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From Stone-Pelters to Flag-Bearers

30 0
21.08.2026

For thirty six years, Kashmir has carried many conversations that seem to return to the same starting point. There are demands for conclaves, resolutions, statements, conferences and declarations. There are arguments over terrorism, displacement, Article 370, militancy and the tragedies that have scarred generations. Each side carries its own memory, and often its own version of justice. But perhaps the uncomfortable question we need to ask today is this: have we changed the conversation while the conversation has remained unchanged? 

Kashmir has changed. The Kashmiri who lived through the last three and a half decades has not remained politically where he was in 1990. He has seen governments change, political movements rise and disappear, elections return, development accelerate, technology transform society and an entirely new generation grow up with aspirations very different from those of their parents.

That generation is politically aware. It understands power, opportunity and the consequences of political choices. It may not agree with everything that came before, but neither can it be expected to inherit every emotion of the past.And that is where another difficult conversation needs to take place within the displaced Kashmiri Pundit community. The pain of displacement cannot and should not be erased. The killings,........

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