Making sense ANAND LUTHRA and HARSHAD PANDHARIPANDE

By now, you probably know the Census 2016 finding that Indians were the second biggest group of migrants, after the Chinese, to have arrived in Australia since 2011.

Some 163,000 people arrived here from India in the last five years in search of greener pastures.

In fact, the Indians and the Chinese have been at the forefront of an Asian influx into Australia that overtook migration from Europe for the first time in the last five years. According to data released on 5 July, among the recent arrivals (2007-2016) in Australia, Indians were at the top at 13.7%, ahead of the Chinese who came in second at 13.3%.

The census revealed quite a few other equally interesting India-related facts. For instance, even as ‘No Religion’ became the second biggest faith group in Australia, Sikhism and Hinduism were some of the fastest growing religions in the country since the last census in 2011.

All these make for compelling statistics and point towards a spike in the aspirational barometer of Indians. They show what Australia means to Indians.

But what if we turned that around and asked ‘What do Indian migrants mean to Australia?’

How will we enrich Australia’s culture?

Why did many of us, religiously inclined that we care, go for the ‘No Religion’ option? How can Hinduism and Sikhism contribute to multiculturalism in Australia?

It is with these questions that we dissect the census findings. With a mix of statistics and opinions of community members - fresh off the boat or second- or thirdgeneration Indian Australians - we bring you a comprehensive, three-part reading of everything to do with our community in Census 2016.

Sikhism among fastest growing religions

The fastest-growing religious group since 2011 in Australia was Sikhism, that grew by 74.1%. The proportion of Sikhs in the overall Australian population was 0.1% in 2006, but it rose to 0.5% in 2016.

With 126,000 followers – up from about 72,000 five years ago and 26,000 in 2006 – Sikhism is now the fifth largest religion of the country, after Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.

It also means that Sikhism has grown over 500 per cent in Australia in the last ten years.

In the 2006 census, Sikhism was not even among 20 religions recorded in Australia.

Victoria is home to 52,762 Sikhs, followed by New South Wales (31,737), Queensland (17,433), Western Australia (11,897), South Australia (8,808) and Canberra (2,142).