The city of Jammu has been an example of plurality to the rest of the region. For decades now, it has been home to anyone seeking shelter from troubled situations — refugees from Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir; those living on the border and displaced during various wars; Kashmiri pandits, during their exodus in 1990; the people displaced from various militancy-infested parts of the region, and so on and so forth. So welcoming has been this city to these ‘outsiders’ that many Punjabis moved to this city during the period when militancy was at its peak in Punjab. Lots of Kashmiri Muslims have made this city their second home and built houses here. Jammu city has absorbed all kinds of people and expanded in the process, not only physically but also in its character — in its capacity of accommodation and its tolerance of divergent cultures and religions.

The vibrancy and strength apparent in Jammu cannot disappear in a mere matter of days. The secular ethos is ultimately going to assert itself in the long term. Communally divisive politics does not have the roots to sustain itself.

The writer is a professor in the department of political science at the University of Jammu