The Unsafe Asylum: Stories of Partition and Madness

by Anirudh Kala

‘Is it Partition time again?’ Ma asked when I drove her to the station to put her on a train.

Feeling her heart pounding against my chest, I patted her on the back and said, ‘Don’t be silly. Partitions do not happen every day.’

But that was later.

In the aftermath of Partition, India exchanged the Muslim patients in its Mental Hospitals for their Hindu and Sikh counterparts in Pakistan. This collection of interlinked short stories explores the impact of this decision in both countries, against the larger backdrop of the ongoing consequences of Partition. Rulda Singh and Fattu (Fateh Khan), recently discharged patients from Lahore’s Mental Hospital, find themselves separated by the deportation, possibly for ever. Years later, Prakash Kohli, an Indian psychiatry student, hears Rulda’s account of his journey to India, with its casual official cruelties and unexpected tenderness. When he visits Lahore at last, Prakash discovers the story of his own birth in 1947, forms a lifelong friendship with a Pakistani colleague—and realizes that nobody knows why so few mental patients survived the exchange.

As Prakash becomes troubled, and then fascinated by finding the missing stories of these patients, he realizes that Partition continues to have a profound effect on the psyches of the ordinary people whom he treats. A middle-aged woman passes on a recurring delusion of being chased by murderous mobs to her children. A young boy from Simla is convinced that Benazir Bhutto, the Pakistani President’s daughter, loves him and they discuss world affairs in his dreams every night. An elderly lawyer recounts a love story, doomed by impassable bureaucratic hurdles. And Prakash, seeing Punjab go up in flames again under a militant call for another land of the pure, wonders if Partitions can continue to happen every day, after all.

These stories, and more, with their recurring and shared characters, remind us that Partition does not merely lie in the past. Powerful and unsettling, this collection is essential reading.

About the Author
Anirudh Kala lives in Ludhiana and is a psychiatrist. His interests include studying the lasting effects of Partition in both India and Pakistan. He has been instrumental in cross-border exchanges between the two countries among mental health professionals and many of his stories result from his own visits to mental health institutes in Pakistan. He has published several short stories. He likes Urdu poetry, hiking and semi-classical Indian music.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, India

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 10, 2018

About the author

Anirudh Kala is a psychiatrist by profession and Clinical Director of Mind Plus, Ludhiana in Punjab. The latter is an intermediate stay facility for treatment of psychiatric illnesses and substance use disorders. He was a member of the expert group tasked by Government of India with writing Mental Health Policy for the country, which was released in 2014.

He also writes fiction and has published several short stories. An anthology of interconnected stories, Unsafe Asylum: Stories of Partition and Madness was published in 2018 by Speaking Tiger books. Two and a Half Rivers is a novel based on a young Dalit couple caught in the vortex of terrorism in Punjab and is his second work of fiction. A non-fiction book Most of What You Know About Addiction is Not True with focus on addictions in Punjab will be released early next year.

He has been instrumental in forging cross border links between two sides of Punjab and is founder of “Indo-Pak Punjab Psychiatric Society.”

He is fond of Urdu poetry, travelling and semi-classical music.

Reviews

[Monika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost seventy one years after the partition of the Indian subcontinent, Anirudh Kala came up with The Unsafe Asylum. The interlinked short stories (there's a reason why I call this book a 'novel', humorously) minutely explore the pathos and effects of the bloodshed that followed. A harrowing and essential read.

[Ranjit Powar · Rating 5 out of 5]

