Suicides of Punjabi hawkers in 19th- and early 20th-century Australia.

BACKGROUND: During the late nineteenth century, a considerable number of young Punjabi men sought their fortunes in the Australian colonies, working as hawkers and farm labor. While in Australia they experienced marginalization and high levels of racial vilification by the Anglo-Celtic settler community. AIMS: To assess the frequency and nature of suicides of Punjabi workers in nineteenth century Australia.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The paper draws on archival sources and contemporary newspaper reports.
RESULTS: A wide range of methods of suicides were observed, with drowning the preferred method.
CONCLUSIONS: This article is the first to collate the data on the suicides and suicide attempts by young Punjabi men working in an immigration country. It can be shown that the suicide rate among Punjabi was almost six times higher than that of the host community.

INTRODUCTION

The recent rise in suicides among the rural population in Punjab and in India, in general, has received a considerable amount of media attention, as well as academic analysis.[123] While the majority of suicides are males, female suicide has also been on the rise.[4] Most authors agree that economic stressors are the main cause, far outweighing the causes that tended to be more prevalent in the past.[5678] A 1970s study in Goa, for example, found that economic distress only accounted for an eighth of the causes of suicide.[9]

Dislocated communities, such as immigrant labor communities, conventionally experience marginalization, which frequently manifests itself in depression and anxiety[1011] and other mental health issues.[12] This pressure frequently leads to suicides and suicide attempts.[13] The modern Indian diaspora is not exempt from this,[14151617] with studies suggesting that the suicide rate among Hindu is higher than that among Muslims.[18192021] Where causalities have been examined, studies found that mental illness was a minor cause, far outweighed by social, marital, and economic stress factors.

Acceptance by and integration into the host community can reduce these social stresses,[22] as can social networking among peers.[23] Yet, this option is unavailable to those immigrants who are deemed an economic threat to the host community, who lack spouses/family, and whose pattern of work is largely solitary (e.g., hawkers).

The aim of this study is to examine the manifestation of suicides among Punjabi men who formed a small immigrant workforce in rural Australia during the late 90th and early 20th century. Socially marginalized and on occasion vilified, most of these hawkers lived a solitary life for much of the time, their only social interaction with a client and, on occasions, with fellow hawkers. Drawing on archival sources and contemporary newspaper accounts, this study pulls together the evidence of suicides among the Punjabi immigrant population and provides basic statistical data.

The Punjabi in Australia

During the late 1880s to mid-1890s, a considerable number of Punjabi males emigrated to Australia. This is not the place to review the various drivers for the men to leave their home communities, suffice to say that they did so to avail themselves to the economic opportunities presented by the expanding colonial economy in order to acquire a modicum of wealth and to further their family's status and prestige (izzat) at home.[2425]

In Australia, many of the Punjabi male immigrants, aged in their 20s and 30s,[2627] found employment as rural labor (mainly in Northern New South Wales and Southern Queensland) or took to hawking, as that profession required comparatively little capital, yet allowed for good returns, depending on the individual effort made.[28] In rural areas of Australia, hawkers operated from rural service centers and, following loosely defined circuits, serviced the outlying farms by selling drapery, haberdashery, clothing, 'specialty goods,' and similar items.[29]

This article forms part of a wider examination of the various manifestations of the presence of Punjabi hawkers in Australia, with special emphasis on the Southern part of the Murray–Darling Basin in Southeast Australia. Even though hawking is predominantly an itinerant business imbued with a general perception of limited physical presence, in-depth research demonstrated a more diverse pattern of land use with a number of hawkers owning land. Some of these land parcels formed the bases for their trading operations while in other instances, Punjabi had moved from hawking into farming as an occupation.[30]

Research into the deaths and especially the burials of Punjabi hawkers in the Southern Riverina and Northeastern Victoria[2631] showed that even though it was the intent of most Punjabi men to eventually return to their home community,[32] and a large number of Punjabi indeed eventually returned to India, a number of them never made it back due to illness and accidents[33] but also due to lack of opportunity. The mode of cremating of their dead, which prevailed as a cultural norm among the Sikh and Hindu hawkers, exposed rural communities to this practice at a time when the public discourse in Australia considered the advisability of the practice.[3435]

