Indian immigrants in Victoria have called for Punjabi to be taught in public schools, citing fears their language and culture will disappear.
Preet Khinda, who founded the Virasati Punjabi School in Geelong in 2021, has joined a growing chorus of Indian expats demanding their language added to the state curriculum, saying it would be “more useful” than what her kids are learning in schools now.
Ms Khinda said she started the school, which now has 53 students, because her son came home crying because he wasn’t White, and was the “only Indian in his class”.
“I thought, ‘nah, he needs to learn his mighty culture’,” she told the Geelong Advertiser.
“Now my kids go to school and they feel proud, yes we are Indian. Most of us, we are the first generation here and as the first generation parents, I would love to pass my culture to the second generation.
“Because if I don’t teach my kids my language, my culture, our dances, it finishes here – it will die.”
Ms Khinda said local schools offered Italian, French or Indonesian, which her children were learning, but argued Punjabi would be more useful.
“Most of the families go back to India at least once a year, to see family and grandparents. If they don’t know how to speak Punjabi, there will be a big generation gap,” she said.
Between 2016, when Ms Khinda moved to Geelong from Melbourne, and 2021, the Indian-born population of Geelong doubled, and Punjabi became the second most commonly spoken language other than English after Mandarin.
This has mirrored developments in Ballarat, where Indian immigrants established the Rootz Punjabi School as the Indian community more than doubled in size between 2011 and 2021.
School founder Ramman Marupur has also called for her language to be taught in Victorian schools, following its introduction in NSW and Western Australia.
“My daughter is learning Japanese in school at the moment so if she goes to Japan she’ll be able to speak with the locals there,” Ms Marupur said.
“It’s the same with Punjabi, if someone wants to learn the language, and learning any new language is always good, it will help them lots if they go to Punjab.”
At the time of the 2021 Census there were 764 Punjabi speakers in Ballarat out of a population of 113,763 – making it the second most common language used at home other than English.
In 2025, one of Ballarat’s historic Anglican churches was converted to a Sikh temple with the approval of local government and Labor MPs, Punjabi-speaking Indians have demanded and received changes to place names in Griffith, rural WA, and Melbourne.
Hoppers Crossing in Melbourne’s west is set to receive a $4.5 million dollar Sikh community centre despite complaints from locals, and in November last year the Punjabi Sikh community sparked concerns by taking over a street in Tarneit where participants carried swords and Khalistani separatist flags.
Header image: Children studying Punjabi (SBS).
