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The settlement of the Punjabi community in the Woolgoolga-Coffs Harbour area of New South Wales (NSW), some 600 kilometres north of Sydney, can be traced back to the late 19th century when there was a growing movement in the Australian colonies to exclude Asians. With Federation in 1901 and the passing of the Immigration Restriction Act (1901), otherwise known as the White Australia Policy,' Asian entry to Australia became very difficult. Even so, some Indians, as British subjects, were allowed to enter when their labour was needed. Some of the ancestors of the present-day Punjabi Sikh community in the Woolgoolga-Coffs Harbour area were in Australia before Federation and others came in the early decades of the 20th century. The story of how they, as Indians (a restricted race), entered and ultimately settled in a White Australia is unique. It came about as a result of the political, social and economic changes taking place in both Australia and India and because of the link these two countries had as members of the British Empire. Importantly, the Punjabi Sikh community's settlement reflects this country's growth from a White Australia to a nation embracing Australian Multiculturalism as ideology
In the mid-19th century, as seen in the previous chapter, certain events in India facilitated the flow of information to the villagers of rural Punjab about work opportunities available in Australia. After the annexation of the Punjab in 1849, the British favoured the recruitment of Sikhs into the army, regarding them as part of the "martial races" of India. Some of the Sikhs were posted to cities in South-East Asia, such as Singapore and Hong Kong. This experience beyond the Punjab meant that people heard of work opportunities and earning potential outside India. This information was transmitted to the rural villages of the Punjab during visits back or through information sent home via friends and relatives.
Most of the elders I interviewed, when asked how their ancestors came to know about Australia, told me that people in neighbouring villages in the Punjab had heard that "Australia has opened". Some spoke of agents in villages, such as Karnana, who had set up businesses to assist people to travel to Australia. For some, this information about Australia changed their families' fortunes and futures.
As McLeod has explained in the preceding chapter, fats were the dominant caste in rural Punjab and for them the possession of land was the most important mea- sure of success. For a fat, adequate land and the earnings from it could support the requirements of maintaining the family's izzat (honour or prestige), which included meeting the marriage obligations of daughters, acquiring brick houses (com- pared with mud ones) and providing hospitality.
Traditionally, the fats practised dividing land holdings equally among sons, and this practice over generations inevitably led to land holdings of families being reduced to very small sizes. Therefore, by the end of the 19th century, there was a need to find supplementary resources to increase land holdings and thus maintain the social obligations associated with izzat. Sending a son to join the British Indian Army or sending a son abroad were two of the strategies that Punjabi families employed to increase their resources.
Today, the Punjab has the highest proportion of brick houses in India and many of these substantial structures were built with the remittances of family members working abroad.
The following anecdote reflects how having a family member abroad continues to affect family honour in the Punjab:
On my first visit to India in 1987, some distant relatives of my father's family lived in a one-room mud structure with mud courtyard. Then, in 1990, the marriage of the youngest son was arranged to a girl in Canada, and the son left to live there. Evidence of his remittances soon became obvious. By the time of my next trip, in 1997, the mud house had been transformed into a large brick structure and boasted a second level. There was an attached kitchen, as compared with the previous outside open-fire mud platform. There was also a paved courtyard where the water pump had been brought closer and professionally installed.
On my trip in 2000, I again visited. By this time the family had acquired a car and motorcycle. The house now boasted a brick block dedicated wholly to the bathroom. It was of great pride to the family to have a modern bathroom and this remained the focus of conversation during my afternoon visit.
On this occasion I also had the opportunity to meet the Canadian son, who was visiting. He spoke of driving cabs and working long shifts to meet his obligations of sending the all-important Canadian dollar home. He hadn't thought about buying his own house in Canada but continued to live with his in-laws even after the birth of two children. He reported that he didn't know much English and that his life was centred around work; but that was fine, because the reason he had migrated was to put the family on the same level as the other relatives. Others of the family, in earlier generations, had migrated to Australia and New Zealand. And they all had large brick houses, which they visited every few years for a brief period.
