BBC Radio 4 20170817

Good morning.

When Partition took place, the border wasn’t made public until some two days after the region had gained independence. Punjab, the historic homeland of Sikhs and literally ‘the land of the five rivers’, was split in two overnight, and in the ensuing chaos, Sikhs fled to India from Pakistan, leaving behind no more than a handful of families.

The Partition of Punjab had a profound impact upon Sikhs. Hundreds of gurdwaras, including the birthplace of Guru Nanak, suddenly found themselves in the new country of Pakistan. In a matter of days, virtually no Sikhs remained in Lahore, a city which had once been the glorious capital of the Sikh Empire under Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the early 19th century. Communities in towns and villages that could trace their origins to the birth of the faith almost 5 centuries earlier were uprooted and forced to leave, and thousands died in the process.

The impact on the faith itself was so great that the Ardas, the prayer recited by Sikhs at the beginning or end of any significant tasks, was amended to reflect the enormity of what had happened. A new line was inserted asking the Almighty to allow Sikhs unrestricted access to worship at the birthplace of Guru Nanak and all other gurdwaras and shrines which had been separated from the faith due to Partition.

This sense of loss to the Sikh psyche was immense. The land of the five rivers became the land of the three rivers in Pakistan and two rivers in India. The religiously diverse region which had given rise to the Sikh faith, a land where Hindu, Sikh and Muslim shrines and spirituality had been revered in equal measure by all, had become a battlefield. The train station in the holy city of Amritsar, once brimming with devotees from across the country, was filled with carriage-load after carriage-load of the bodies of refugees killed in transit.

However, there are still glimmers of hope between the two Punjabs 70 years on. The gurdwara built on the spot where Guru Nanak died is just 2 miles inside the Pakistani border. It’s been the subject of many discussions between the two nations about allowing unfettered access for pilgrims. There was even talk at one point of a bridge being built from India to the gurdwara to allow visa-free access to the shrine. Those talks have now stalled, but pilgrims still flock to a viewing platform on the Indian border where they can see it in all its glory. The Pakistani government, knowing just how important even a glimpse would be for some people, make sure that the wild grasses which grow as a natural border are cut back so that pilgrims can be given a clear view of the gurdwara.

Punjab may have been split in two, but that true Punjabi spirit of unity and reverence is still alive.