ИСТИНА

After the partition of British India in 1947, many pilgrimage sites important for the Sikhs – followers of a medieval poet-mystic and philosopher Guru Nanak (1469-1539) – turned out to be at different sides of the India-Pakistani border. The towns of Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur (Guru Nanak’s birth place, and residence for two last decades of his life, respectively) remained within the Pakistani territory. Gurdwaras located there represent utmost pilgrimage destinations or ‘Mecca and Medina’ of the Sikhs. Owing to the specific relations between India and Pakistan that developed from bad to worse throughout seven decades of their independent history, pilgrimage to Kartarpur has been extremely difficult for India’s citizens. Though Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib is located at a distance of four kilometers from the border, pilgrims had to follow indirect routes using a limited number of official crossings. The application process for a compulsory Pakistani visa also used to take much time and effort. Nevertheless, in the late 1990s, official negotiations were launched concerning a possibility to set up a visa-free pilgrimage corridor that would allow Indian Sikhs to easily reach Gurdwara Kartarpur Saheb. The potential corridor was also perceived by many as a channel for cultural cooperation and embodiment of the zone of peace at the 'line of mutual hatred' – as India-Pakistan border has often been referred to. Negotiations received a new impetus when the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party headed by Imran Khan came to power in 2018. On November 9, 2019, the Kartarpur corridor was inaugurated by Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan, which was essential on the eve of Guru Nanak’s 550th anniversary celebrated on November 12, 2019. The paper discusses potential perspectives of Kartarpur pilgrimage corridor drawing upon concept(s) of borders as ‘sets of sociocultural practices, symbols, institutions, and networks' (Paasi 2012) that permanently adopt new meanings and functions (Agnew 2008; Houtum, Kramsch and Zierhofer 2005; Flint and Taylor 2007; Kolossov and Scott 2013).