The 1947 Partition of India resulting in the emergence of two independent countries: India and Pakistan caused a huge hellish situation in terms of the murder, rape of innocent women, displacement and exchange of the lakhs of people on the basis of religion. This horrifying event is generally considered to be the most inhuman and macabre one in the world history of modern era. In The Unsafe Asylum: Stories of Partition and Madness (2018), Anirudh Kala, psychiatrist and a sensitive personality has attempted to delve into the psychological and emotional aspects of both the Hindus and the Muslims affected by the Partition and its aftermath. The mental patients were also exchanged during partition between the two countries that is Muslim patients were sent to the mental hospital in Pakistan and Hindu patients were sent to the mental hospital in India. The book accounts the distress of Rulda Singh and Fateh Khan, two mental patients who got separated with this exchange.
Suri Vidyasagar College, Suri, West Bengal
