Till religion brings us together...

Col HP Singh (retd)

STANDING on an elevated platform some 10 feet above the ground level, I got a scenic view of the vast expanse of cultivated tract extending as far as the eye could see. Barring isolated human hutments, there weren’t many artificial structures in the area except for an unaesthetically constructed fence. The expanse on the other side of this manmade eyesore is called Pakistan. In front of us was the meandering Ravi, flowing peacefully yet defying the manmade boundaries sometimes crossing over to Pakistan and then returning to India. 

 The visibility was good and we could see the white dome of a gurdwara with a prominent ‘Nishan Sahib’ to its right. Among the scores of sacred shrines left behind in 1947, Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, the final resting abode of Guru Nanak, also lay about 4 km inside the forbidden land. I always nurtured a dream to travel to the historic shrines of West Punjab, but having once adorned the olive green uniform getting a visa is next to impossible. Moreover, a Pakistan visa on the passport has the potential of a visa of Western countries being denied to you. This was perhaps the closest I could get to my dream. 

 A pair of binoculars provided by the BSF guard changed hands quickly between people on the platform, giving just enough time to focus, view and say a prayer. One of our co-visitors had the fortune of visiting this shrine via the Wagah border earlier. ‘There is a mazar of Guru Nanak next to his samadhi where locals come regularly and offer their Fateha (first verse of the Quran). The locals regard him as a saint.’ The excitement in his tone was apparent. ‘Muslim families of neighbouring villages provide monetary support for the gurdwara where more Muslims partake of langar than Sikhs.’ This was a fascinating revelation for us.

One could feel the despondency among the visitors for being so close, yet so far. Guru Nanak spent his entire life trying to get the two faiths together to live in harmony. Half a millennium later, destiny has not only insulated his simple teachings from the masses, but also has separated the final resting place of this great prophet from his disciples. Had Sir Radcliffe, who demarcated the boundaries between the two countries, made a minor error on the map by only a few centimetres, the shrine of Kartarpur Sahib would have been in India. 

Some time ago, there were talks of providing a visa-free corridor through which pilgrims could visit the shrine and return by dusk. Unfortunately, fear of terrorism and drug trafficking has not allowed much progress. With prayers of thousands of devotees going to the cosmos every day, maybe one day the proposed passageway will come up as a corridor to peace in the region. That day, the Guru would once again become a teacher of the Hindus and guide of the Muslims — Guru Nanak Shah Fakir Hinduon ka guru, Mussalmanon ka pir, as goes the saying.