he recently released Bollywood film The Kashmir Files has not only triggered an intensive debate about the forgotten story of the displacement of the Kashmiri Pandits — the high caste Hindus, from the Kashmir valley in the 1990s but has also reopened old wounds.

The Kashmir Files is one of the most-watched films in India so far. The 170- minute movie is a part of the Bollywood series of films featuring Hindus resisting Muslim rulers in the pre-British era that is backed by Hindu revisionists.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been constantly using Bollywood to advance its Hindutva agenda at the cost of communal harmony. The Kashmir Files has stirred a wave of considerable anger against the Kashmiri Muslim communities across India. Several right-wing groups and individuals have expressed their anger on social media using hashtags like #WakeUpHindu. The Indian media has reported that after watching the film, many people vowed to take revenge or expressed hate for the Kashmiri Muslim community which is already facing harsh treatment in major cities.

The film has been instrumental in the bid to legitimize the state’s repressive approach and create public support for its warmongering policies.

In this background, Debasish Roy Chowdhury has aptly summarised the key objectives of this film in his recent piece, appearing in the Time magazine: “The purpose of The Kashmir Files is to inflame hatred against Muslims; against secular parties that Modi’s followers brand anti-Hindu; liberal intellectuals and activists, whose faith in India’s inclusive democracy runs contrary to the supremacist tenets of Hindu nationalism; and against the liberal media...”

There are conflicting perspectives about the tragic events of the 1990s that forced the tiny Kashmiri Pandits community to abandon their homeland. A great deal of literature was produced by the displaced Pandit scholars as well as the writers from outside the region on the above subject. Regardless of competing viewpoints, it is a matter of fact that the Pandits community’s en masse flight from the Indian-held Kashmir was a heartbreaking episode in modern history.

Coincidentally, I twice got a chance to stop over Pandits’ refugee camps in the outskirts of the Indian-held Jammu city in 2001 and 2006. I found the living conditions terrible. Sanjay Tickoo, a Pandit community leader who never left Kashmir, took a group of visiting Pakistanis/ Azad Kashmiris to show them dozens of deserted homes previously owned by Kashmiri Pandits in the posh localities of the Srinagar city. Meeting with Pandit leaders, activists and intellectuals, I found them warmly remembering and missing their soil, ancient culture, historical sites and the composite Kashmiri identity.

The agony and pain caused by the Kashmiri Pandits’ dislocation from the valley are no different from the sentiments resulting from the similar displacement of the Muslims who crossed the LoC to avoid state persecution in the early 1990s. The refugee camps located in the suburbs of Muzaffarabad remind us of the time when Kashmiri families and young people were arriving in Muzaffarabad every night to take sanctuary having dodged Indian security forces stationed along the LoC.

The Indian authorities have been using the Kashmiri Pandits to fuel hatred and advance propaganda instead of finding a peaceful way for their return to the valley. To counter the Kashmiris’Azadi narrative, several Pandit organisations were established (like the Panun Kashmir). These organisations were pitched against Kashmiri Muslims and demanded a separate homeland within the Kashmir valley for the displaced Pandits’ resettlement. Pandit organisations were also formed across the world to build a narrative of Pandit’s genocide. These groups radicalised a generation of Kashmiri Pandits who have traditionally been peace-loving people. Now, even the educated Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits do not see eye to eye with each other in any matter. Therefore, the possibility of their return to the valley has grown remote.

It is difficult to figure out exactly how many Pandits were killed during the conflict in the early1990s. The Kashmir Police, India’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and various groups of Pandits offer contradictory data on the subject. The most liberal estimates suggest that 219 Kashmiri Pandits were killed from1989 to 2004. The Muslim community leaders in Kashmir feel that their suffering and pain are greater than that of anyone else. Pandits have indeed left their homeland but the Kashmiri Muslims have been facing the worst kind of human rights abuses, molestation and systemic discrimination on a daily bases for the last 31 years. Dozens of human rights reports published by various Kashmiri, Indian and international organisations illustrate an ugly story of torture, imprisonment and disappearance of the Kashmiris.

Released in Indian theaters, The Kashmir Files has further reduced the prospects of Kashmiri Pandits’ early return to their homes. It has pitched a small minority community against a majority, making their return home an uphill task. The way the BJP government is trying to highlight the pain and suffering of the Pandits community is seen in the Kashmir valley quite differently from the rest of India. The film reinforces suspicions that the Kashmiri Pandit community has been a partner in the anti-Kashmir policies of New Delhi.

The displaced Kashmiri Pandits can return to their homes if the local community accepts them as neighbours and fellow citizens rather than strangers. Meanwhile, nearly 400 Pandits are still living in Muslim neighbourhoods in Kashmir without any fear of reprisals. A sincere dialogue between the Kashmiri Muslims and Pandit leaders is needed to find a peaceful and lasting solution to the Pandits’ woes. Also, several domestic Kashmir issues are impacting the state of India-Pakistan relations. In this context, the resumption of India-Pakistan diplomatic ties leading to a dialogue about the Kashmir issue is a need of the hour. The change of government in Islamabad offers an opportunity for New Delhi to come forward with a fresh approach and chart a new beginning, picking up the dialogue thread from where it was left in 2016 when India unilaterally suspended all formal diplomatic engagement with Pakistan.

The writer is a freelance   contributor. He tweets @ErshadMahmud and can be reached at: ershad.mahmud@gmail.com