Srinagar, Aug. 15 -- Thirty-six years.

For a human being, it is almost half a lifetime.

For a child, it is enough time to be born, go to school, graduate, marry and become the parent of another school-going child.

For technology, it is the distance between the landline telephone and artificial intelligence.

For a country, thirty-six years can be enough to rebuild an economy, transform public health, create new cities, produce universities, develop industries and alter the destiny of an entire generation.

For a Kashmiri Pandit displaced in 1990, however, thirty-six years have somehow remained classified as temporary exile.

That is why, this Independence Day, I am less interested in asking what India has done during its 79 years of fr...