Little India is born in Sydney today!

History has been made.  15th of June will go down into the history books as a day to remember when Parramatta Council declared the iconic business streets of Wigram Street, Marion Street and Station Street in Harris Park via a Council resolution to name it as “Little India Precinct”.  This initiate is the first of its kind in Australia. Well done and congratulations to the visionary Parramatta Council.

Harris Park has a plurality Indian and Hindu population, both making up the largest ethnic and religious group.In the 2016 census there were 5,799 residents in Harris Park. Only 18.9% of people were born in Australia. The top country of birth was India at 46.4%.

The campaign to name Harris Park Business precinct as “Little India” took many years. It did not happen overnight. The First event was held on 15th August 2015 to celebrate Indian Independence Day by hosting Indian Flag at the corner of Marion Street and Harris Street. It was initiated by  Sanjay Deshwal, Nitin Setia, Jitu Naik and Anuj Kulshrestha along with various businesses owners.

The following year on  26th January 2016 Indian Flag was hoisted again at 95 Wigram Street in presence of MP Dr Geoffrey Lee and MP Julia Finn along with large Indian diaspora.

The formation of the LITTLE INDIA HARRIS PARK BUSINESS ASSOCIATION (LIHPBA) in 2015 was the prime catalyst as the members of various businesses including the famous Indian restaurants lobbied with the politicians, the council and general public to make this grand vison into a reality. The charge was led by Sanjay Deshwal and Nitin Setia. The 4th July 2019 (Thursday) was a significant day in the history of LIHPBA, when all Business owners of Little India were invited at Taj Bhavan Harris Park, a passionate appeal was made by LIHPBA to the Parramatta Council highlighting, why naming the business precinct as LITTLE INDIA would result in many benefits including promoting social inclusion, multiculturism and tourism and a thriving business precinct.

Talk is cheap and J F Kennedy once said, success has many fathers, failure is an orphan. Many people will seek credit for the success. The LIHPBA team currently led by the dynamic Sanjay Deshwal and long-time confidant Nitin Setia of Gingers fame and the Board members worked tirelessly to make this vision a reality. Of significant contribution to the cause is the great work of Sanjay Deshwal who was instrumental in bringing and organising the iconic Little India Diwali Festival to Harris Park business precincts in 2017 and 2018 (now named as Little India), the first time Diwali lighting of Harris Park businesses in 2019 and 2020, the COVID 19 support in association with the Indian Support Centre in Mar-Jun 2020 etc. We had regular councillor and community Leaders meeting in Harris Park and NSW Health and Services NSW Seminar with help from NSW Multicultural – invitations and photos enclosed.   Thanks to the enormous support of Parramatta MP Minister Dr Geoffrey Lee, Lord Mayor of Parramatta Council Bob Dwyer and distinguished Councillors - Steven Issa, Andrew Wilson ( Ex Lord Mayor), Sameer Pandey and Patricia Provic (collectively known as the Godfathers of this important milestone) the results are for all to see.

LIHPBA would like to acknowledge the critical and significant ground work by the inaugural Board comprising of Subba Rao Varigonda, Tony Colaco, Saryu Rao, Balu Vijay, Parag Shah, Simi Wadhwa. Further, the support of the local business owners - Michael Thangavelu, Ashish Patel, Pawan Narra, Ramesh Sharma, Pankaj Sharma, Ketan Patel, Santosh Kumar, Ketan Pandit, Vipin Punia, Patrick Soosay, Dr Ballu, Samiksha Sanghvi, Dharmesh, Sanjay Dodhi, Akram, Masood Khan, Nirav Desai, Resham Singh, and many more other community and business groups were critical to the success.

Further to help community LIHPBA is now partnering with Harris Park Community Centre in all community based activities and mutually serve the community in need when ever possible.

In the immediate future, LIHPBA will be meeting with all the stakeholders to gather ideas and their aspirations for LITTLE INDIA. This would certainly include branding the place with signage, better parking, promotions and publicity, increasing the foot traffic, and recording this significant milestone in the Councils libraries for generations yet to come to read about this and more.

LIHBA is currently planning an event on 18th July 2021 – “Colours of the Sub-continent” to celebrate this milestone and welcome one and all to attend.  This event is supported by Multicultural NSW. We are inviting Nepalese, Sri-lankan, Afghani, Malaysian, Bangladeshi, Lebanese and many more communities to participate in this Festival.