On October 24, 2019, the governments of India and Pakistan signed the Kartarpur Corridor Agreement. This landmark agreement permits, for the first time since partition in 1947, visa-free travel between the territories of India and Pakistan. The gesture was initiated just over a year ago by Prime Minister Imran Khan. Its realisation is certainly of epoch-making signifiance.

Under the terms of the agreement, the corridor would be operational from dawn till dusk every single day of the year, and would facilitate upto 5,000 pilgrims a day.

While the pilgrims would have to return the same day, they can travel to the Gurdwara either on foot or by a vehicle, and can come alone or in groups. There would be a bureaucratic process with India operating an online application form, through which people would apply for entry permission. The list would be shared with Pakistan 10 days before the travel date. Pakistan would finalise the list 4 days before travel.

There would also be a charge of $ 20 per pilgrim, which the Pakistani government has levied despite Indian protests to pay for the expenses it has already incurred and will continue to incur in the operation of the corridor.

Despite the slightly complicated process and the ‘service fee’ which might deter the poor-- some of the most eager pilgrims -- from visiting, this still is a landmark agreement as despite their historic and current distrust, the governments of both countries have agreed to facilitate a humane gesture.

Hopefully, the $ 20 service fee and the requirement of holding a passport (another deterrent for the poor) will go away in future so that people can visit the holy place without much hassle.

The Kartarpur Agreement, significantly, does not put restrictions on Indian nationals from visiting the Gurdwara. This means that not only Sikhs but Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jains and others, people of religion or no religion, can visit the Gurdwara under the agreement. Exceptionally, the agreement also allows nationals of other countries to visit the Gurdwara if they hold an Indian Origin Card. This facilitation of even nationals of other countries will certainly bring in the goodwill of the large Indian and Sikh diaspora for this initiative and make it a busy and popular tourist destination.

The fact that this important peace initiative has come ahead of the 550^th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak and has happened notwithstanding high tensions, shows that the message of Guru Nanak, that of the one true God, of universal brotherhood and cooperation, and good works, transcends all boundaries, even the Radcliffe Line, which was drawn in so much blood in the summer of 1947.

At the Kartarpur Gurdwara, there is a Samadhi as well as a grave for Guru Nanak, which is visited by people of all religions to this day. It is said that when Guru Nanak died after living in Kartarpur for nearly eighteen years, there was a dispute as to whether he was a Muslim or a Hindu.

The Hindus claimed that he was born in a Hindu household and, therefore, should be treated as part of their religion while the Muslims contented that since Nanak had done the Hajj in Mecca he must be regarded as a Muslim. While the dispute over what to do with the body of Guru Nanak continued, in the morning it was realised that his body had miraculously disappeared and fragrant flowers had taken its place. The Hindus and the Muslims divided the flowers and the cloth which covered the body of Guru Nanak among themselves, and the former burnt and built a samadhi with the ashes, while the latter buried them and built a grave over it. Thus, Guru Nanak, or as the Muslims called him, Baba Nanak, has both a samadhi and a grave to this day.

The fact that the Kartarpur Agreement has been signed despite the heightened tensions between India and Pakistan after the Indian government’s annexation of the occupied State of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019, and despite the fact that diplomatic missions have been downgraded, and there is no trade between the two rivals, shows that there is a still a chance for peace and cooperation between the two countries, in spite of tensions.

Significantly, the Kartarpur Agreement highlights the fact that just the partition of the Punjab in 1947 sowed the lasting seeds of distrust and enmity between the two countries, cooperation between the two countries over the Punjab, might lead to peace between the two nuclear-armed nations. More than any other place in northern India it was in the erstwhile British Punjab that the lush wheat and cotton fields were turned into fields of blood in the summer of 1947.

The massacres of Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus and the exodus of over 10 million people in both directions, left a deep scar on the bodypolitic of the Punjab which then resonated in the national discourses of both India and Pakistan. The creation of the new states of India and Pakistan on August 15, 1947 was never meant to lead to such massacres and population transfers -- after all, Pakistan and India were being created precisely to avert such a fate for united British India.

The horrors of 1947 have for long defined and shaped India-Pakistan relations. While the fate of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir remains the ‘unfinished’ business of 1947, the Punjab partition has also left its deep impression, and still forms much of the background of distrust and hatred between the people of the two countries. However, with the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor a new phase can perhaps be initiated in the history of the two warring countries.

For more than half a century, the Kartarpur Gurdwara where Guru Nanak spent his last days, remained closed and forlorn, ignored by both India and Pakistan. Despite being only a few miles from the border, it was never sought after by India. Nor did Pakistan care for it much. But now the Kartarpur Gurdwara, quite literally, is cementing the broken link between East and West Punjab, and setting the stage for a new phase of relations between the two countries.

East and West Punjab are in a number of ways microcosms of India and Pakistan and initiating a new phase of dialogue and cooperation through them might be the best way forward for India and Pakistan. With a shared history, language, culture, and tradition, the Punjabs can serve as the critical confidence building bridge between the countries.

Cooperation between the two provinces on agriculture, climate, water issues, education and culture, can provide a strong basis for further development in India and Pakistan relations and can be the glue which brings the two nations together in a spirit of respect, cooperation and coexistence.

Like the message of Guru Nanak brought peace, internal and external, to the people of the Punjab half a millennium ago, I hope the amrit of his blessings might wash the blood stains of the past and usher in a new era of peace and amity. Just as discord was sown through the fields of the Punjab in 1947, peace can also be nurtured through the waters of the Punjab in 2019.