An Indian-New Zealander believes anti-Indian racism is on the rise after being “tormented” by a person who egged his cars and urinated on his property.

Real estate agent Raj Singh said he and his family have consistently been on the receiving end of abusive behaviour since 2018.

He claimed a person in his suburb threw eggs on to his cars, threw rubbish in front of his home and banged on his fence so hard it almost broke.

Singh said the person “tormented” his family and left his children, who were living at home at the time, “very scared and stressed”.

“Without any motive, [the person] tried to bully us,” he told the Herald.

Singh alleged the person was previously trespassed from his home but did not honour the order and went on to urinate on his fences.

He said there had been multiple incidents with the person over the years, some of which he complained to police about.

Police confirmed to the Herald the person was convicted of disorderly behaviour in 2020.

After a quiet few years, the abuse ramped up again in March – this time with verbal insults aimed at Singh’s ethnicity.

The person’s alleged remarks included: “f*** India”, “f*** Indians”, “I hate Indians” and “I hate you all”.

Earlier this month, Singh again reported an instance of verbal abuse to police, who were unable to find the other person on arrival.

Real estate agent Raj Singh says he has been experienced verbal racist abuse from a person living in the same suburb as him, who has been tresspassed from his property.

“Police inquiries are still ongoing, and we intend on speaking with the [person] further,” Manukau central area commander Inspector Adam Pyne said.

“No one in the community should have to experience this verbal abuse.”

Police confirmed they would take action if the person breached Singh’s trespass order.

“My family and I have lived in New Zealand for almost four decades - this is our home,” Singh said.

Singh, who is also a Justice of the Peace, said he “took racial discrimination and racist abuse extremely seriously” and sent an account of his experience to the Human Rights Commission.

Social sciences and humanities professor Camille Nakhid researches race and ethnicity at Auckland University of Technology.

Anti-Indian sentiments have increasingly been in the headlines in recent times.

In December, protesters from a group called True Patriots of New Zealand disrupted religious Sikh parades in South Auckland.

Earlier this year, RNZ reported that police hate crime data showed people of South Asian descent were the group most targeted by racial abuse.

Auckland University of Technology social sciences professor Camille Nakhid said racial tensions rose during election years, which was “pitiful” but “not surprising”.

She said racism in New Zealand never went away but the targets continued to shift, with Indian communities currently experiencing the brunt of it.

Pacific communities were targeted during the Dawn Raids in the 1970s, east Asian communities were targeted during peak migration periods and in the Covid-19 pandemic, and Māori were targeted during debates surrounding co-governance, she said.

“You want to get rid of racism, you have to get rid of our colonised mentality.”

Janhavi Gosavi is a Wellington-based journalist for the New Zealand Herald who covers news in the capital.