Kashmiri Pandit’s Cultural Demands for Return to the Valley
Return of Kashmiri Pandits and the importance of the ‘Shrine Bill’.
A former separatist leader, in the struggle to make the Kashmir Valley, an Islamic place, shows change of heart.
He tells, the Kashmiri Pandits, forced out of the Valley in 1989, that they form an “essential part of Kashmir’ and that their return “will fill the vacuum in the Kashmiriyat”. He admits that KPs have lost their ‘identity and culture’ and recognizes that “apathy of successive governments had multiplied their problems”.
“Kashmiri Pandits have been demanding Shrine Bill for a long time, but no heed is given to this important demand and only hollow promises of their return is made every time by political parties,” he said and added that shrine bill is the fundamental right of KPs.
Source:
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2014/Nov/24/sajad-lone-meet-kps-46.asp
November 24, 2014
srajput2
Dr. Sudha G. Rajput is the author of Internal Displacement and Conflict: The Kashmiri Pandits in Comparative Perspective (Routledge). Her 31-year career at the World Bank touched on multiple aspects of international development, working on thirteen countries of the former Soviet Union. Her co-authored book chapters appear in Scientific Explorations of Cause and Consequence across Social Contexts (Praeger) and in State, Society, and Minorities in Southeast Asia (Lexington Books). She writes for the Forced Migration Review. Her doctoral research has investigated issues of conflict-induced displacement in Kashmir, with a focus on societal and policy reform, leading her efforts to the development of a graduate course, Refugees and IDP Issues, drawing students from fields of conflict resolution, international development, humanitarian assistance and peacebuilding. She is a Senior Researcher at the Refugee Law Initiative, a U.K. based think-tank. She is a Consultant/Trainer for USAID, designing and conducting capacity building workshops in Khartoum, Sudan, promoting cross-border co-existence. As a Professional Lecturer, at George Washington University, she teaches at the Elliott School of International Affairs, where she brings multi-disciplinary approaches to her course on Refugee and Migrant Crisis. She is a trainer for the Forage Center for Peacebuilding Education, where during a 4-day humanitarian assistance simulation, she coaches students on systematic understanding of protracted displacements. She teaches at the University of Maryland Global Campus, delivering the MBA program for the military students. Her interests on post-conflict issues include her past travels to: Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Sudan, and Ukraine. Sudha’s blog on internal displacement can be found at www.internaldisplacement.info. Dr. Rajput lives in Washington, D.C. and can be reached at sudha_rajput@yahoo.com
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