A psychological study of the Bengal Partition, a traumatic time that continues
to resonate. Why has it been so hard for Bengal to recover from this
catastrophe, shared with the people of Punjab, who faced much more brutal and
horrendous violence over a short period? Was it due to very different historical
circumstances? The refugees were targets of soft violence, an extreme form of
mental assault that chilled them with fear till they fled. They could not tell
whether old friends had become new foes. Were they imagining this or perhaps it
was a true reading of the situation? Departures were spread over many years,
preventing a