Corridor of Faith

The Kartarpur corridor, a historic access strip to one of Sikhism’s sacred shrines was recently inaugurated, allowing Indian pilgrims visa-free access to the site, situated in the state of Punjab in Pakistan, merely five kilometres from the Indian border.   In a significant departure from the past, Pakistan will now permit 5,000 Indian pilgrims of all beliefs to enter Kartarpur on a daily basis. The trans-border corridor is a 4.1 kilometer overland channel that connects Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur, India and Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan. For the Sikhs, the opening of the corridor personified the realization of a wish that took seventy years to be fulfilled. Due to the partition of India and Pakistan, wherein an indiscriminate line was drawn through Pakistan, Kartarpur, where Guru Nanak spent his latter years, was left on one side of the border, whereas the majority of his disciples remained on the other. In contrast to the other significant Sikh shrine at Guru Nanak’s place of birth, Nankana Sahib, Kartarpur Sahib, situated at a distance from Pakistan’s thoroughfares, lay in a deserted state, typically viewed by the intent devotees via binoculars from a frontier post. The inauguration of the refurbished shrine at Kartarpur by the Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan and at the entrée point to the corridor from Sultanpur Lodhi on the Indian side by the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, symbolized the realization of an ardent yearning among the Sikh devotees, appropriately timed as it was, coinciding with the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.

The Kartarpur corridor project is important from myriad perspectives, both in the realm of the sacrosanct and the mundane. Apart from the Harmandir Sahib/Golden Temple in Amritsar, the three other significant shrines associated with the life and teachings of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, are located in present day Pakistan, as a consequence of the partition.  Around 22 million Sikhs out of the total population of the community of 27 million, reside in India, primarily in the state of Punjab. The location of the corridor, almost next door, yet distant, in itself, brings back memories of the partition. The state of Punjab, sharing borders with Pakistan, is habitually caught in a web of “diplomatic, security and religious” schisms between the two nation-states. As independent states, India and Pakistan have waged multiple wars, border skirmishes being a part and parcel of their being, confrontational rhetoric being an existential matter along with complicated “trade and diplomatic”, relations.  In addition, the Indian state of Punjab has been the site of a fierce and prolonged Sikh separatist movement in the decade of the 1980s and 1990s with severe allegations of cross border instigation and assistance. As a result, there is a lingering fear among the Indian dispensation that the corridor could be used to stimulate trouble along these lines.

In recent times, relations between the two nations have been particularly strained in the aftermath of the alleged attack on a paramilitary (CRPF) convoy that killed 42 members of the force in the then state of Jammu and Kashmir, the responsibility for which was claimed by the Pakistan based rebel group, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) with India accusing Pakistan of providing refuge to terrorists and Pakistan condemning the Indian media and government for linking it to the attack without substantive proof and investigation.  The Indian response was an Indian Air Force strike aimed at  terror camps in Pakistan, which in turn led to the temporary blockade of Pakistan airspace for Indian aircrafts at all levels. The rhetoric that accompanied the muting of Article 370, pertaining to special rights for J&K, with both nations indulging in a war of words and with Pakistan seeking to internationalize the issue, the tension in bilateral relations intensified. Under these circumstances and in this context, as the decision was being welcomed as a watershed moment in Indo-Pak relations and as Punjabis in general and the Sikhs in particular celebrated the inauguration of the Kartarpur corridor, there were apprehensions within several quarters about the viability of the movement in an edgy setting as well as the probability of the exploitation of an unrestricted passage by Pakistan to resuscitate the separatist movement in Punjab.

On the one hand, while the move has been lauded and compared to the “fall of the Berlin wall”, by some, on the other its rationale has been severely questioned and the gesture has been dubbed as an instance of “India falling into Pakistan’s trap.” The writings on a plaque within the complex in the newly renovated Gurdwara, which indicated that a bomb was dropped at the complex by the Indian Air Force in 1971 and that the ploy to destroy the Gurdwara was averted due to the blessings of the Almighty, is seen as a pointer to the motive of instigating the Sikhs against the Indian state.  Similarly, it has been reported that posters of separatists such as Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and General Shubeg Singh were on display prior to the inauguration of the shrine but were subsequently removed as a consequence of Indian objections. The politicization of a sacrosanct matter is not lost upon the average Sikh, some of whom have articulated their disdain for the same be it by the Pakistani government or its army or as a matter of fact, the Indian security establishment for nurturing the “bogey of Khalistan.” The mainstream Sikh population is wary of the politics of the fringe as well as the intention of some within the Pakistani establishment and the army, and have explicitly reiterated their condemnation of the use of sacred sites as in the past, by separatist elements.  A realistic assessment of the current situation does seem to suggest that a “return to the days” of the Khalistani separatism is rather implausible.

Under the prevailing circumstances, there is the necessity to safeguard the movement of pilgrims, specifically preventing them from being hampered by border scuffles. The success of the corridor in facilitating seamless travel is dependent upon the extent to which India and Pakistan can negotiate in terms of working out the particulars of religious travel and as a subsequent step augmenting these connects to include other segments such as trade and commerce.   At the moment, it seems the sacred has prevailed over the profane.

Priya Singh

18/11/2019