- India Day returned to Trim Castle, a year after its cancellation amid attacks and abuse.
- The Ireland India Council said the vast majority of hostile calls came from the US.
- Ireland’s Indian community has grown to around 80,000, from only a few thousand in 2002.
- Organisers said there had been no significant incidents of violence against the Indian community this year.
- The event combined Indian dance, fashion, music and business, celebrating cultural ties between Ireland and India.
India Day returned to Trim Castle in Co Meath on Sunday (30), a year after organisers were forced to cancel the annual celebration following a series of attacks and hostile messages directed at members of Ireland’s Indian community.
For those who organised the event, its return was about much more than music, dance and celebration. It was a quiet statement that fear and intimidation would not be allowed to erase a community’s place in Irish life.
“It was very upsetting for the whole team,” said Aparna Shukla, cultural co-ordinator for India Day. “Every day we were debating whether we should or shouldn’t do it, but the attacks were increasing in number.”
The event, organised by the Ireland India Council since 2015, celebrates relations between the two countries. Last year, however, a violent attack on a man originally from India in Tallaght, Dublin, was among the incidents that contributed to its cancellation.
Organisers also faced a stream of hostile messages on social media and calls to the council.
A year of fear leaves its mark
Shukla said the hostility had spread beyond individual incidents, with community members reporting concerns from different parts of Ireland.
“We were getting a lot of ground reports from communities that it was spreading throughout Ireland, and we were getting a lot of abuse on our social media.”
The Ireland India Council said the vast majority of hostile phone calls it received originated from the US. Shukla also said some abusive social-media comments came from supporters of the Make America Great Again movement.
She described last year’s hostility as anomalous and suggested it was the result of “some kind of funded agenda that was carried out by people who were recruited for some campaign”.
Despite the distress, she believed bringing India Day back was essential.
“Everybody missed last year, and we got such an overwhelming response when we released this event,” she said. “We got random phone calls saying, ‘You are so welcome in this country and we are so happy that you are celebrating this year.’”
A community determined to celebrate
The scale of the Indian community in Ireland has changed dramatically since Shukla arrived in 2002, when only a few thousand Indian people lived in the State. Today, the community numbers around 80,000.
The celebrations at Trim included Bharatanatyam dance, a fashion show featuring saris and lehengas, Indian musicians and performances by local artists.
For Shukla, the cultural programme represented the community’s integration into Irish society rather than separation from it.
“Culture creates understanding and understanding builds relationships,” she added. “I may be biased because I’m from India, but I feel India is like a cultural capital of the world. Our music and dance that you see, they are traditions that are thousands of years old. I think people are very privileged to be able to witness those performances in Ireland.”
From painful memories to a hopeful return
Prashant Shukla, co-chairman of the Ireland India Council, said the situation had improved significantly over the past year.
“This is something I can be proud of in the Irish system,” Shukla said. “In many countries, violence has happened against the Indian community, but no country in the world actually tackled it the way Ireland tackled it.”
The day also looked towards the future, with discussions around the EU-India Free Trade Agreement and opportunities for Irish businesses.
But beneath the trade discussions and colourful performances was a more personal message: a community that was forced to retreat a year ago had returned.
India Day could not undo what happened last year. But its return showed that the people who felt frightened and unwelcome had chosen, once again, to be visible.
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