“This book is dedicated to the memory of my friend and colleague, Dr. Haroon Rashid Choudhry, Executive Director of Fountain House, Lahore.” Dr. Anirudh Kala’s first book of “Stories of Partition and Madness”, “the Unsafe Asylum”, is not dedicated to any of his family , but a soul mate on the other side of a seventy one year old scar called the Radcliffe line. The dedication itself sets the tone and tenor to the thirteen stories, each of them a dirge to the anguish of “unrequited relationships”(Dr.Kala’s term) victims to mass madness. The author, who is a psychiatrist, gives an additional depth and angle to these stories by delving into the bizarre phenomenon of mass madness and the resultant, long lasting psychological aberrations and trauma to the victims. He brings out the highly complex nature of the perpetuation of violence, processes and consequences of migration and a strange continuity of relationships which would not be severed by borders. The narrative is so fluid and natural and the details so eidetic that each story seems to be narrating a true episode, eliciting a déjà vu feeling.
Dr. Prakash Kohli, an Indian psychiatrist, is a common protagonist in most stories, giving them a continuity and common context. He hears the touching story of Rulda’s transfer from the Lahore Mental Hospital to a mental facility in India, and his separation from his close friend Fattu who is left behind in Lahore. The narration brings out the paradox of a touching relationship between the two ‘mad’ inmates opposed to the violent madness raging in the normal people.
In “Belly Button”, Dr.Prakash has lost his father Ved to terrorism in Punjab and immersed his remains in river Ravi that flows into Pakistan, possibly as per his wishes. He travels back to Gujranwala to re-discover a strange, poignant relationship with Roshaan Dai, a midwife who sheltered his parents during the riots and aided his birth. He finds on the wall of her room a charcoal sketch of his father Ved made by Roshaan. The author delicately leaves the elusive bond between Ved and Roshaan unexplained.
Harpreet Cheema, the abducted heroine in “Sita’s Bus” is left behind in Sialkot by her husband and comes to terms with destiny by marrying the abductor’s brother, who shows her tenderness and care. She loves her job and is pregnant by her second husband Aslam when she is forcibly “recovered “and taken to India by the police and undergoes a forced abortion.”Nobody gave a damn about my honour. Why should I give a damn about any country’s honor? Don’t I have any opinion about whether I want to go back or not?” She could well be the face of countless abducted women abandoned to flounder in no-man’s land after being marauded in body and spirit.
This book is a must read for those who must know what happened and those still feel the phantom limb pain of partition and has inherited the loss of unrequited relationships through a collective subconscious.

[Harshita Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

The memory of partition still haunts the ones who had witnessed the adversity of it and had lived through it. Only they could tell the trauma and pain they continue to carry with them. Every time partition stories are told and retold, it leaves with the feeling of unhappiness and disheartening thoughts making you ponder that those dark events have indeed happened.
The Unsafe Asylum is a book telling stories of people affected by the partition and its aftermath. The effect it left in the minds of them and how this ordeal had been instilled forever. It also narrates the impact that partition had left in the minds of the mental patients and how it continues to worsen their life.
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.
The stories of Harpreet, Sikh married lady being abducted by a Muslim man after her house was set on fire and was married off to his Muslim younger brother and the woman having a delusion of being chased by murderous Muslim mobs and how her children were also caught by this same delusion left me troubled and upset.
Prakash Kohli, an Indian psychiatrist, discovers his birth story during partition and how his patients have enduring partition effects even after years of partition.
The narrative is impressive and will leave you emotive and empty. The book is really a necessary read.
While reading, I felt that the interlinked stories have not been well presented thus somehow leaving confusion and the reader loses the trail of the story which could only be recovered by referring back to the chapters.

[Roshan Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Manto's Toba Tek Singh opens : "A couple of years after the partition of the country, it occurred to the respective governments of India and Pakistan that inmates of lunatic asylums, like prisoners, should also be exchanged. Muslim lunatics in India should be transferred to Pakistan and Hindu and Sikh lunatics in Pakistan should be sent to India."
At the time I read this story, I thought Manto has taken a hypothetical situation to present his very real story. Little did I know, that the governments had actually sanctioned such an exchange in which four hundred and fifty patients from Pakistan were sent to India, of which the Sikhs were sent to Chandigarh and rest were sent to Ranchi. Two hundred thirty three muslim patients gathered from all over India were sent to Lahore. None of them were asked whether they actually wanted to go or not. In all of literature that we have about Partition, this book is perhaps the only one of its kind. It is a collection of intertwined stories of people who had to go through the traumatic experience of Partition and who were in one way or the another connected to the mentally ill. Anirudh Kala is himself a psychiatrist who has worked closely with people who have suffered the worst of the trauma, at the heart of which, more often than not, is Partition. The stories are thought provoking and bring one dangerously close to the devastating effect such an experience can have on one's mind. A brilliant book through and through.

[Pratichi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my surprise find. Had randomly picked this up at a book fair sometime back, didn't get a chance to pick it up till now and I absolutely loved it!
Immediately reminiscent of Manto's Toba Tek Singh, this is a series of short stories woven around a mental asylum in Lahore during and after the partition. There are stories of patients, doctors, and others somehow inter-linked with the asylum. There are stories of friendship, trauma, anxiety, love, hatred, and the continued impact the partition has had on the everyday lives of people. In the backdrop of the two big communal riots in modern Indian history, they talk of the insanity and the inaneness of fundamentalist drive to divide people on the basis of religion. They speak of the inhumanity of it all. All of this makes the book a particularly relevant read in the current scenario of communal strife and divide backed up by States across the globe.
It has been a while since I teared up reading something, and here I did multiple times. Highly recommending!

