“Someone needs to break this deadlock,” said Ramesh Vankwani, patron of the Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC), who is now trying to revive faith tourism between India and Pakistan. The two countries, once part of the undivided subcontinent, still have several shrines and religious places, revered by the people from both sides of the border. Things virtually came to standstill since 2019 following the abolition of the 'special status' of Jammu and Kashmir by India.  

A senator from Pakistan’s ruling PTI, Vankwani earlier this week had sent a request through the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi to the Indian government, seeking permission to arrange a pilgrimage for a group of Pakistani, both Hindus and Muslims, to the Indian cities of Jaipur, Ajmer, Delhi, and Agra and Haridwar. Though the planned visit failed to take place, owing to the lack of prior dialogue and approval at the political level, it elicited a positive response from New Delhi. 

On Friday, at a press conference,  Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesman Arindam Bagchi said New Delhi is “positive” and “willing to engage” in talks with Pakistan on upgrading the 1974 joint protocol on religious pilgrimages to allow air travel as well as increase the number of shrines that pilgrims from both countries could visit. 

If the meeting of Indian and Pakistani officials—expected to take place next week as per a report in The Hindu– comes through, it will be a departure from the recent past as formal dialogue has remained frozen for almost two years. 

At present, travel is only allowed via the Attari-Wagah border, and its scope remains limited. Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said, “There is an interest on both sides to expand the agreed list of shrines and mode of travel.”

Over seven decades have passed since the partition, but the centuries-old tradition of shared culture, civilization, and reverence to their respective religious places are still alive on both sides. Stories of the partition, pain and suffering caused by the separation of families and neighbors, uprooted rudely from their ancestral land, have been passed to three generations. 

Notwithstanding the troubled history of repeated conflicts post-partition, people on both sides are still curious to visit religious places, shrines across the border once frequented by their forefathers. 

Vankwani, the head of the Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC) —which had recently facilitated pilgrimage in Pakistani Hindu shrines for two groups of Hindus from the UK, UAE, India—said he had received inquiries from several people for such visits in both countries, indicating the scope of the initiative. 

The recent emotional scene of the two brothers, Sika Khan from India and Muhammad Siddique from Pakistan, meeting for the first time since the partition at the Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara recently— the video of which went viral on social media— moved people of both countries. On Friday, Sika Khan was granted a visa by the Pakistan High Commission in India to visit his brother in Pakistan. 

"Today, Pakistan High Commission issues a visa to Sika Khan to visit his brother, Muhammed Siddique and other family members in Pakistan. The two brothers separated in 1947 were recently reunited after 74 years at Kartarpur Sahib Corridor," tweeted the Pakistan High Commission.

Reacting to the response from New Delhi, PHC head Vankwani, speaking to The Hindu, said “Even if there is some delay in agreeing to the flights, it is heartening that both governments are positive about the proposal.” 

Instead of setting an ambitious goal for faith tourism, or considering it a tool for further diplomatic engagement, the governments of the two countries need to take a simple, realistic, and non-political approach to the issue. This is perhaps the least people, with common social culture but uprooted and divided by  partition, deserve from their respective authorities. 

(SAM)