Despite the decades of closed borders, political hostility, and recurring military tensions between India and Pakistan, Guru Nanak Jayanti once again served as a rare occasion when faith triumphed over geopolitics. Thousands of pilgrims from both sides of the border converged on Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan to celebrate the 556th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the founder of Sikhism. The day not only marked a spiritual homecoming for many but also rekindled the shared humanity that survived the Partition’s wounds.
This year, the Pakistan government granted special permission to 2,000 Indian Sikh pilgrims to visit gurdwaras in Pakistan’s Punjab province. They joined tens of thousands of local and international devotees who offered prayers and participated in celebrations at Gurdwara Janam Asthan in Nankana Sahib, Guru Nanak’s birthplace. The event was the first cross-border pilgrimage since the May 2025 hostilities, when the borders were sealed following India’s Operation Sindoor, which targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.
Among the Indian visitors was Sharda Singh, who experienced an emotional reunion that transcended time and borders. Outside Nankana Sahib Gurdwara, 90-year-old Muhammad Bashir stood waiting anxiously, his eyes searching the sea of pilgrims for a friend he had not seen in 78 years. The two men had been separated during the Partition of 1947, when their families were forced to flee to opposite sides of the newly drawn border.
When Singh finally appeared in the crowd, Bashir immediately recognised him. The two men embraced tightly, both breaking down in tears. “I thought I would die without meeting you,” Bashir told Singh. “But now I can die in peace.” Singh, equally overcome, said he had dreamt of this day for decades. Their reunion, witnessed by pilgrims and reported by AFP, captured the enduring emotional scars—and unbroken bonds—left by Partition.
These stories are not isolated. Kartarpur Sahib, located just across the border from India’s Punjab, has become a symbol of connection for divided families. The Kartarpur Corridor, a 4.5-km visa-free passage inaugurated in 2019, allows Indian pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, where Guru Nanak spent his final years. While visitors must remain within the corridor and return by evening, the site has become a poignant meeting ground for families separated by Partition—where faith provides the only bridge across history’s divide.
In 2022, two brothers—Mohammad Sadiq and Habib alias Shela—met at Kartarpur for the first time in 74 years. Separated as children during the riots of 1947, they reunited as frail old men with tears and laughter, their story spreading across both nations as a testament to time’s healing power.
Another remarkable reunion occurred the same year when Amarjit Singh, a wheelchair-bound Sikh from Jalandhar, met his sister Kulsoom Akhtar from Faisalabad. Separated as infants when their parents fled across the border, Singh was adopted by a Sikh family in India and grew up unaware of his Muslim origins. Decades later, Kulsoom travelled with her son to Kartarpur, where the siblings finally embraced—an encounter that made global headlines and moved millions.
Each year, such stories quietly unfold at these shrines. They are stories of separation and reunion, of pain and peace—of families torn by politics yet united by faith. For the pilgrims, Kartarpur and Nankana Sahib are more than religious sites; they are living monuments of reconciliation, where devotion transcends national identity.
Over five centuries after Guru Nanak taught Ik Onkar (One God), equality, and universal brotherhood, his legacy continues to bridge divides that borders and barbed wires could not erase. On this Guru Nanak Jayanti, amid political hostility and closed checkpoints, it was his message that once again opened hearts—and, for a few blessed moments, softened the partitioned line between India and Pakistan.
