India’s North-South divide, a fault-line in NZ too

Members of the pan-Indian community are criticising the dominance of North Indian states when it comes to cultural events and festivities celebrated in Auckland.
Ethnic radio stations such as Humm FM and Radio Tarana have been celebrating and promoting cultural events such as Diwali the festival of lights and Holi, the festival of colours over many years.
However, Indian community members are saying the cultural events hosted by the radio stations only show one part of India and there is a lack of representation in the dances and songs performed.
Those who come from other places in India such as; Hyderabad, Gujarat and Calcutta say they are left out as minorities.
Aucklander Kumuda Gopalachari, originally from Mumbai, has lived in New Zealand for many years now. She attends local cultural events with her family, and feels the performances are biased.
“All of these events are promoted as Indian festivals and we as a family attend them, hoping our kids can learn more about their culture and heritage, she says “if we see only one culture, one part of India, how will this teach our kids about Indian culture?”
Vikram Subramaniam, has performed with both radio stations, and said most cultural events were North Indian or specifically Punjabi-orientated.
“They say the events are to represent Indian culture, but what we see only showcases North India or mainstream Bollywood, which again contains mainly North Indian influences,” he said.
Former international student, Krupesh Desai, who grew up in Daman, said he had been to several events in the past two-and-a-half years and had not seen many performances from other groups.
“I’ve only ever seen a few garbas (traditional Gujarati dance) and Bengali folk dances,” he said.
Hemant Parikh, a presenter on Radio Tarana, said they tried their best to get representation from all the groups, but it could be challenging creating events to suit all audiences.
“One has to consider the theme and demographic of the events, because there are limitations in the market supply of such talent and themes,” he said.
He said audience demand was the reason there were paid Punjabi concerts and overseas artists coming into Auckland.
“There is lack of commercial demand for other cultures,” he said.
Krupesh said other Indian communities were not as strong when it came to sponsoring cultural events and therefore “contributors are allowed to be biased towards what they’re paying for”.
However, Ms Gopalachari said that in a foreign country, Indian culture should be represented accurately without being biased.
“Here in New Zealand, we’re not in a state, like back home in India. There you become biased towards other states and only promote what your state has to offer. Therefore all parts of India should be showcased,” she said.
Agastya Pesara, a member of the AUT Indian Students’ Association in New Zealand on Facebook, said other groups were welcome to come forward if they felt misrepresented.