Srinagar, March 11
Away from the public glare, a Kashmiri Pandit youth is quietly trying to reshape the image of Kashmir for the younger generation without carrying the unpleasant baggage of migration and bitterness between communities created by violence over the past three decades.
Twenty-six-year-old Arhan Bagati was brought up in Delhi years after his family left the Valley. He studied in the United States but eventually chose to return to Kashmir with his global exposure and perspective.
He now lives in the picturesque Nishat area of Srinagar overlooking Dal Lake, with the Zabarwan mountain range forming the backdrop to what he calls his "new home".
Arhan says he has chosen to rebuild professional and civic roots in the place his family once called home. Undeterred by last year's terror attack in Pahalgam, he says terror cannot dictate the way people live their lives.
He co-produced the Bollywood film 'Ground Zero', starring Emraan Hashmi. Before entering filmmaking, Arhan gained national attention as the youngest Deputy Chef de Mission of India's contingent at the Tokyo Paralympics.
He later served as an ambassador for the Paralympic Committee of India and founded digital initiatives to support Indian Paralympic athletes at international competitions.
His work focuses on systems and access rather than symbolism.
In Srinagar, he founded the Kashmir Yumberzal Applied Research Institute, known as KYARI, a policy think tank that aims to produce applied research on civic and social issues in Jammu and Kashmir.
The institute describes its mission as identifying developmental challenges and proposing practical solutions. Arhan says KYARI is a vehicle to focus on important but often overlooked issues, and through it he hopes to produce meaningful work that can help bring about change.
He was among the youngest recipients of a Jammu and Kashmir government award for social reform and empowerment. He has described the recognition as validation that young people need not wait their turn to contribute.
After graduating from Harvard, Arhan aims to return and work full-time with KYARI. He says he has always tried to consciously connect ground realities with public policy, adding that nothing can substitute the effort required to understand the complexities of local challenges before attempting solutions.
His return is also symbolic in that he hopes to challenge the perception that coexistence between Muslims and Kashmiri Pandits has become a thing of the past.
Arhan says he wants to rebuild trust across communities and contribute to a new model of Kashmiri leadership -- globally educated yet locally invested -- even as the journey presents both opportunities and constraints.
- IANS
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