"I asked a young woman whether freedom for Kashmir would not mean less freedom for her, as a woman."
RR:
I don't think you can quantify freedom, as India argues it should be.
"We offer you a secular constitution, a trillion dollar economy, business" etc. etc.
The desire for freedom is so much more complex and intangible - at its heart it is simply the desire to only owe allegiance to that which one wants to, to that which one respects, and it is clear that whatever it is that the Kashmiris want to owe allegiance to (Islam, Pakistan, Kashmiriyat ...), it is not India.
Just as I see red when some Indians say that 'partition took something away from India', because it signifies that they had some control or claim to Pakistan's land and people, similarly do I think that the approach of India claiming 'India's territorial integrity', and calls for demographic change, impose upon Kashmiris India's sovereignty and 'ownership', and therefore inflame sentiment against them.