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A certain telling of the Pandit story at the onset of India’s counterinsurgency in the 1990s has captured the imagination of Indians in the subcontinent and beyond–one in which Hindus were simply the victims of genocidal Muslims. But this version is alienated from the political context of the popular uprising, and vests significant responsibility in Muslim civilians rather than in India’s complete destabilization of Kashmiri society. What can be observed, often by Pandits themselves, is that their community’s tragic dissolution has been wielded by Indian politicians and media to garner public support for the military occupation of Kashmir. Whatever should come after–resettlement or reconciliation–is beside the point. For the purposes of India’s military occupation of Kashmir, eternally dispossessed Pandits are far more valuable than ones who could be meaningfully reintegrated into their homeland.