P.S. Don't know if this is an issue with the particular edition I was reading. Printing errors are a pet peeve, and a couple of grammatical errors in the print bugged me bit.

P.P.S. Maybe don't take it to a family vacation like I did and spend the entire time either reading it or thinking about it.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book on a whim while I was in Delhi for a conference. I wandered into BariSons Booksellers and came out with this, and a few other books. I bought it hoping I was going to read some fiction that drew from the real-life events of India’s brutal Partition, that occurred in 1947. I was expecting some fascinating insights into a topic that I had never heard or thought about before—the question of what happened to patients of mental hospitals during the great swap of humanity that occurred during Partition. The first couple of chapters were promising. I was intrigued and appalled. I learnt about terrible things that happened; I was drawn in by characters and interesting plots: all hallmarks of a good book. But soon I started to become frustrated and somewhat confused. At first I thought it was because there was too much assumed knowledge in the stories—about Indian geography and place names etc. One story was set in Shimla and I was secretly chuffed because I had just returned from a trip there so I could picture the regions where the story took place. This was not the case for other stories. But I soon realised that it wasn’t simply my lack of geographical and historical knowledge that was turning the read into a chore. I was frustrated with the confusing and confused narrative arc and the seemingly endless stream of characters. This was supposed to be a book of short stories, but it wasn’t. The same characters appeared in multiple different stories at different points in time so it felt like there was supposed to be narrative arc. And yet it certainly wasn’t a novel either.

I read until the beginning of the last chapter and then just gave up. I was sick of meeting characters, beginning to get to know them and their stories, and then having them taken away from me so I could meet yet another character, who I would never really get to know, and I was tired of being confused.

Partition is ripe for stories and has been mined pretty successfully by some authors (for example, Partition riot stories appear in Rohinton Mistry’s 'A Fine Balance', and post- Partition conflicts appear in his 'Such a Long Journey'; part of the narrative in Anita Desai’s 'Clear Light of Day' takes place during Partition, etc.) The stories of what happened to the patients in mental hospitals should be told, so Anirudh Kala was definitely on to a good idea. Shame he didn’t pull it off.

[Puja]

“Is it partition time again? Ma asked when I drove her to the station to put her on a train.
Feeling her heart pounding against my chest, I patted her on the back and said, ‘Don’t be silly. Partitions do not happen every day.’

‘The unsafe asylum – Stories of Partition and madness’ is a collection of 13 stories that are interlinked with mental hospital and its patients both in India and Pakistan at the background, and brings out the various incidents that take place in the lives of these characters over a period of time. the stories begin from June 1947 and cover a span of 40 years ending in 1984.

Anirudh Kala, himself a noted psychiatrist narrates these fictional tales which must be inspired from his own encounters from countless seminars and visits in India and in Pakistan during his visits to the mental health institutions there. When a ‘line of partition’ was drawn by Radcliff, along millions of people who crossed the border in huge numbers, there were also Hindu and Muslim patients who needed to be shifted from mental hospitals of the both countries. The book revolves around them and their heart-wrenching stories.

The story ‘No forgiveness necessary’ talks how in that summer of 1947, ‘when mental hospital was a safer place than the world outside’ hospital officials for the first time complied names and addresses of patients from specific religions, so that they can deported to their ‘own countries’. The story narrated the tale of two best friends Rulda Singh and Fattu (Fateh Khan) who find themselves separated through deportation. While Rulda who was from Rawalpindi, was sent to India, Fattu from Hoshiarpur was detained in Lahore. Even after their discharge, these two friends had imaginary conversations and kept hearing each other’s voices. When normal human beings (who crossed borders) couldn’t face the trauma of being in an unknown land, one can imagine the misery of these mental patients who were thrown into the darkness of the ‘unfamiliar’ post partition.

