Kashmiri Pandits to Revisit Ancestral Homeland in Emotional Diaspora Heritage Tour

May 18, 2026

Washington: For 36 years, Kashmir has existed for Sheerin Raina only in fragments stories shared at the dinner table in New Jersey, fading photographs, temple names spoken with reverence, and memories passed down from parents who left the Valley during the mass exodus of 1989–90 and never returned.

Now, at 21, she is preparing to visit Kashmir for the first time.

In a webinar interaction with Kashmiri Pandit community leaders, activists, and second-generation youth across the United States, participants described a planned June visit to Kashmir as both a pilgrimage and an effort to preserve cultural identity.

“I have been asking my dad since I was in seventh grade when can we go back to Kashmir,” Raina said. “I didn’t realise at the time that it’s such a loaded and deep question.”

Diaspora Plans Heritage Journey to Kashmir

In June, dozens of Kashmiri Pandits from across the world are expected to travel together to the Valley in what organizers describe as a “heritage tour” and “international conclave,” aimed at reconnecting the diaspora with their ancestral homeland.

For older generations, the journey represents the weight of exile. For younger members, it is an attempt to understand identity shaped by displacement.

“This is our seventh exodus from Kashmir,” said Rakesh Kaul, an author and community leader based in New Jersey. “But this is the first time we are formally going back in such large numbers.”

Kaul said the visit is intended not just as a return, but as a transfer of memory to younger generations.

“What we are doing is giving a gift to our children,” he said. “The Kashmir they have heard about also has a profound living inheritance.”

Effort Aims to Preserve Cultural Memory

The tour, scheduled from June 6 to 14, will include visits to temples, ancestral homes, and heritage sites across Kashmir, followed by an international conclave themed “From Exile to Excellence: The Kashmiri Pandit Journey of Resilience, Renaissance and Return.”

Dr. Surinder Kaul, a Houston-based physician and co-founder of the Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora (GKPD), said the initiative is both emotional and urgent.

“The biggest threat to our community is looming extinction,” he said, adding that nearly 90 percent of Kashmiri Pandits have not returned since the 1989–90 exodus.

Across the diaspora, organizers say the initiative is aimed at preserving cultural memory before it fades with time.

“My connection to Kashmir is mostly through childhood memories,” said Amit Raina, an IT professional from Houston. “Those memories are slowly fading away.”

Still, participants emphasised that the journey is not about fear but reconnection.

“We want to go back not as tourists, but as rightful sons and daughters of the soil,” he said.

‘Paradise on Earth’ and the Pain of Memory

For some, the return carries deep emotional meaning.

“It is like going back to see your mother,” said Sunita Ticku Bhan, a GKPD US coordinator.

“Our children deserve to know where their roots are,” said Uphaar Kotru, President of the Kashmiri Overseas Association in California.

For younger members like Sheerin Raina, Kashmir remains both paradise and pain.

“It’s known as paradise on Earth,” she said. “But there is also darkness within it.”

Still, she added, “Only we can control our story from here on. No one else will do it for us.”

The 1989–90 exodus of Kashmiri Pandits remains one of the most painful chapters in modern Indian history, when tens of thousands of Hindus fled the Valley amid rising militancy and threats.

In recent years, renewed discussions, activism, and films have brought increased attention to their displacement.

However, for many families, the central question remains unresolved: whether a return is possible and what “home” means after nearly four decades away.