A Visa-Free Corridor Lets Sikhs Cross to Guru Nanak’s Last Home

In 1504, the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, established a commune on the right bank of the Ravi River at Kartarpur. He resided and taught there until his death in 1539, after which local Hindu and Muslim followers both honored him by constructing separate memorial structures divided by a single shared wall. Flooding eventually altered the path of the river, submerging these early shrines and prompting the community to establish Dera Baba Nanak on the opposite bank. The site remained central to Sikh devotional memory for centuries, but modern national boundaries later transformed access to the holy location into a complex geopolitical dilemma.

The partition of British India in 1947 placed the international boundary along the Ravi River in Punjab. The Radcliffe Line assigned the Shakargarh area, containing Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, to Pakistan, while Gurdaspur tehsil on the left bank went to India. Indian pilgrims initially reached the Pakistani shrine informally across the river using the Jassar bridge. However, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 brought strict regulation to the boundary, and the Jassar bridge was destroyed during the fighting. Cut off from direct travel, Indian devotees needed a visa and a long, roundabout journey through Pakistan, or could only gaze toward the shrine through binoculars from an elevated observation platform constructed on the Indian side.