{"id":6038,"date":"2025-08-18T00:37:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T00:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/6038\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T00:37:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T00:37:16","slug":"scaled-back-india-independence-day-celebration-in-dublin-after-spate-of-attacks-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/6038\/","title":{"rendered":"Scaled-back India Independence Day celebration in Dublin after spate of attacks \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A scaled-back celebration of India<\/a>\u2019s Independence Day was held in Dublin on Sunday following a spate of attacks on members of the Indian community in Ireland.<\/p>\n

A larger event was due to take place at Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park, but was postponed<\/a> by the Ireland India Council earlier this week due to concerns that the way in which it was perceived online could be used to justify further violence.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s event took place in Merrion Square<\/a> and was organised by the Federation of Indian Communities in Ireland in partnership with Dublin City Council and other civic groups.<\/p>\n

There was traditional Indian music and dance performances, street food stalls and art exhibitions .<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Raising my son in Dublin, I believed there was nowhere safer or more welcoming\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Sheetal Yedge\u2019s two daughters performed several music and dance acts on stage in front of a crowd of a few hundred people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe come every year and they like to participate every year, each time it\u2019s something different,\u201d Ms Yedge said.<\/p>\n

She said the girls had been \u201cpreparing for quite a few months\u201d and she was pleased to see them share their culture. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe love Irish culture as well, so integrating the both of them together is a really great thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SayliSayli Dixit (left) and Pradhnya Jadhav-Panse taking part in an event in Merrion Square, Dublin to mark India Day. Photograph: Dan Dennison\/The Irish Times \"SistersSisters Srikruthi and Srimanya, with their mum, practise their dance routine in Merrion Square. Photograph: Dan Dennison\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Ms Yedge\u2019s daughters performed a dance recalling the story of an 18th-century Indian king who preserved local culture and heritage in spite of the British Empire\u2019s invasion. <\/p>\n

Ms Yedge\u2019s eldest daughter, Saina, described it as \u201cfast paced and really loud\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s all these drums and lots of instruments of different varieties,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Kuldeep Joshi, a director and treasurer of the federation and a coordinator of the event, said the occasion is \u201ca celebration of our independence from British rule\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"ChiranjeeviChiranjeevi and family take part in India Day. Photograph: Dan Dennison\/The Irish Times \"IndiaIndia Day attendees at Merrion Square, Dublin. Photograph: Dan Dennison\/The Irish Times \"MembersMembers of the Mudra School Of Indian Classical Dances, Stamullen, Co.Meath take part in an event in Merrion Square, Dublin to mark India Day. <\/p>\n

This was mentioned by President Michael D Higgins<\/a> earlier this week when he condemned attacks on Indian people<\/a>, who he said have brought \u201cimmeasurable benefits\u201d to the State.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged a past \u201cexchange of expertise\u201d as the two countries drafted constitutions after gaining independence from the British, noting that Ireland\u2019s connection with India was \u201cneither recent nor superficial\u201d.<\/p>\n

People in attendance on Sunday were asked to stand for nAmhr\u00e1n na bhFiann and Jana Gana Mana, the Indian national anthem, which were played at the beginning of the festivities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came forward and we are still celebrating,\u201d Mr Joshi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attacks are in isolation and they do not represent the entire Irish society, and you can see here all the Irish nationals are welcome, it\u2019s such a welcoming country.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Widespread media coverage in India\u2019 of attacks on Indian people living in IrelandOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He said he expected around 3,000 people would come over the course of the day.<\/p>\n

Indian community representatives met T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris and Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan to discuss the rise in reported attacks against Indians in Ireland, many of which garda\u00ed believe were racially motivated hate crimes. <\/p>\n

Indian ambassador to Ireland Akhilesh Mishra said many TDs and civic leaders had reassured him of the gravity with which the recent assaults were being treated.<\/p>\n

\u201cNowhere else would you find such an outpouring of condemnation across a society of such attacks,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A scaled-back celebration of India\u2019s Independence Day was held in Dublin on Sunday following a spate of attacks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,387,17,11,12,15,16,6072,1874,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-6038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-india","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-merrion-square","22":"tag-michael-d-higgins","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}