After many false starts and several last-minute hiccups, the corridor allowing Indian pilgrims access to the shrine in Pakistan where Guru Nanak Dev spent his last days is set to be thrown open a week from now. The Indian Express visits a region defined as much by its Nanak legacy as its place in the subcontinent’s history.
ALL roads in Punjab lead to the Kartarpur Corridor these days — a four-lane stretch of macadam that arises out of NH-354, goes to the Indo-Pak border in Dera Baba Nanak, and from there runs to the final resting place of Guru Nanak Dev in Narowal district of Pakistan.
The nearly 9-km corridor (around 4 km of it beyond the border) is not just a road though. It’s an answer to the hopes of Sikhs who have struggled for access to shrines commemorating the birth and death of Guru Nanak since Partition put these on the other side of the border. It’s also one of the rare gestures of peace in the history of the two warring countries.
A year after they set aside their differences to build the Kartarpur Corridor, to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, and stuck to the decision despite another nosedive in their relations, devotees from the India side are set to visit the Darbar Sahib Shrine where the Sikh Guru spent more than 17 of his last years.
Once the corridor is inaugurated on November 9, the first jatha from the Indian side is expected to take just a few minutes to drive down to the shrine from NH-354.