Although the youngest in the family, this son was accorded great respect. He was protected from the heat, fancy food was prepared for him and visitors came at regular intervals to see him. He was, after all, the first in many generations to bring the family to the same level as their relatives.
Perhaps the most marked difference in the respect accorded to him and the elder son, who had stayed in the village, was in the treatment accorded their wives. The Canadian wife was accorded pride of place in the courtyard, with all the visitors hovering around her. In comparison, the elder son's wife, who had only been married about five days, was in the kitchen labouring over an open fire preparing endless cups of tea and food for the visitors. She was decked out in all her wedding finery - the red silk Punjabi salwar and kameez and elaborate items of gold jewellery. Although evidence of her dowry was obvious in the new sofas with their plastic covers still on them, the television set, the beds and bedding and the kitchen crockery and utensils, she was still relegated to the kitchen. She was not, after all, the one to have brought the international immigration opportunity to the family.
As izzat attached to the family rather than the individual, the decision to improve the family's position by overseas migration was a family choice. Often, one son from a family went overseas to work and remit money home. Early travellers abroad saw it as a temporary measure only; they intended to return home after enough money had been made to improve the conditions at home. They were classic sojourners with most of their earnings remitted home to the Punjab to acquire land, to improve houses and to meet their family obligations for the marriages of their daughters.3
In this era, the wives and children rarely joined the migrants but continued to live in the extended families in India. Indeed, most families that I interviewed for this study spoke about having grown up hearing that a relative grandfather, father or uncle was in Telia (Australia).
In the Woolgoolga-Coffs Harbour area, the elders of each family all gave the reason for migration as economic gain and the wish to improve their families' positions. That is, they were not garib (poor) or destitute but aspired to improve their situations. The following voices from the descendants provide reasons their ancestors gave for having left the Punjab for Australia:
My grandfather [Waryam Singh] came to Australia to improve his fortunes to increase land holdings to ensure a good future for his offspring - Gurmit Singh Sidhu.
My father was the youngest and it was a family decision to send my grandfather [Thakur Singh] to Australia to improve our economic position - Amarjit Singh More.
Our grandfather [Khem Singh] came to Australia in 1914 to improve our position in the Punjab - Gurbaksh Singh Bhatty.
My father [Santa Singh] came to Australia to improve our lot and standing and knew that opportunities existed abroad - Gurbax Singh Atwal.
My father [Bela Singh] left the Punjab to improve his position. Land was poor and there was a need to increase land holdings and position. He knew that Australia had opportunities - Pritim Singh.
My grandfather [Genda Singh] left the Punjab to increase his land holdings. He heard that Australia was open - Darshan Singh Atwal.
The main reason my grandfather [Moti Singh] came to Australia was economic. He wanted to increase land holdings and secure the future for his offspring - Harbhajan Singh Husna.
There was only subsistence agriculture. My grandfather [Indra Singh] knew there was more opportunity abroad. The British network was good and from word of mouth he knew that Australia wanted labourers -Mon-Ark Singh.
The first person in my family to come to Australia was my grandfather [Jawala Singh]. He came in a group of men who had heard of a new country in the British Empire where work opportunities were available. They didn't need visas because they were British subjects - Bhupinder Singh Lathi.
My grandfather [Bhulla Singh] came to Australia to make a better living - Piara Singh Sodhi.
My father [Bhagwan Singh] was working the land in the village. Conditions in the Punjab were harsh, and there was no value for crops. He was uneducated. He had heard that there was good opportunity in Australia to earn money. He realised the value of foreign money and how this could improve his tot - Gurdeb (Dave) Singh Narwal.
My grandfather [Inder Singh] came in the early 1900s. He left the Punjab as he had a vision to improve the life of his boy. Economically, he wanted to improve his position and heard about the opportunities in Australia because India was a British colony - Reshmore Kaur Toor (nee Dhadlie).
My father [Inder Singh] came for economic reasons. He heard that Australia was open - Mohan Singh Thandi.
