ast week, a conference was held in Pakistan around Buddha and Buddhism. The symposium was titled, Reviving Gandhara Civilisation and Buddhist Heritage. It had many hosts: the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Gandhara Tourism, the Institute of Strategic Studies; and the Directorate of Archeology, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; and the Peshawar Museum. It was well-attended by foreign delegates and raised some of the issues related to prerequisites to achieving some of the stated objectives. In Pakistan, several museums in Peshawar, Lahore and Taxila are very well-stocked with Gandhara relics. These represent a treasure trove for those engaged in scholarly pursuits.

One of the primary purposes was the promotion of tourism in the area that now constitutes Pakistan. In a country struggling to recover its economic health, it is assumed that tourism can bring useful dollars needed to kick-start the economy. The land is home to some of the most well-numbered religious denominations in the world including Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism.

One of the most well-publicised civilisations has been Gandhara. It flourished in the area that is now Pakistan and parts of the adjoining lands. This combination of the Buddhist with the Greek with some local colouration resulted in the flowering of the civilisation that has been one of the marvels of human history. Buddhism moved out of the area due to a number of reasons, not to be dwelled on in this space, and was transported to the territories eastward as far away as Japan. The people adopted the religious interpretation and about 10 million followers are forever trying to pay homage in person to the land of its birth and the sacred sites associated with it.

Similarly, there are several Sikh holy sites in Pakistan. The recent attempts to make Kartarpur accessible to the community have shown that much more can be done to increase the volume of religious tourism. Sikh do come here to visit Nankana Sahib, Panja Sahib at Hasan Abdaal, Roori Sahib at Eminabad, and Lahore, once the seat of Sikh political power. The numbers vary and fall well short of achieving a critical mass.

One of the most well-publicised civilisations has been Gandhara. It flourished in the areas that are now in Pakistan and parts of the adjoining lands. This combination of the Buddhist with the Greek with some local colouration resulted in the flowering of the civilisation that has been one of the marvels of human history.

Similarly, some of sites sacred to Hindus, too, are in Pakistan. The most venerated of those are in the Potohar region. Katas Raaj is associated with both Shiv and Krishna and thus more or less assumes a focal position in the performance of religious ritual by Hindus.

Despite the presence of these places and sites, the number of tourists has been well short of the threshold at which it can have a beneficial economic effect. An important factor in this has been the control exercised by the state. There has always been a suspicion about the Indians visiting Pakistan in numbers beyond those that can be controlled by a police posse and kept an eye on. The relationship with India is just one aspect of the matter. The other is the whitewashing of history in an effort to wipe clean the preponderance of references that go back into history and have been associated with the historical epochs and personages that have mythical halos attached to them.

India, too, has been fast-forwarding its effort to ‘cleanse’ its history books of dominance of religions and cultures other than narrowly Hindu. The names of its cities and towns are being changed at a rapid pace, as if people might be running out of time to create a purged landscape: puritan and anything but diverse and syncretic.

It should not be forgotten that terrorism that has hovered over Pakistan like a pall of gloom. This too has been responsible for the tourists not visiting the country. Allied with it is an anti-tourist approach that does not allow room for relaxation. After all, they come here for a vacation and to take their minds off the mundane humdrum. They want to feel safe to unwind. The country has not really been able to provide that environment.

The writer is a culture critic based in Lahore.