Add Category
Updated
At a house in Adelaide's eastern suburbs a dance group gathers for a last minute rehearsal to prepare for a performance at this weekend's annual Indian Mela festival.
With Bollywood beats playing out of a phone plugged into a speaker, seven members of the group weave and spin around the room, including dancer Yesha Joshi.
"We do a bit of contemporary dance, a bit of Bollywood fusion, we come from all walks of life, we come from different parts of India," she said.
"We also have an Anglo-Saxon in our group, so we have a culturally diverse group."
Now employed as an advisor to a politician, Ms Joshi migrated to Adelaide with her family from Gujurat in 2000 when she was nine years old.
She believes the South Australian capital laps up Indian culture.
"Absolutely, who doesn't love a little bit of Bollywood, who doesn't love a little bit of Indian curry on your night off?" she said
"I think Indian culture is definitely embraced, and that's something that I value."
Engineer, Heena Gupta moved from New Delhi to Australia in 2003 and brought a love of Bollywood dancing with her.
"Bollywood and dancing is a big part of our culture just like Indian food and cricket."
Indian Australian Association of South Australia (IAASA) president Adireddy Yara estimated there were close to 25,000 people with Indian heritage living in Adelaide.
Figures from the 2011 census show that 18,379 residents of South Australia were born in India.
IAASA was established 50 years ago and now represents a diverse range of Indian immigrants.
IAASA set up the Mela festival when Dr Jagdish Saraf was the association president 25 years ago to celebrate the diverse culture of the sub-continent.
"India is not one country, it's a continent — so many different cultures, so many different foods," Dr Saraf said.
"South Indian food is as different as Greek food and Anglo-Saxon food."
When Dr Saraf arrived in Adelaide from India in the late 1970s he would rarely see another Indian face in Adelaide's city centre.
"If I walked on Rundle Mall, if I saw an Indian face, I got very excited," he said.
But now the Indian community is much bigger.
"I'm pretty sure the way we have infiltrated the food of this country and other things that Indian culture will be one of the very important cultures in years to come."
Rajni Madan has volunteered with IAASA since she moved to Adelaide from Chandigarh in 1997.
"Initially, our idea was to spread the culture and showcase our culture to everybody," she said.
The association is now affiliated with a wide range of ethnic Indian associations including organisations representing Gujurati, Telugu, Tamil and South Indian community members.
But Ms Madan said the most important role for IAASA now is to "keep everyone united on one platform" while maintaining diversity.
That diversity will be on show at the Mela on Saturday.
Topics: community-and-society, dance, arts-and-entertainment, adelaide-5000, sa
First posted