In his assessment of the deaths of Punjabi in the Southern Riverina and Northeastern Victoria, the author identified six suicides, five of which occurred after 1900.[31] Based on these observations, a broader examination into the causes of deaths of the Punjabi in Southeastern Australia to 1900 was warranted,[3336] which found that a fair number of deaths were due to suicide. The aim of this study is to compile the occurrences of known suicides and to draw out commonalities, which may aid future research into the mental health of immigrant communities in the late 90th and early 20th-century colonial situations such as Australia and beyond.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The data utilized here are derived from the death records of the various colonies, the databases of the inquest deposition files of the Victorian and NSW Coroner's Offices, and searches of the online digital archive of historic Australian newspapers. The detailed nature of the data and the raw case studies are summarized in a separate data file.[37] In total, 25 suicides and eight suicide attempts could be identified. It is highly likely that suicide attempts are underreported. For standardization and future comparison with other cohorts, the causes of death as gleaned from the newspapers, coronial inquests, and death certificates were classified based on the internationally recognized standard International Classification of Diseases-10.[38]

RESULTS

For the purposes of analysis, all events were aggregated into 5-year cohorts centered on the semi-decade (i.e., 1893–1897 were recorded as 1895). The summary statistics of the data show that the number of suicides increased in the period from 1900 to 1905 (i.e., 1898 to 1907) and dropped after 1910. That period was during the tail end of the great depression of the mid-1890s that had gripped rural Australia and that had resulted in increased vilification of the Punjabi as unwanted competition.[29] The period from 1900 saw an institutionalized marginalization of the Punjabi with the passing of the Immigration Restriction Act in 1901 that effectively prevented Punjabi men from recruiting spouses from home. The decadal percentage of deaths due to suicide ranged from 1.5% (NSW, 1910–1919) to 5.1% (Victoria 1900–1909). The total numbers are too small to make meaningful comparisons on a state-by-state basis.

In terms of the mode of suicide, drowning (X71) is by far the most preferred method with one-third of the occurrences (combined attempts and successful suicides), followed by hanging (X70) and cutting their own throats (X78). No chronological pattern could be observed [Tables 1 and 2].

Table 1

Total number of suicides and suicide attempts in 5-year cohorts by method (International Classification of Disease-10 code)

ICD-10	Intentional self-harm by…	1890	1895	1900	1905	1910	1915	1920	1925	1930	1950	Total
X68	Exposure to pesticides	1		1	1	1						4
X70	Hanging, strangulation, and suffocation	1	1	1	1				1	1		6
X71	Drowning and submersion		1	4	4	2				1		12
X72	Handgun discharge		1									1
X73	Rifle, shotgun, and larger firearm discharge	1			1			1				3
X76	Smoke, fire, and flames				1							1
X78	Sharp object	1	1				1		1		1	5
X84	Unspecified means (starvation)	1		1								2
Total		5	4	7	8	3	1	1	2	2	1	34

ICD – International Classification of Disease

Table 2

Suicides and suicide attempts by International Classification of Disease-10 code and religious affiliation

ICD-10	Intentional self-harm by…	Hindu/Sikh	Muslim	Unknown	Total
X68	Exposure to pesticides	1	3		4
X70	Hanging, strangulation, and suffocation	4	2		6
X71	Drowning and submersion	7	2	3	12
X72	Handgun discharge		1		1
X73	Rifle, shotgun, and larger firearm discharge	2	1		3
X76	Smoke, fire, and flames		1		1
X78	Sharp object	4	1		5
X84	Unspecified means (starvation)	2			2
Total		20	11	3	34

ICD – International Classification of Disease

When considering the average ages and the methods of suicide [Table 3], differences can be observed. On the whole, persons who drowned themselves or who committed suicide by slashing their throats or wrists (X78) were on average in their mid-50s, while those who poisoned themselves were in their mid-30s (X68). With the exception of the pairing of those who committed suicide by drowning (X71) and those by starvation (X84), none of these differences are statistically significant [Table 4]. However, it can be posited that this is largely due to the small sample sizes and that the observable trends indicative of underlying differences.

