[Reader-list] Thinking Through Figures on Internal Displacement from Kashmir

[Nagraj Adve]

Am broadly in agreement with Shudda's mail. Just a couple of things on the
general overwhelming reality of displacement. One, just a lot of the
displacement of dalits and adivasis during the Nehru years and thereafter
happened with relatively little attention, so is the current displacement
from the crises in agriculture. This to some may not seem like displacement
at all since people, particularly the young are running away from
agriculture seemingly willingly but to me it is displacement none the less,
and on a massive scale. For instance, operational holdings in India have
declined by 17 million hectares between about 1992 and 2005 from 125 million
to 108 million.

Two, how are we going to deal with displacement in the medium term future,
from the agr crisis, from industrialization, and from climate change. This
last is going to be simply massive, largely due to sea level rise, declining
water availability in the HImalayan regions, agriculture affected by climate
change (as is happening in Bundelkhand). This is not merely in India but
also displacement in Bangladesh in millions (sea level rise, storm surges)
with varied poltiical consequences for 'us'. Like most displacements, it
will affect the poor and all manner of underclasses more, but GW induced
displacement has the capacity to affect everbody, differentially.

Naga