Intergenerational trauma has become a buzzword in recent years. It was first explored in the research of Canadian psychiatrist Dr. Rakoff and her colleagues in 1966. They found higher levels of anxiety among descendants of Holocaust survivors. This important finding has contributed to a fundamental understanding of this phenomenon.
Studies from the 2000s examined groups affected by major life-disrupting events. Bezo, a PhD candidate in Ottawa, studied Soviet Ukrainians who had experienced the Holodomor, the mass famine of the 1930s under Stalin. He identified intergenerational effects such as anxiety, food-related behavior (hoarding, overeating), authoritarian parenting and reduced trust in the community, with life often described as ‘survival mode’. This research, now expanding, joins studies on the intergenerational consequences of the Holocaust, the Khmer Rouge killings, the Rwandan genocide, the displacement of American Indians, and the enslavement of African Americans.
In addition, epigenetic research by Rachel Yehuda showed that trauma can change genes and can be inherited. For example, children of Holocaust survivors show stress-related genes even without direct exposure to trauma.
In my work, I have observed intergenerational patterns such as authoritarian parenting, a scarcity mentality, performance pressure, emotional repression, abuse and alcoholism, across generations. These issues are often met with silence – an outdated South Asian coping mechanism. The research on Holocaust survivors raises questions about similar intergenerational and epigenetic impacts on other populations, such as those affected by the 1947 Partition, which displaced 12 to 20 million people, caused widespread violence and exacerbated religious hostilities in what is now India and being Pakistan.
“The 1947 partition was the largest mass migration in history, and yet very little has been written about the toll it took on the mental health of survivors and their families.” —Dr. Ammara Khalid, clinical psychologist
Dr. Ammara Khalid is an Illinois-based clinical psychologist who provides therapy to individuals, couples, and families from diverse backgrounds. Dr. Khalid works with mood disorders, relationship issues, life transitions, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ support, grief and more. Fluent in English and Urdu/Hindi, she addresses mental health challenges related to climate instability and is writing a book on intergenerational trauma following the 1947 partition of South Asia.
Source: Ammara Khalid / used with permission
Dr. Ammara Khalid, a South African psychologist of Pakistani descent in Chicago, uses decolonized cross-cultural therapy and the Bowenian Family Systems Model to help clients navigate issues such as alcoholism, gender violence, anxiety, depression and trauma. She argues that “how a person feels today may be rooted in how their ancestors felt yesterday,” and that intergenerational trauma patterns persist not only due to learned behavior, but also genetics.
Studying the impact of divorce on mental health is deeply personal for Khalid. Her family, like many, crossed borders during the divorce, with her paternal grandparents remaining in Pakistan and her maternal grandparents eventually migrating to the US. a new Muslim-dominated country.” Khalid notes that while some openly share their experiences of divorce, others struggle to speak about the horrors, with some suppressing their trauma completely.
Given her strong ties to the partition, her own work with clients, and her limited research, Khalid decided to write a book about the mental health impact of this massive event. She collected stories from second, third and fourth generation families affected by the partition, including scenes of violence such as the shooting of children, the rape of women and the burning alive of trains of migrants.
She notes that many people thought crossing the border was temporary, thinking they could return to collect belongings and say goodbye. They were promised peace among Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims – but this was not the reality, and the consequences are still being felt.
“I spent part of my youth in the shadow cast over his life and with the feeling that no matter how much I loved him, and he loved me, some part of him was forever changed in 1947 and remained inaccessible.” —Dr. Shaili Jain, psychiatrist and trauma expert
In a 2020 interview with The Hindutold trauma expert Dr. Shaili Jain about her family’s history of divorce-era tragedies. Her paternal grandfather was murdered and her father, then ten, fled his home and became a refugee and child laborer in India. Two decades later he emigrated to England, where Jain was born and raised.
Dr. Shaili Jain is certified in general psychiatry, with specialist expertise in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), integrated care in primary and mental health care, and women’s psychiatry. She is an adjunct clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is the author of the critically acclaimed nonfiction book The Unspeakable Mind: Stories of Trauma and Healing from the Frontlines of PTSD.
Source: Shaili Jain/Used with permission
Growing up, Jain recalls that her family rarely visited India and had no photographs or heirlooms from her paternal grandparents, “no physical reminders of their existence – so I grew up feeling disconnected from this family history.” However, Jain believes that the family trauma influenced her deep interest in understanding thoughts, emotions and behavior, and ultimately shaped her career as a psychiatrist.
Her book The Ineffable Spirit is a testament to her family’s trauma during Partition. “I finally realized that [the] partition had always been central to my own life and career choices, I thought it made sense that this story would form the core of my book. Honoring my family story in this way was very important to me.”
Impact on generations of South Asians
Jain attributes the limited research into the consequences of such a colossal tragedy as the Partition to ‘repression, dissociation and denial happening at the societal level’. This is consistent with the way SAs tend to avoid discussing pain and suffering and pay for it later through mental or physical conditions.
She warns that ‘collective denial’ comes with high costs. The old modus operandi ultimately backfires. Jain argues that “unresolved trauma has likely created future spirals of communal violence in South Asia, violence that continues to recur in the 21st century.”
Khalid, in turn, shares that so many Hindu, Sikh and Muslim families are still haunted by the massacres of their ancestors. The divorce had a direct impact on the generation of South Asians who experienced it, she writes, ranging from PTSD to substance addiction, extreme poverty and malnutrition. It also meant that subsequent generations would feel the weight of growing up in abusive households or with parents who are in perpetual economic survival mode and suffer from a scarcity mentality and hyper-vigilance to potential threats to the status quo.
This also contributes to SAs “constantly striving for perfection, struggling with addictions, eating disorders, attachment issues and codependency.” As a systemic therapist, Khalid also explores the “impact of colonization, white supremacy, patriarchy, and oppression that have shaped and continue to inspire so many inherent beliefs and values in the South Asian household.”
Khalid shares how the trauma can manifest as “legacy burdens” (beliefs passed down from generation to generation), a scarcity mentality, fear and anxiety of loss, cultural disconnection, and shame and secrecy. All of these issues can impact rigid diaspora views on career, marriage, social status, time and productivity, and financial security.
The work of Jain, Khalid, and others in expanding on topics such as divorce could significantly transform treatment considerations in mental health care to include adverse ancestral events. South Asian history includes many life-changing events such as the Bangladesh War, the Indo-Pak Wars, Idi Amin’s dictatorship and natural disasters such as the Gujarat earthquake.
With more research on intergenerational trauma, mental health professionals can help SAs understand and more meaningfully address depression, anxiety, and anger, ultimately easing the heaviness of ancestral burdens.
