ABSTRACT
This chapter takes the reader into the historical, social, ethnic, religious, and political contexts of the displacement of a high-caste Hindu community, the KPs, ousted from their ancestral homes in the Kashmir Valley (Valley) in 1989. The anti-India campaign against the central government rule, led by the Muslim majority and militant groups, took hold of the Valley. In addition to the KPs, the Valley’s ethnic mosaic cut across other minority identities, such as the Gujjars, the nomadic community; the Hanjiis, the artisans of Kashmir; and the Sikhs, the entrepreneurs and the supporters of the majority. Many KP community families were threatened, abducted, and killed, and a quarter of a million people fled the Valley, officially dubbed as “migrants.” The chapter sheds light on the puzzle as to why the Pandit minority community was specifically targeted when other minorities of the Valley were spared and discloses the positions and the standing of this community before their displacement.
