Citation

Spennemann DHR. Int. J. Punjab Stud. 2021; 28(2): 321-348.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

During the late nineteenth century a considerable number of young Punjabi men sought their fortunes in the Australian colonies, working as hawkers and farm labour. While there, they experienced marginalisation and high levels of racial vilification. Drawing on death certificates, archival sources and contemporary newspaper reports, this paper is the first to collate the data on all deaths of these men until 1901 when Australia's immigration policies terminated further recruitment. This study is a first exploration of a hitherto unstudied topic and provides a unique insight into the causes of death of a marginalised group of people in Australia. Classified according to ICD-10, the major groups of mortality were infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, dysentery and typhoid with 33.9% of all fatalities, followed by violent deaths (suicides, murders and formal execution by the state, 11.8%) and respiratory diseases (9.1%). Not surprisingly, injuries (7.5%) and accidents (7.0%) also figure prominently. The paper concludes with some observations on the provision of health care to that marginalised segment of Australia's colonial community. © 2021 Global Institute for Sikh Studies. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Public Health; Suicides; Communicable diseases; Immigrant Communities; Indian diaspora; Social marginalisation