Srinagar, Aug. 7 -- In India, it is natural to associate people with the regions they come from. A person from Punjab is known as a Punjabi, one from Gujarat is a Gujarati, and similarly, someone from Kashmir is a Kashmiri. These identities are not just geographic; they encompass a rich heritage of language, customs, traditions, and shared cultural memory.But the tragedy for the Kashmiri community, particularly the displaced Kashmiri Pandits, lies in a cruel irony - they are called 'Kashmiri' without possessing the homeland that gives this identity its meaning.

For decades now, thousands of Kashmiri families have been living in exile, scattered across different states and even countries. The reasons for this displacement are rooted in po...