There are fears that violence against Indian students could damage Australia's reputation abroad and its highly lucrative international education industry.

Federal and state politicians today rushed to condemn a growing pattern of violent attacks on Indian students in Melbourne.

Students say that education advisers in India are painting a picture of attending university in Australia that is prettier than reality, and the gloss quickly wears off.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was forced today to publicly reassure the Indian Government that Australia is not a racist country after a rally of 3,000 Indian students in Melbourne's CBD.

An Indian student is fighting for his life after being stabbed with a screwdriver by intruders at a birthday party in his own home a few weeks back.

With the attacks getting widespread, media coverage in India and popular Bollywood movie stars weighing in too, what is at stake here is not just Australia's reputation - its multibillion-dollar international student industry could be damaged as well.

Jayasankar Bagiepalli, who has been studying IT in Melbourne for four months, said he has had enough.

"See what happens here? We are being attacked. Not once, twice," he said.

"Many people, many Indians are being attacked. That's what happens here. So if this country, you know, people from India really stops coming here.

"I'm going [home] on 17th of this month. My parents doesn't [sic] want me to stay here. They're really concerned about me."

The fear of governments and institutions catering to international students is that others will not be far behind him, spreading their negative message back home.

While police and Indian community leaders have appealed for calm, India's high commissioner says the students have been provoked out of desperation.

"Our Indian communities overseas are law-abiding," Sujatha Singh told ABC1's 7.30 Report.

"They go by the rules, and if they're being provoked into this, it is because they have very real concerns."

The violent attacks sparked a noisy protest in central Melbourne on Sunday, with thousands of students venting their frustration.

Vasan Srinivasan from the Federation of Indian Associations in Victoria says the violence casts a poor shadow on the country's education industry.

"I felt quite uneasy in my stomach because this is [an] icon of Victoria, Melbourne," he said.

"We promote this wherever we go when we are promoting Australian education."

Mr Rudd today told Parliament he has spoken to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the attacks which saw hundreds of students in Melbourne take to the streets last night in protest.

The complaints of racial attacks have been pouring into federal and state governments for the past 12 months, and consultations have already begun between police and Indian community leaders about how to deal with it.

Misrepresentation

There are 45,000 Indian students in Victoria, and most of them are based at colleges in Melbourne's CBD.

It is a growth industry, but tensions have been simmering for some time now because when the students get here the standards of the colleges and the promised lifestyle are not always what they are cracked up to be.

The students find themselves having to rent houses in the outer suburbs and doing night jobs to make ends meet.

"There are many university students which don't have their college accommodation, so that is why we are going to the suburbs," Mr Bagiepalli said.

"That's the main reason why we are getting attacked. We are the persons who travel late night and go there. We are the persons who are targeted."

"The education consultants overseas, they tell them all sorts of goodies about Australia, how they're going to live, how they're going to earn," student Srinivas Vedantam said.

"When they arrive here they couldn't find proper accommodation."

Robert Palmer from the Overseas Student Support Network said being overworked at casual jobs is also a factor.

"There's a case recently on record that a student worked for 72 hours without a break for a security firm," he said.

On top of all that, when they are attacked, whether it is racially motivated or otherwise, some students are frightened to report it to police.

"They always felt that the report is not taken well by the police within that area, whenever they went to complain," Mr Srinivasan said.

"And also there is a stigma attached to that. 'If I go to police station, if I speak to police, my permanent residency could be at risk'."

Racial motivation?

But opinion is divided about whether all of the violence has been racially motivated.

"I'm here the last 22 years and we are growing our family. I've got a teenage girl," Mr Srinivasan said.

"I never felt at any stage in this country I'm treated differently, and any attacks based on racism against our community. I never felt it at any time."

Mr Vedantam, however, said the frequency of attacks is increasing, and along with it the furious reactions.

"[They are angry] because there are many incidents that are happening in Melbourne, especially attacks on students," he said.

"So one by one they're coming out ... people are getting angry. This anger is bursting out.

"So this, this has just started now. So Government lies, I think Government should act on this."

'Soft targets'

Protesters have been enraged by comments from Victoria Police that they are "soft targets", but Police Commissioner Simon Overland has defended the description.

"It's partly violence against Indian students. It's escalating robberies and we have used the term "soft target robberies"," he said.

"The Indian students have taken that as referring directly to them; it's not.

"What we have seen is that robberies are now happening more directed against people in the street, directed against people who are wandering around with laptop computers, mobile phones, iPods, cash.

"If they're alone, they're vulnerable."

Mr Srinivasan suggests students exercise subtlety to avoid being targeted.

"I would advise them to not to carry any money in their pocket," he said.

"Any money means not more than $20 or $50 in your pocket and try to do things in a subtle way rather than flashing it."