Comments on: Movie: “Son of a Lion” by Benjamin Gilmour

By: H. Abbasi

H. Abbasi — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:51:29 +0000

Seems like a great effort. My thanks to Benjamin for this effort. And congratulations.

By: Junaid

Junaid — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:48:21 +0000

@Sceptic

Sorry to correct you but “Punjabis from northern Punjab (Pothowar and Jehlum)” don’t ride camels.

For more up to date information documented by the Australian gov, one can visit

http://uncommonlives.naa.gov.au/contents.asp?sID=29

to read more on the arrivals from India (and verify the myth which you are pointing out.)

Kind Regards

Junaid

By: Sceptic

Sceptic — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:29:41 +0000

Ghan is a misnormer as the so-called Aghans were predominently Punjabis from northern Punjab (Pothowar and Jehlum). Famous western Australian writer Haneefa Deen, for example, traces her route to that area. “Afghans of Australia”, a highly informative research on the subject also exposes this myth. Winifred Steggler’s story is also worth reading where she ends up in a village near Lahore with her husband. There is an Australia mosque in Lahore build pre-partition by an Australia-returned Punjabi “Afghan” in 1930s.

A few months back there was an interesting exhibition on the Australian cameleers in Canberra and other cities and it was clear from travel documents at display that the majority of the “Afghans” originated from the present day Pakistani Punjab, although there were good number of Pathans and Baluch among them.