Table 3

Average age (and 1 sigma standard deviation) of suicides and suicide attempts by broad method

ICD-10	Intentional self-harm by…	Average age	n
X68	Exposure to pesticides	37.0±14.1	4
X70	Hanging, strangulation, and suffocation	42.8±12.5	6
X71	Drowning and submersion	54.2±11.6	6
X72	Handgun discharge	47.0	1
X73	Rifle, shotgun, and larger firearm discharge	45.0±18.0	3
X76	Smoke, fire, and flames
X78	Sharp object	56.5±19.0	4
X84	Unspecified means (starvation)	31.0±9.9	2
Total		46.2±14.9	26

ICD – International Classification of Disease

Table 4

Statistical comparisons (t-test) of the average ages of suicides and suicide attempts by broad method

	X68	X70	X71	X73	X78	X84
X68	-	0.5104	0.0682	0.5367	0.1507	0.6272
X70		-	0.1348	0.8363	0.2028	0.2758
X71			-	0.3777	0.8137	0.0467
X73				-	0.4556	0.4031
X78					-	0.1620
X84						-

The average age of Hindu/Sikh who committed suicide was 49.4 ± 13.7 years (n = 15), while the average age for Muslim was 39.9 ± 15.6 years (n = 10). This 10-year difference is statistically significant (P < 0.05).

DISCUSSION

The reasons for the suicides were rarely stated, and suicide notes themselves are extremely rare [Supplemental Data]. One of the few examples of such notes is that of Prem Singh, who drowned himself on November 4, 1905 at Yarram.

Two suicides occurred while in police custody, Masivi Singh in Adelaide in 1896, and Nathoo Khan in Bathurst in 1930. The circumstances surrounding the latter's death are suspicious. After all, Nathoo Khan, on remand for attempted murder, had been placed in a padded cell with his legs tied. Nonetheless, he was seemingly able to strangle himself to death with his own belt from the edge of the bed.[39]

A third example is the attempt by Fatta Chand to starve himself to death while in custody. To ensure that the death sentence was carried out in an orderly fashion, Chand was force-fed through the nose.[40] It is highly probable that Chand's attempt was a combination of Prāyaścitta (atonement) and Prayopavesa (voluntary death by starvation) rather than an attempt to “cheat the hangman” as asserted in the contemporary press.[40]

The fact that the authorities and the press had little understanding of the cultural constraints under which the Punjabi men operated is also evident from the case of Goodya Singh, who committed suicide in 1902 in Temora (NSW). He chose to distribute his wares for free, and then liquidated his bank account to purchase feed for various animals on the town's common. Having disposed of his assets, he retired to his wagon and starved himself to death. It has been argued that this suicide is a case of Sallekhanā as practiced by the Jain.[41]

In addition, when looking at the number of successful suicides, we need to consider the attempts that were, for various reasons, unsuccessful. As noted, these are most certainly underreported in the contemporary press. In part, the frequency of methods is governed by the access to the means, with drowning and hanging being both “clean” and low tech solutions.

Cultural differences in the perception of the permissibility of suicide are reported for the three main religions among Punjabi, i.e., Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim, with several studies suggesting that the suicide rate among Hindu is higher than that among Muslims.[18192021] When considering the perspective of religious affiliation among the suicides reported here, however, the suicides (and suicide attempts) of the Hindu/Sikh and Muslims show no statistically significant difference compared to the religious proportion among the overall deaths of Punjabi in NSW and Victoria (χ2 = 0.5162, df = 2, P = 0.47246). A comparison between suicides and suicide attempts also shows no statistically significant difference (χ2 = 1.7748, df = 2, P = 0.182791). Likewise, there is no statistically significant difference in the ages of the Hindu/Sikh and Muslims who committed suicide (P = 0.1311).

To put the Punjabi suicides into context, the proportion of suicides among the Punjabi in Victoria is 5.7 times that of the non-Punjabi population (ranging from 3.3 times in 1920–1929 to 16.67 times in 1880–1889) (no such data available for NSW).

CONCLUSIONS

Having come to the Australian colonies as unskilled labour, most Punjabi men found employment as agricultural labourers or as travelling hawkers. The latter, in particular, entailed a solitary lifestyle. In the face of vilification and marginalisation by the Australian community which was jealous of their hard-working attitudes, many Punjabi immigrants experienced prolonged social isolation and psychological trauma. For many, this resulted in suicides or suicide attempts. The suicide rate among Punjabi was almost six times higher than that of the host community.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.