Sanjay Kak speaks with Shivam Vij on his documentary Jashn e Azadi (A Celebration of Freedom) and points to the history of hundred years of oppressive Dogra rule, besides making other insightful observations.

Our ignorance of Kashmiri feelings about India is the outcome of 60 years of a hermetic, controlled knowledge system which forces us to think of Kashmir in only one way: that it’s a part of India. But in Kashmir you will see that there is a long history to this distance. Many Kashmiris have not naturally seen themselves as Indian. My own grandfather was a Kashmiri Pandit, but I can remember up until the 70s, when he was going to Delhi he would say he was going to India. He had grown up in an independent Kashmir, and even after 1947 a certain distance had remained.

See also reactions to the film.