Hundreds of Sikh pilgrims from India visited Nankana Sahib, Pakistan on this Gurpurab. Nankana Sahib is a place where, as per belief, Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism was born. This time, Pakistan issued visas to 2,850 Sikhs from India. The Pakistan High Commission in India also announced that almost all applicants got their visa for this visit from November 20 to 29. Many Pakistanis visit Nizamuddin and Ajmer shrines in India every year. Similarly, many Hindus from India also visit to Katasraj temple in Pakistan every year. Through this travel across borders, it is not only people who cross and reach the other side, a culture and a message are shared too. More importantly, when they return to their native places, they again bring a message.
This spiritual connection between India and Pakistan has been going on for years, since even the time before partition. Despite all unfortunate incidents between India and Pakistan, which have included war and several skirmishes, this travel for spiritual thirst has continued. Looking deeply at this movement of people, it can be observed that, despite the division of land, emotions and spiritualties are still connected.
In view of the fact that this tradition has stayed strong through the decades, we cannot ignore the reality of the bonding of people from one country with the other, and the importance of the religious and spiritual faiths of these people. At a time when many people avoid going to one another’s country, it is this spiritual connection that keeps the relations alive. From this connection we can see the beautiful role religion plays in linking the people from these two countries.
This is the beauty of religion and its objective too: practicing the virtues of love, peace, forgiveness and humanity. Still, in present-day India and Pakistan, religion plays a vital role in society and politics. In relation to India and Pakistan, where religion matters a lot, this type of exchange can really usher in peace and tranquility. This exchange of culture and the message that goes with it works as a revolution. It is about recognising human needs and rights, identifying the connection betweenthe history of different faiths and providing them the right to profess and practice their faiths, the right to seek their spiritual connections and the right to have peace and to spread peace.
We have already seen that whenever Indians and Pakistanis visit each other’s countries they bring emotional memories with them when they return. When the purpose of their visit is associated with their religious faith, it becomes more effective in the sense that they not only come back with memories of each other’s countries, but also with a kind of satisfaction in their hearts. This experience of living on one side of the border while having some religious attachment on the other side of the border also works as a peace building method whereby people understand that just because of the division of lands they should not believe in the propaganda of hatred. The real objective of the border is just to provide administrative facilities to our governments and not to restrict people. With such objectives, India and Pakistan may move ahead together to provide more and more access to each other’s citizens through various means, to realise and recognise the need and importance of peace, and to understand how the lives of people are the same on both sides of the border, with common understanding in their hearts and minds geared towards peaceful coexistence, love and friendship.
During the Ufa summit, the Pakistani and Indian prime ministers met and in the five mentioned points of the Ufa declaration, religious tourism stood out as one of the core points on which both countries decided to increase cooperation. Under the new visa regime it was decided that pilgrim visas would be issued to pilgrims intending to visit religious shrines as per the 1974 protocol on visiting religious shrines. Therefore, the Ufa statement may help in facilitating the visa regime by providing more facilities and including more religious sites for the people of both countries to visit. It will directly facilitate the people on both sides of the border and will help in increasing people-to-people contact.
The writer is a petroleum engineer, core team member of Aaghaz-e-Dosti and founder of Mission Bhartiyam. He may be followed on Twitter at #ravinitesh