There is another story called ‘Sita’s bus’ that narrates the tale of a married Sikh woman who was left out in during Partition in Sialkot, Pakistan and becomes Firdaus Cheema from Harpreet Cheema after marrying again a Muslim man. She eventually gets pregnant but then the two countries sign an agreement to repatriate each other’s woman. The agreement included ‘consent for abortion’ with a ‘special fund’ allocated for mass abortions from the government. While she was forcibly sent to India, at a refugee camp in Jalandhar, she realized that her baby with her Muslim husband has been aborted as her first husband Manjeet Cheema agreed to accept her, only if she aborted the Muslim man’s child. Harpreet never meets Manjeet, she chose to take a bus to Delhi from there and when the bus conductor asked her name, she replied ‘Harpreet’. He asked, ‘Just Harpreet? Agge pichhe kuch nahi?’ (nothing before or after?) She smiled and said, ‘Agge pichhe kuchh nahi.’

From abortions to mass displacement to hallucinations that affected generations, Kala being the best fit for writing such stories, gives facts and figures that goes on to speak volumes about how their lives were wronged at the hands of the fateful decision of partition. In the story ‘the mad prophesier’, Dr. Prakash Kohli says, ‘about 300 people died in this hospital in 3 years while waiting for their transfer. That is, about half the patients that should have been transferred.’ Such was the violence when even mental patients who had no idea about the world outside where victims of communal violence.

The book gives us, who are far removed from the world where these people reside, an insight that can make one tremble at the sordidness of it all. In one such description, the author speaks about how Partition affected Fattu, ‘between curses and stark anatomical description, Fattu talked disjointedly about boys slaughtered in the snow, girls beings shot for singing mahiyas at weddings and a whole lot of cashews in school-children’s satchels being drenched in blood. It was a prolonged jumble of words and sobs after, and then he finally seemed to have exhausted himself. He lay down, spent and motionless.

Another story ‘A spy named Gopal Punjabi’ speaks of a man, who was an Indian spy but changed his loyalty thereafter to ISI just so that he can live and stay in the house he was once born. And as the author writes, in between ‘flag’ and ‘home’, he chose ‘home’. Known as Samiullah Ahmed Pash, minutes before his death, he revealed his real identity to his daughter-in-law Aalia.

Aalia after listening to him was devastated and dumbfounded.

To read the full review, click on the below link:

https://thebookbuzz.net/2019/06/05/th...

[Smita Saksena · Rating 4 out of 5]

The memories of Partition still haunt the ones who had witnessed those awful moments. They only know the trauma and pain they underwent. Whenever these stories are told, it leaves a heaviness in the heart and unpleasant thoughts in our minds.
This book  'The Unsafe Asylum: Stories of Partition and Madness' by Author Anirudh Kala is a collection of stories (interlinked) of Partition time (1947, between India and Pakistan). The stories start when the Partition is over, blood has been spilled and people are displaced including patients in Mental Hospitals. India got its share of Hindu and Sikh patients and Pakistan, the Muslim ones. This book is about the stories of these patients, their lives before and after the Partition and the long-lasting impact of the Cataclysm. When I read these heart-wrenching stories, especially some of the conversations between the characters made me feel how painful the partition was and that it is a phenomenon that keeps haunting many even today. 
These stories encompass a range of happenings, from the senseless and unspeakable violence through mass displacements of people, with and without mental illnesses, to instances of true friendships and utter tenderness. Written with great sensitivity and clever imagination, the stories compel the reader to face the reality of that partition. There was something compelling about these stories and the writing style, that made me continue the book till the very last word. I am glad I read this amazing book that is narrated in excellent language and presented with a unique writing style. 
The Unsafe Asylum: Stories of Partition and Madness is a must read which I strongly recommend to all readers who reading love short stories, especially those who have a keen interest in knowing more on one of the most harrowing episodes of the Indian Subcontinent -  Partition. Personally, I loved reading it and really look forward to the next book by the Author Anirudh Kala. 

[Amr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb book
Actually, I read the translated version in punjabi.
The stories were well connected giving you the perspective of the partition from the eyes of a sect of people that are not much talked about.
The book swings perfectly between past and present. The stories are emotional and make you think about the partition as well as 1984 according to the characters.
Every character is well defined. Some stories would leave you in shock.
A must read specially for the people that resides in the Punjab and Delhi where the impact of partition and 1984 was maximum.
The translation in Punjabi was well done.

[Seema Punwani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compared to the Holocaust the India-Pakistan partition is not as well documented in books and movies. This book a rare gem as it not only casts lights on the horrors or the partition but also brings into the focus the forgotten communities of mental health patients, prisoners and their families. For anyone interested in the history of that time, I would strongly recommend this book.

[Ani Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poignant stories of the partition of India and its short and long term aftermath. In the backdrop of Punjab and on the foundation of mental health issues.