Trauma of India’s Partition

Metaphor for Madness

This volume examines the devastating impact of India’s Partition on mental health services and individuals with mental illness. Post-Holocaust and World War II, the Partition brought similar trauma, and displacement in South Asia, yet its psychological consequences have remained largely unaddressed in medical education and practice.

This volume examines the devastating impact of India’s Partition on mental health services and individuals with mental illness. Occurring in mid-20th century, after the Holocaust and World War II, the Partition brought similar prejudice, trauma, and displacement in South Asia, yet its psychological consequences have remained largely unaddressed in medical education and practice.

Edited by psychiatrists, the book breaks this silence by tracking the breakdown of civic society, the collapse of medical services, and violence against citizens during this cataclysmic event. Contributors draw from clinical experience, archival research, literature, media history, and political theory to investigate gendered violence, the division of mental hospitals, disrupted medical care, and the neglected inner lives of ordinary people. The book highlights how the failure to establish accountability, or discuss the psychological impact of violence on victims has blighted post-Partition nations. With post-colonial partitions continuing worldwide, it emphasizes how care for the ill and disabled—civilization’s defining feature—is forgotten amid political conflicts.

This interdisciplinary work will resonate with students and researchers in psychiatry, psychology, social welfare, mental health policy, and political history, offering valuable insights into medical history, social psychiatry, trauma studies, health planning, and gender awareness.

Contributor: Sanjeev Jain (Edited by), Alok Sarin (Edited by)

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