The land holdings in the Punjab were very small and there were disputes after the death of my grandfather. My father [Oudham Singh] had the care of his widowed mother and blind younger brother. Oudham Singh knew that Australia had opportunities as other people from surrounding villages spoke about it - Maluke Singh Arkan.
The forefathers of the Punjabis of the Woolgoolga-Coffs Harbour area trickling into Australia had a strong tendency to go wherever other Punjabis were working, usually in agricultural pursuits. Sometimes the migrants came in groups and continued to work together in the early years.
My father went to Lismore as he knew Vir Singh [father of Rattan, Lal and Bikar Singh] from Jandiala was there - Maluke Singh Arkan
My grandfather [Moti Singh] arrived with others in the time of the British rule. They came in a group and they travelled on a cattle boat leaving from Bombay. They came to the Clarence as they heard about others in the area - Harbhajan Singh Husna.
As the early arrivals or ancestors almost all came from neighbouring villages in the Punjab, the social networks of the homeland continued to link them in Australia. In the makeshift conditions that they faced, Punjabi hospitality was evident in their willingness to assist each other. It seems that these early Punjabis clung together in groups, seeking the warmth and familiarity of a common language and culture in a hostile environment.
As a result, in the early years, Punjabis began to cluster in two distinct areas where they did agricultural work. One group was in northern NSW, mainly the Clarence district, and the other was in the Atherton Tableland area of Queensland (see map 3). As seasonal work dictated, they moved back and forth between these locations, as well as venturing into surrounding areas. It is to these two groups that the Punjabi Sikhs of the Woolgoolga-Coffs Harbour area (part of the Cowper electorate) can trace their origins (see table 1).
These Punjabis arrived at a time when anti-Asian racism was strong in the Australian colonies. Although initially directed against the Chinese, anti-Asian sentiment and colonial legislation against all Asians were increasing.4 Moreover, as the early Punjabis tried to find agricultural work in Queensland and northern NSW, they also faced union hostility and resentment over cheap, coloured labour taking "white men's jobs".
In the 189os some white Australians in the Northern Rivers began to complain about "Hindoos" (i.e. Indians) in the district. In 1896 the Member for Ballina noted that 50 more Hindoos had arrived and more were expected. The newcomers, he said, were "thrusting our own people out of employment". By 1897, information given to the Legislative Assembly indicated that 521 Hindoos were resident in the Clarence, Richmond and Tweed districts. A few were the ancestors of the Woolgoolga-Coffs Harbour Punjabi Sikh community.
Some farm owners and business people expressed fears that Indians and other foreigners were taking over businesses as well as jobs. The Brisbane Worker of July 3, 1897, linked a CSR advertisement in The Sydney Morning Herald, which announced reduced rates of pay for men at the Northern Rivers mills, with an influx of Asians into the region who were willing to work for the lowered amounts.'
As we have seen, with the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901, Australia's doors were officially shut to exclude all coloured people from a white Australia. However, because India was a part of the British Empire and thus its people were British subjects, the authorities in Britain and India complained bitterly about some of the restrictive legislative measures against Asians. They argued that if Indians were discriminated against openly, it could offend important Indians at home and affect relation- ships between the Indians and British in India. To solve this dilemma the Government instituted an education or language test (known as the dictation test) as a clause of the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901. This required immigrants to Australia to pass a dictation test in any European language.' Worded as such, it would effectively keep out non-Europeans but avoid offending non-European colonies like India, where Australia and Britain recognised there was a need to tread diplomatically.
The administration of the dictation test was very much the responsibility of officials based at entry points and used at an officer's discretion. The test was commonly, but not invariably, given to Asians. The test was also used selectively and as the situation required. Therefore, when agricultural labour was needed some workers were apparently allowed entry without being tested.'
