It was little more than six years ago that my book, “The Infidel Next Door”, was published. After over five years of writing, it aimed to portray the story of displaced people who were forced out of their homeland and sought to protect their roots and way of life. As a clinical psychologist and grief therapist accustomed to writing clinical reports, I initially had no idea that I could write fiction.
However, as I listened to hundreds of narratives from those in the camp, I realized that the story of a people’s struggle to survive could not be condensed into a single file or clinical report. I realized slowly that my imagination was taking over; characters emerging from real life, each helping to tell the story of a voiceless people. Sequences began to develop, and a plot took shape as I lay awake, piecing together the stories of countless individuals who had confided in me.
The book was an attempt to promote healing and forgiveness between two groups, allowing them to let go of a traumatic past and a history that loomed like a cloud over once beautiful land. The impact of the book impact reached far beyond sales figures. It was read by intellectuals around the world. It was distributed in America by American Hindus to policymakers and senators to help them understand the conflict in Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370. Diplomats and policymakers from many countries also read it.
Yesterday, as I visited my publisher at the book fair and signed a few copies for readers, memories flooded back to me. I felt immense gratitude for having been able to witness the struggle of a people and live to tell their story to the world.
Several filmmakers have approached me to make it into a film but only when I am convinced that it will be a true portrayal and carry the essence of the characters, will it happen.
I believe there is a writer within every psychologist or anyone who works closely with people. When we delve deeply and witness the suffering of others, we can no longer remain neutral; we become multi-disciplinary. Clinical reports that are neutral are not enough, and our thoughts and emotions can become intertwined in a mysterious way that brings out the author within us. We owe a responsibility to the unknown, to the faceless people who wish for their stories to be remembered through the writer.
“The Infidel Next Door” is one such story that I wrote as part of that journey.
Rajat Mitra
Psychologist, Author, and Speaker
Review: Vamık D. Volkan, M. D., Nobel prize nominee, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of Virginia, and the author of Enemies on the Couch: A Psychopolitical Journey Through War and Peace
“An unforgettable read. I learned more about India from reading this book than from attending an international seminar devoted to trauma and reconciliation in India.
Years ago, when I was visiting a refugee camp, the local scholars who accompanied me told me the history of what had happened to people now living in this miserable place and how they had become victims of their old neighbours with different ethnic backgrounds. Then I met an elderly man who was a well-known poet. I learned that since his arrival there he had written a poem each day and shared it with his fellow refugees. When some of his poems were translated for me I realized that they taught me more about his people and the impact of an ethnic conflict than had all the intellectual explanations provided for me.
At the above conference, scholars and speakers from a range of disciplines spoke of trauma and religious violence in India, especially in Kashmir. Rajat Mitra’s book, like the poems I heard years ago, enlightened me and I understood why a divide exists between Hindus and Muslims in India. This book tells us why healing and forgiveness can take place amid mass violence. I recommend this book, not only for those working on societal trauma and peace but for anyone who wants to understand the conflict between bad and good aspects of human nature.
Midwest Book Review
The Infidel Next Door opens with an arranged marriage between a sick orphan girl and a shy boy, but it quickly evolves to embrace more than two lost souls finding each other; because between them there are deeply abiding secrets that keep each at arm’s length even as they learn that neither can hide or keep secrets about their past.
Replete with Hindu gods, temples, and religious perspectives, and a young boy who serves as both a miracle and a reminder of life’s fragility, The Infidel Next Door weaves through Indian culture and perspectives as if in a delicate dance, each step precisely described and compellingly intriguing.
When a temple is built next to a Muslim Mosque, creating forces that confront one another on many levels, the story really earns its laurels as characters so carefully crafted earlier in the tale begin to comprehend the magnitude of the changes in their world and what it means to their choices and lives: “Remember what I taught you about infidels? It is Allah’s will that your fight begins on your doorstep.” “I will cast terror in their hearts as it is commanded in the book,” Anwar said. “It is a priest and he has a son who is coming next door. They won’t be a match for you.” “I will convert him to Islam and if he doesn’t obey, I will drive them away from Kashmir.” Haji Chacha looked him in the eye. In a steady pitched voice he said, “Inshallah, you are fortunate. You no longer have to imagine an enemy. He will come right next door to you. Your struggle will be unique in the annals of jihad.” “Why chacha?”Anwar asked.
“Because a warrior comes alive through knowing that his enemy is big, real, and more dangerous than he thought him to be.”
From caste systems to secrets surrounding births, defiance, and difficult love relationships, and the challenges of children to either follow in or divert from the paths of tradition, The Infidel Next Door is alive with thought-provoking insights throughout, cemented by characters who struggle on many levels: “Aditya, you are like those distant mountain peaks. They look beautiful but one can’t live there. I want to remember you as someone who liberated me.” “That is not love, Zeba.” “Every woman, Aditya, falls in love with the man who teaches her to live. He then should live in her memory otherwise their relationship loses meaning.” “Zeba, this will be a living death for us.” “I know that. I have to be loyal to my husband in spite of thoughts of you that are there in every corner of my mind.” Tara came near and said to Zeba, “The light in your room has been switched on.” … She decided not to open the curtains and look outside again and closed the light. That was her past. There comes a time in everyone’s life when they have to close the curtains of the past. “I will give myself a chance, to my marriage, to this relationship with Salim,” she said, as she switched off the lights. It was better she stayed in the darkness.”
From traditions that clash to miracles and murders, The Infidel Next Door weaves a tight story of social, spiritual, and psychological changes that are tinged with disaster and discovery at every turn.
One needn’t be familiar with Indian society, Muslim or Hindu religions, or even with regional Indian social and political forces in order to appreciate this compelling story, which draws together disparate lives and cross purposes in an engrossing saga that’s hard to put down and especially recommended for any Westerner who would better understand the subtler nuances of Indian society.