Can religious tourism bridge the gap?

The Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC) recently proposed religious tours to shrines and temples in India, rekindling hope that the neighbouring countries can find a common ground to build relations upon.

The PHC approached New Delhi recently after receiving a positive response from Islamabad.

“The Indian authorities have appreciated our initiative. But they say it would be difficult to give us permission due to the pandemic”, Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, a lawmaker from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, has said.

“Of course, this will help improve ties. I firmly believe that if the faith tourism is allowed to take place, it will open doors for a whole lot of things”, he told TRT World.

It should be mentioned that bilateral relations between Pakistan and India are currently frosty. They have suspended direct flights, scaled down diplomatic missions, stopped trading with each other and discouraged entertainers and athletes from travelling across the border. The two railway lines connecting the border towns are also no longer operational.

Vankwani, who heads the PHC, said he was planning to take a group of 170 people — most of them Muslims — to India on a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) chartered flight.

If the plan goes through, PIA and Air India would have operated four monthly flights to accommodate pilgrims, he said, and added that there’s a lot of demand for religious tourism on both sides.

A chartered flight also opens an easy route for the Indian pilgrims who want to visit the temples located in the far-flung areas of Pakistan.

Pakistan and India allow for pilgrims to travel under the Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines of 1974. But the diplomatic relations weigh heavily on the question of how many travellers receive visas.

Every year, thousands of Indian Sikhs visit the birthplace of Baba Guru Nanak in the Nankana Sahib district located in Pakistani Punjab.

Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, died in 1539. His final resting place, another holy site for the Sikhs, is also located in Pakistani Punjab, just a few kilometres from the international border.

In 2019, the two sides opened a road connection — known as the Kartarpur Corridor — to allow visa-free travel for Sikh pilgrims. Many Muslims from Pakistan want to visit mausoleums in India such as the Dargah in Ajmer Sharif, the final resting place of the 12th-century saint Moinuddin Chishty.

“Since the partition of Pakistan and India in 1947, we haven’t thought about establishing an air link specifically to promote religious tourism. It’s about time we do that”, said Vankwani.

Officials at PIA have long complained that the airline loses an important source of revenue from religious tourists because of the tensions between neighbours.

Foreign carriers have eaten into PIA’s share of international traffic, making it imperative for the airline to tap into regional markets. But, while the religious sites for Sikhs are located close to the border, Indian and Pakistani Hindus have to take detours if they want to visit the temples.

The Hinglaj Mata Mandir, one of the most sacred temples in the region, is in Balochistan province while the Paramhans Mandir is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Not everyone is thrilled about the prospect of an air link. Lal Chand Malhi, a Hindu lawmaker from Sindh’s Umerkot district has said that Islamabad can better serve minority Hindus by opening up the railway links.

Hindus make up less than three percent of Pakistan’s population of 220 million. Airfares cost hundreds of dollars. In contrast, a railway ticket on the Thar Express, which links the commercial hub of Karachi in Sindh with Jodhpur in the Indian state of Rajasthan, was priced at around $3 for a one-way journey.

The Thar Express was suspended in 2019 after relations deteriorated in the wake of changes India made to its constitution to strip Kashmir’s nominal autonomy.

“If I travel by road from Umerkot, I can reach Jodhpur in four to five hours”, said Malhi. Umerkot is the only Hindu-majority district in Pakistan. Many Hindu families in Umerkot have relatives who live in India. Delays in receiving visas and other hurdles are having an effect on the already fragile ties, he said.

“It often happens that a girl from our area is married to a Hindu boy from India. But she cannot travel because the Indian government won’t give her the visa”, he complained. — Courtesy TRT World