AN Indian student and part-time taxi driver who was bashed in his cab in Brisbane early yesterday does not know whether he can carry on in Australia.

As he nursed his wounds, including cuts to his face and a swollen right eye, Sandeep Goyal, 20, said he was considering abandoning his business management studies to return to his home state of Punjab in northern India.

His alleged attackers, a pair of brothers, appeared briefly in Brisbane Magistrates Court yesterday. Brett Anthony Gill, 28, and Joshua Philip Colin Gill, 25, have been charged with assault occasioning bodily harm while armed, with wilful damage and attempted stealing in company.

Police allege the brothers assaulted Mr Goyal after arguing with him over a $6 cab fare.

The alleged attack was the second involving an Indian in Brisbane overnight and is likely to further test strained relations between Canberra and New Delhi over the safety of Indian students in this country.

In a separate incident, a 25-year-old Indian man was assaulted and robbed while using a phone box in Macgregor in Brisbane's south.

Mr Goyal appealed for the violence against Indian students to stop. "You must stop the assaults," he told The Weekend Australian.

"This is a very bad experience I am having in Australia. It's very unfair to us Indians.

"We work hard. I don't want to die in Australia."

While he "loved Australia" and wanted to stay, Mr Goyal said he was not sure whether he would.

"If the assaults don't stop, I will go back home," he said.

Acting Queensland Premier Andrew Fraser insisted there was no evidence linking the two overnight assaults on young Indians, and hoped the incidents would not fuel more bad press in India.

"Queensland and Australia remain a very safe place," Mr Fraser said.

"There's no doubt this has been an issue in the international arena.

"That's why we want to emphasise . . . that this is a welcoming, tolerant society.

"No one endorses any violence against any individual."

Queensland police said there were a minimal number of crimes against Indians and the state remained a safe destination.

A spokesman said there was nothing to suggest a racial motive to the attack on Mr Goyal.

Several recent attacks against Indians, including the fatal stabbing this month of Punjab-born student Nitin Garg in Melbourne, have inflamed diplomatic tensions. The issue has prompted a strong reaction in the Indian press, with one newspaper likening Australian police to the Ku Klux Klan for their purported inability to halt the assaults.

Indian Foreign minister S.M. Krishna warned that India may recommend young people not study in Australia if the attacks continued. University leaders have called upon government and police authorities to take the attacks more seriously.

Additional reporting: AAP