Coming of Age, But Out of Place: Conversations with Displaced Kashmiri Hindu Men

<strong>Centre for the Study of Social Systems School of Social Sciences</strong> CSSS Colloquium <strong>Ankur Datta</strong> (Assistant Professor, South Asian University, New Delhi) a paper on <strong>Coming of Age, But Out of Place: Conversations with Displaced Kashmiri Hindu Men</strong> Date :<strong> November 3rd, 2016</strong> <strong>Abstract: </strong>Since 1989 the Indian administered state of Jammu and Kashmir has been embroiled in a conflict between Kashmiri Nationalists and the Indian state. This paper focuses on the Hindu minority of the Kashmir valley, better known as the Kashmiri Pandits. Following a series of targeted attacks and a general climate of fear and the breakdown of law and order, the vast majority of this community fled the Kashmir valley. A significant section of the displaced Pandits relocated to cities like Jammu and New Delhi where they have lived ever since. The paper will draw on the biography and conversations with three Kashmiri Pandit men who were children at the time of displacement and came of age in exile. Two of the men have spent their youth living in a low income camp colony while the third biography will be of a man who is currently engaged in high skilled employment ostensibly as part of the 'New Indian Middle Class'. By drawing on their experiences this paper will attempt to engage with questions of masculinity, struggle, fears of failure and the process of 'growing up' among forced migrants in South Asia. These experiences will be situated in the context of different geographic and socio-economic locations even though the biographies draw on the same generation and cohort of displaced persons.  Bio: Ankur Datta is a Social Anthropologist and teaches at the Department of Sociology, South Asian University. He completed his MA at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and his PhD at the London School of Economics. He has also lived in the city of Jammu where he conducted fieldwork among Kashmiri Pandits who have been displaced by the conflict in the Kashmir Valley. His work addresses questions of displacement and dislocation, place-making and the politics of victimhood. He has a larger interest in exploring how people locate themselves in the world and in the context of complex histories. He has published in journals such Contributions to Indian Sociology and the International Journal of Migration and Border Studies. He is the author of On Uncertain Grounds: Displaced Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu Kashmir, published by Oxford University Press, New Delhi.