Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus

The Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus, or Pandits, is their early-1990 migration, or flight, from the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley in Indian-administered Kashmir following rising violence in an insurgency. Of a total Pandit population of 120,000–140,000 some 90,000–100,000 left the valley or felt compelled to leave by the middle of 1990, by which time about 30–80 of them are said to have been killed by militants.

During the period of substantial migration, the insurgency was being led by a group calling for a secular and independent Kashmir, but there were also growing Islamist factions demanding an Islamic state. Although their numbers of dead and injured were low, the Pandits, who believed that Kashmir's culture was tied to India's, experienced fear and panic set off by targeted killings of some members of their community—including high-profile officials among their ranks—and public calls for independence among the insurgents. The accompanying rumours and uncertainty together with the absence of guarantees for their safety by the state government might have been the latent causes of the exodus. Though some Hindu nationalist publications and Pandits describe the violence as "genocide" or "ethnic cleansing", scholars such as Mohita Bhatia and Alexander Evans say these labels are incorrect or aggressive, that claims of destruction of Hindu temples are exaggerated, or that such labels are opportunistically appropriated by the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) for political means.