Displacements and Settlements Z.G. MUHAMMAD Sometimes even a single column news item on the back page contains far bigger a message than the screaming front page headlines and calls for a wider and serious debate. Some days back, a hundred and fifty word statement by an advocacy group welcoming initiatives of the government for return of Kashmiri Pandits talked about five major displacements that took place in Jammu and Kashmir after the birth of India and Pakistan as independent dominions. It has also called for ‘major initiatives for honourable return of all those displaced in 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1989. Since 1990, only displacement in ‘dominant’ and ‘populist’ discourse has been that of the Kashmir Pandits. It has been categorized as ‘internal displacement’ as overwhelming majority of this community … Read entire article »