The genre of the novel has been central to exploring what it is like to live with mental illness, through a range of varied perspectives ranging from patient to caregiver. This chapter examines the discourse of mental health within family life in India through the study of two novels set in the late twentieth century.

To contextualize these texts, a brief foray into the social and legal edifice around mental health in India is necessary. The most recent development in mental health and psychosocial disability laws in India was the Mental Health Care Act in 2017, which sought to undo the prior nonperson status of persons with mental illness. It did so through the prohibition of all medical procedures without informed consent and through the decriminalization of suicide. The Mental Health Care Act of 1987, which was in place till the proposed changes of the 2017 Act, allowed coercive admission of people into asylums and psychiatric rehabilitation centers. Mental health activist Bhargavi V. Davar captures the transitions in the law from the 1987 Act to the proposed Bill of 2013, which eventually became legalized as the 2017 Act. The 1990s marked an introduction of new terms, adding “disability” into the mix and introducing identities that involved stating whether one was a user or survivor of psychiatry. In discussing these concepts and terms, the response from the medical establishment is documented by Davar, who states: “Doctors who were present in these dialogues were against a social paradigm and argued that there was no ‘disability’ element in ‘mental illness’ because it was a medical/health issue. They also argued that such identity questions were Western concepts, as was the whole notion of human rights.” Stuck with a mental health law that was draconian in nature with its British colonial legacy of deeming persons with mental illness as nonpersons before the law, essentially diminishing them to having no rights and capacity for self-advocacy, the spectrum of mental health care in India presents a complex picture of stigma and social isolation. A handful of narratives seek to present the ubiquitous nature of mental health struggles, and these can be considered some of “the most significant literary and political accomplishments of contemporary India.”