An Indian or other non-European already living in Australia who wanted to leave and return after the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 could obtain a certificate of domicile. The certificate of domicile offered an exemption from the dictation test to persons who had formerly lived in Australia. However, the definition of domicile was at first strict enough to limit re-entry of some of those leaving Australia, and many of the itinerant Indians who departed at the beginning of the 20th century did not return.' After 1903, the earlier rigid qualifications governing certificates of domicile and re-entry were relaxed and applications generally approved if "evidence of good character and five years' residence could be produced"- (see plate A). The certificate of domicile, once gained, continued to exempt an applicant from the dictation test and readmission was guaranteed if the applicant returned within the three years allocated.
Therefore, although there was the formal White Australia Policy to exclude Asians, in reality Asian entry was regulated and continued for some people. The tools for this regulated entry were the dictation test and certificate of domicile.
This very brief outline of Australian legislation at the time of Federation pro- vides us with the basis for establishing how the Punjabi forefathers of the Woolgoolga-Coffs Harbour community entered Australia when policies were overtly anti-Asian and intent on preserving a white Australia.
My interviewees were not always sure themselves of the exact dates of arrival of their ancestors. Some said they arrived before 1901, most said they arrived in 1901 and some said that they arrived in the early years of the 20th century. However, what is certain is that because India was a British colony and as a result of the constant complaints by British authorities of discrimination against Indians in Australia, it is highly plausible that the early Punjabis were able to enter Australia through the "regulated tools of entry"."
If the Punjabis were in Australia before 1901, they could leave Australia and re- enter on certificates of domicile if they could prove that they were of good character and that Australia was their main place of residence. We have descendants of these early forefathers in Woolgoolga today who were sure that their ancestors arrived before 1901. For example, a diary kept by Waryam Singh, the grandfather of Gurmit (Johnny) Singh Sidhu, a Woolgooga settler, has an entry relating to a visit to Australia in 1898 (see plate B).
For those arriving in the early years after Federation, it is likely that they were successful in gaining entry through some combination of the following three claims: they were British subjects; there was a demand for their labour in agricultural industries, especially on sugarcane plantations; and they should be exempted from the dictation test' (see plate C).
Of course once initial entry was gained, certificates of domicile were obtained allowing the forefathers to travel between India and the Punjab. The earliest pass-port that I was able to collect was that of Oudham Singh from village Malpur Arkan." The passport shows that Oudham Singh's occupation was listed as "agriculturalist", and his passport was stamped "British subject" (see plate D).
Later passports from the early settlers also showed them as British subjects, domiciled in Australia, and of agriculturalist or labourer occupation. However, none of them shows an entry before 1901. All entry dates are in the early years of the 20th century.
The early Punjabis not only faced the challenges of leaving home for life in an alien culture, but also faced the heavy and sometimes overwhelming burden of racism. All the Woolgoolga-Coffs Harbour area elderly settlers who were inter-viewed spoke about the fact that their forefathers experienced discrimination and were offered only poorly paid jobs. They were well aware that union restrictions had limited their opportunities. They were very clear about the times being extremely difficult work was hard to find, living conditions were primitive and Australia was "black and white".
The following extracts best serve to capture the arduous existence endured by those early Punjabi Sikh sojourners:
He worked in Harwood chipping cane for very low wages but had to take what he was given as there was no alternative for survival. Other Punjabis had work on the Atherton Tableland, where they husked and picked corn and went to Aloomba to labour on the sugarcane farm - Maluke Singh Arkan (about his father, Oudham Singh).
He had to work corn husking as he was not allowed to cut cane, because Australia was black and white - Gurbaksh Singh Bhatty (about his grandfather, Khem Singh).
He grew and sold vegetables and lived in barns - Harbhajan Singh Husna (about his grandfather, Moti Singh).
Father would tell us about the restrictions that Indians could not work on the cane fields. If the Indians even walked through the cane it was called "black" cane - Nasib Singh Grewal (about his father, Bhagwan Singh).
He walked to the Grafton district where there was seasonal work with piecemeal pay and undertook corn husking. It was a hard, very lonely life. They followed seasonal work. Work was difficult to find and they were not readily given work because of the white policy. They travelled between different areas following work. They often worked in a group, received payment in a group and then shared this amongst themselves - Randhir Kaur Hundle (about her grandfather, Santa Singh).
