The Kashmiri Pandits’ 1990s exodus: An interview with Siddhartha Gigoo

ABSTRACT

In this interview, Indian multi-genre author and documentary film-maker Siddhartha Gigoo describes the alienation and trauma experienced by Kashmiri Pandits following their exodus from Kashmir in the 1990s. The interview explores the insurgency in Kashmir, which led to the exile of the Kashmiri Pandits, referring to his 2010 novel, The Garden of Solitude. Gigoo elaborates on the challenges faced by Kashmiri Pandits post-migration in an alien land, where they struggled for food and shelter in the camps and as one-room tenants while also bearing the traumatic past as a heavy load. He discusses the growing sense of insecurity which the Kashmiri Pandits endured as a disconcerting consequence of forced migration and genocide. Underscoring their silent trauma, which had a deep impact on their physical and mental health, he concludes that after 33 years of exile, Kashmiri Pandits still cling to the hope of returning to their homeland.

KEYWORDS:

• Siddhartha Gigoo
• Kashmiri Pandits
• “genocide”
• trauma
• alienation
• homeland

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The Kumaon Literary Festival (KLF) is a travelling literary festival in India. It was initiated in 2014 and was first held at Te Arohan in 2015 at a village in Kumaon hills, Himalayas. The festival is produced by the Indian Cinema Heritage Foundation, which organizes annual events. The KLF Kashmir edition was held from October 18 to 20, 2022.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Simran Koul

Simran Koul graduated from Government College for Women (GCW), Parade Jammu and completed her postgraduate work at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, India. She is currently pursuing her PhD thesis at Sharda University, titled “Alienation and Trauma: A Study of the Impact of the 1990s Exodus on Kashmiri Pandits”.

Pallavi Thakur

Pallavi Thakur is an assistant professor at Sharda University, specializing in professional communication, technical writing, Indian English fiction, and Canadian literature. She is working on human rights violations in conflict zones with a special emphasis on women and children. She is the author of Shashi Deshpande’s Fiction: A Woman’s Journey (2012) and Khaled Hosseini’s Novels: Echoing Silence of a Fragile State (2020).