The Sharda Peeth gesture
After Kartarpur corridor another positive development has been reported on the India-Pakistan relations front. This time round, Pakistan has announced to open another corridor in the Jammu and Kashmir region that will fulfill a long pending demand of Kashmiri pundits and Hindus.
The Pakistan government approved a proposal to establish a corridor that will allow Hindu pilgrims from India to visit ShardaPeeth, an ancient Hindu temple and cultural site in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The ShardaPeeth corridor, when opened, will be the second religious tract after Kartarpur corridor in Pakistan-controlled territory that will connect the two neighbouring nations.
India had already sent a proposal to Pakistan to open the temple corridor. The opening of this corridor will ensure that the demands of the minority community in Jammu and Kashmir will be addressed as they have been demanding opening of this route for quite long now.
Established in 237 BC during the reign of Ashoka, the 5,000-year-old SharadaPeeth is an abandoned temple and ancient centre of learning dedicated to the Hindu goddess of learning. Between the 6th and 12th centuries CE, SharadaPeeth was one of the foremost temple Universities of the Indian subcontinent.
SharadaPeeth is the third important religious place for Kashmiri pundits, the two other being Sun temple at Martandmattan and the Amarnath cave shrine.
Though the project is still in its infancy, it will take almost one year for the authorities to complete the necessary works so that the corridor becomes a reality.
The project is the second one that intends to narrow down the widening gap between the two arch rivals.On November last year, the Pakistani premier had laid the foundation stone for the 4-km Kartarpur corridor at Shakargarh in Narowal district of Pakistan’s Punjab province.
The corridor is expected to be completed by 2019 and will connect Darbar Sahib in Pakistan’s Kartarpur — the final resting place of Sikh faith’s founder Guru Nanak Dev — with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Gurdaspur district and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur Sahib, which was established in 1522 by Guru Nanak Dev.
However, the Kartarpur corridor witnessed some tumultuous moments when relations between India and Pakistan worsened after the Pulwama attack on February 14, 2019. The attack followed a faceoff between the two nations with both carrying out air strikes against each other.
Though, the situation has improved primarily by the interference of various players, the relations have not picked up as the people living on both sides of the line expected them to be.
Still, SharadaPeeth can act as a catalyst to bring about the much needed thaw in the India-Pakistan relations so that both the nations tread on the path of mutual co-existence and peace.
KV Network
