findings of the poll suggest that Canberra and New Delhi need to
continue investing in the relationship, especially in correcting popular
perceptions amongst Indians about how they are treated in Australia.
Overall, the survey reveals strongly positive perceptions of
Australia in India. Indians ranked Australia in the top four nations towards
which they feel most warmly. Only the United States, Japan and Singapore ranked
more highly. Today, Indians feel warmer towards Australia than towards
countries in Europe, including Britain or India’s fellow so-called BRICS.
No less importantly, Australia is seen as a country that
functions well and is worth emulating. Sixty per cent of Indians think it would
be better if India’s government and society worked more like Australia’s. Japan
and Singapore rank roughly equal to Australia. Only the United States ranks
better at 78 per cent. Other countries, including Britain, China and Germany,
do not fare as well as governance models for India.
A majority of Indians also see many good qualities in Australia
and appreciate Australian values. This suggests some reassuring resilience to
Australia’s reputation based on its core strengths as a developed, democratic,
multicultural and egalitarian nation.
Irritants
But it would be a grave mistake for the Australian and indeed
the Indian Government to interpret these results as reason to relax about the
bilateral relationship. For the poll also shows lingering concerns about the
kind of welcome Indians receive Down Under.
Most disturbingly, 61 per cent of Indians still think the
attacks against their countrymen here in 2009 and 2010 were driven mainly by
racism — even though it’s likely this was an element in only a small proportion
of those crimes. Sixty-two per cent still consider Australia a dangerous place
for Indian students, although 53 per cent say it is safer than it was a few
years ago, and 49 per cent regard Australia as generally a safe country.
Trade links
Of course, there is much to celebrate. Relations between India
and Australia have deepened dramatically over the past decade. India’s economic
growth and its burgeoning demand for energy, resources and education have
propelled India to become Australia’s fourth-largest export market.
People of Indian origin have become one of its largest migrant
communities. Both governments have stressed common security interests and now
recognise a shared Indo-Pacific destiny.
And Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s hard-fought
victory in December 2011 reversing Labour’s uranium ban has removed a barrier
of mistrust. Incidentally, 70 per cent Indians think selling uranium is
important to Australia’s relations with India, while only five per cent think
it is not important.
There is bipartisan Australian support for engaging India. The
Liberal Party, under Tony Abbott, is committed to pursuing an even more robust
relationship.
The poll data suggests a healthy pragmatism among Indians, as
well as respect for a fellow democracy, which Australia and India ought to
harness. More than half of Indians believe Australia is a good place to live
and to get work. About the same proportion see Australia as a country
well-disposed to India; while 59 per cent agree that the two countries have
similar national security interests and 56 per cent go a step further to agree
we could be good security partners in the Indian Ocean.
And ordinary Indians seem to understand that Australia is
becoming indispensable for their country’s development: 60 per cent see
Australia as a good supplier of energy and other resources, 57 per cent think
it supplies good agricultural produce, and 61 per cent agree it is a country
known for excellence in science.
But there remains work to be done is in correcting Indian
perceptions about what Australians think of them. Indians are divided on this
front: 51 per cent agree that Australia is a country with welcoming people,
while 26 per cent disagree. Indians from large cities are more positive, with
71 per cent agreeing that Australia is a country with welcoming people.
One promising discovery is that young and urban Indians tend to
be more positive about Australia, and in a nation with more than 600 million
people under the age of 25, that remains an enormous opportunity.
With this poll, there is now a measurable scorecard to help
political leaders and diplomats in New Delhi and Canberra, along with
universities, business and civil society keep lifting their game in a crucial
bilateral relationship.
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