My father used to say, "You can buy anything in Australia if you have money, the only problem is if you are black." - Nasib Singh Grewal (about his father, Bhagwan Singh).
These early Punjabis were itinerants, either working as labourers on sugarcane farms in Gordonyale, Queensland, and in the Clarence at Harwood Island, Ulmarra and Maclean or husking corn on the Atherton Tableland. Some also worked on banana farms in the Alstonville area, some were hawkers and others grew and sold vegetables. All were in agriculture-related work and were remitting the bulk of their savings back to the Punjab in order to expand land holdings and build better homes there. My interviewees spoke proudly of how land had been acquired and how additions were made or a new house was constructed with bricks: these were "pukka" (brick homes). It was evident that the remittances certainly enhanced the families' fortunes in the Punjab.
These early arrivals, the forefathers of the present-day Punjabi community in theWoolgoolga-Coffs Harbour area, did not have their families with them in Australia. All spoke about how the intention was to earn money to improve their lot in the Punjab(see plate E). Besides, conditions were very austere and without fixed accommodation and regular work, sojourners could not have supported their families in Australia.However, during the early decades of the 20th century, events resulting from WorldWar I and its aftermath significantly influenced these early Punjabi Sikh labourers and began their transition from being sojourners to becoming settlers in Australia.
1 Part of the Federation process in 1901 included dealing with the colonies' desire to restrict the immigration of Asian workers, the "undesirables", into Australia. This proved to be a powerful uniting force among the colonies. In response, the immigration policy that was developed aimed to restrict the type of people who could migrate to Australia. While the Immigration Restriction Act was not openly discriminative by referring specifically to the Asian race, in reality the policy was designed to exclude Asians through its tools of administration (dictation test, certificate of domicile etc). The overriding aim of the Immigration Restriction Act, which was reflective of Australia’s prevailing mood, was to maintain and preserve a white Australia for what was felt to be the superior white races, hence the White Australia Policy.
2 British racial typology recognised colonial subjects as having inherent characteristics. Based on the difficulties that the British had experienced in subjugating the Punjab during the Sikh Wars of the 1840s, the British classified Punjabi Sikhs as one of the "martial races" of India.
3 This is discussed at greater length in W.H. McLeod, "The first forty years of Sikh migration", in N. Gerald Barrier and Verne A. Dusenbery, eds., The Sikh Diaspora, Migration and the Experience beyond Punjab, Chanakya Publications, Delhi, 1989, pp. 29-48.
4 For accounts of anti-Asian racism in late 19th and early 20th century Australia, see A.T. Yarwood, Asian Migration to Australia: The Background to Exclusion, 1896-1923, Melbourne University Press, Victoria, 1964; Marie M. de Lepervanche, Indians in a White Australia, Allen Et Unwin, Sydney, 1984.
5 Cited in de Lepervanche, p. 85.
6 See de Lepervanche, pp. 86-7.
7 See S. Chandrasekhar, ed., India to Australia, Population Review Books, La Jolla, California, 1992, p. 34. This was amended in 1905 to any prescribed language.
8 Queensland in particular faced agricultural labour shortages with the repatriation of Kanaka workers during 1904-06.
9 The Australian Government started issuing certificates of domicile in 1902. The definition was strict and required the applicant to prove that Australia was home to the applicant and his family and not a temporary residency. It also specifically pointed out that Indians did not fall within this category. However, this was relaxed in 1903.
10 Cited in Yarwood, p. 70.
11 See Yarwood; also A.C. Palfreeman, The Administration of the White Australia Policy, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1967.
12 Few if any of these early migrants would have been able to pass an English language test. Few were literate in Punjabi, let alone English. The dictation test was administratively suspended for certain Japanese and Indians in 1904.
13 Father of Mulkeet, Harjeet and MaLuke Arkan. Oudham Singh's passport shows a 1911 entry, but Maluke was sure that this was his father's second trip to Australia, after staying for about 11 years on his previous sojourn.