Seven decades after fleeing the carnage of partition, Mangu Ram is still regarded as a second-class citizen in Indian Kashmir, unable to own property or vote in state elections.

Now aged 82, Ram is daring to hope he will finally be able to shed his refugee status after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party won a share of power in India's only Muslim-majority state.

"If something can be done, then maybe I will finally have some enjoyment in this life," says the traditional healer, speaking in a slum home on the outskirts of Jammu, Kashmir's winter capital.