Srinagar, Oct. 27 -- A village cannot move forward when its residents are preparing to leave. For decades, families living along the border have carried two realities at once. One was the routine of everyday life: farming fields, running small businesses, sending children to school and building homes. The other was the uncertainty that accompanied every rise in tensions across the border. At the centre of that uncertainty was a simple question: would they be able to stay, or would they once again be forced to leave?

Roads built, projects sanctioned, funds released and facilities inaugurated dominate official narratives. Yet the lived experience of border communities tells a different story. Development has meaning only when people feel s...