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Document Details :

Title: Popular Beliefs and the Dialogue of Everyday Life
Subtitle: Interreligious Interaction at the Sufi Shrines of Jammu
Author(s): SIKAND, Yoginder
Journal: Studies in Interreligious Dialogue
Volume: 10    Issue: 2   Date: 2000   
Pages: 135-147
DOI: 10.2143/SID.10.2.519046

Abstract :
The disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir has been rocked over the past decades by bloody turmoil, which has left an estimated fifty thousand people dead, thousands more injured, scores of women raped and many homeless and bereft of any support. The conflict between militant Kashmiris demanding independence from India rule and the Indian armed forces has had a serious impact on intercommunal relations in the region. Historically, the state has been relatively free of the sort of communal violence that much of the rest of South Asia has witnessed over the past half-century. However, with the onset of the conflict in Kashmir, almost the entire Hindu Pandit population of the Kashmir valley has fled from their homes seeking refuge in camps in Jammu and Delhi. In the Jammu region, where Hindus are in the majority, to the south of Kashmir, the insecure and largely impoverished Muslim minority is inncreasigly being looked upon with suspicion and hostility, and right-wing ultra-nationalist Hindu groups have managed to gain strong foorthold in that part of the state. Consequently, Hindu-Muslim relations in Jammu and Kashmir are characterised today by considerable volatility and suspicion.

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