Indian community leaders in Melbourne on Monday counselled the community to remain calm and adopt Gandhian way after a face off between Indians and locals left two Australians hospitalised.

The community leaders said that Indians had acted only "in self defence".

Two Australians were hospitalised on Sunday night after being beaten up by Indians whose car was vandalised and who were also allegedly racially taunted.

The incident took place at a car park outside Meadowglen International Athletics Stadium in Epping when a local skateboarder damaged the rear window of a car belonging to Indians, who were leaving the venue.

Federation of Indian Association of Victoria (FIAV) president Srinivas Vasan reiterated Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's appeal to people to abide by the law.

"I'm not saying what has happened is correct but we should not take law in our hands. We belong to Mahatma Gandhi's country and we should follow non-violence," he said.

Gautam Gupta of Federation of Indian Students Association described the incident as "bullying", and said: "it was a handiwork of people who don't understand multicultural society."

"Police should punish the culprit," he said, adding that racism should be dealt seriously by the state government.

"There were 5,000 Indians attending the Kabaddi match and the way this sort of provocation has been dealt and controlled was commendable," he said.

Meanwhile, few Indian community leaders opted to refrain from making any comment on the latest episode saying it was something that being seen coming up.

A reputed leader of the community on the condition of anonymity said, "it was a self defence as the crowd was provoked by the locals."

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