The article discusses the intergenerational transmission of trauma linked to the Bengal famine of 1943, which left lasting effects on descendants, including panic around food and silencing regarding survival experiences. It highlights how survivors' trauma manifests in younger generations, who grapple with unexpressed emotions tied to historical events. Psychotherapy techniques like bibliotherapy and poetry therapy are suggested as ways to articulate and process this generational grief, turning painful history into meaningful narratives and helping descendants confront their inherited burdens.
I have heard it in the trembling voice of a granddaughter who cannot explain her panic around food waste, in the hoarding of rice, in the panic at empty shelves.
The 1943 Bengal famine, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 3 million people, continued into 1944. It lives on-in cells, in stories, and silences.
For descendants of the Bengal famine, bibliotherapy is not a luxury. It is a ritual of return. It is how we begin to make meaning from the madness.
These days, young people come my way, seeking to name what their parents and grandparents have quietly held to themselves.
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