It has been a while since Kashmiriyat began doing the rounds — to the extent I can’t really say who or what actually coined it. It could have been a coinage of the Maharaja era, or even the separatist Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front’s accidental discovery in arguing the cultural isolation of the Kashmiris. Although, why they would ignore Jammu-yat or Laddakhi-yat, I wouldn’t know. It could also have been a National Conference plant, in arguing its case for greater autonomy for a very special people. It is a pliant enough word to have been used by the rag-tag Hurriyat, in their hurry to become amenable to any international platform that was available, and it is often used by the Indian political establishment across the floor when they want to rub in the distinction between this Kashmir and the one that is not this.