By Sohini Jana and Jigyasa Gulati
This paper attempts to link historical trauma and political behaviour of the people by taking into account the case study of Jammu and Kashmir. It argues that years of political turmoil has resulted in a collective trauma i.e., historical trauma that needs to be addressed in order to rebuild the trust of the people in the political process and suggests a theory of change that offers steps that could be adopted by the various stakeholders at community level in order to provide avenues to counter historical trauma among the masses and build trust for democratic political processes. The document is divided into three parts. The first part looks at various studies and provides an understanding of Historical Trauma. The second part summaries the historical timeline of political events highlighting the causes of distress among the people.
