India and Pakistan

Before 1947, Pakistan was part of India. The Partition of 1947, a result of the colonial period, still shapes the present. Pakistan was founded on the basis of religion, unlike India; you will learn more about this in Grade 8.

The two countries have one of the most difficult relationships in South Asia. Since Partition there have been several wars — in 1948, 1965 and 1971 — and the Kargil War of 1999.

In particular, frequent terrorist attacks on India, carried out with the support of the Pakistan army, have kept the two countries from normal relations.

Their border runs along Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. It is not just a line on the map: it marks both a shared heritage and a painfully divided history.

There have also been attempts at peace, such as periods of trade, and the opening of routes for Hindu and Sikh pilgrims to holy places from a shared past.

For example, the Katas Raj temple complex in Pakistan's Punjab is linked to the Mahābhārata and has a sacred pond. There are many other ancient Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh shrines, such as Hinglaj Mata Mandir in Balochistan. Languages, food, music and festivals still connect people across the border.

The clearest example of what a small opening can do is the Kartarpur Corridor: a visa-free crossing that lets Indian pilgrims visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan. Pilgrims need only a permit, not a visa, so thousands can go.

This gurdwara is very sacred: it is the final resting place of Guru Nānak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, who spent the last 18 years of his life there. For decades Indian devotees could only look at it from far away, through binoculars at Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab. The corridor was first proposed in the 1990s and finally opened in 2019, for Guru Nānak's 550th birth anniversary. The book asks: could Kartarpur be a model for peace and dialogue?