One family had come to India for a daughter’s marriage. Another came so their young children could meet their grandparents for the first time. A woman traveling alone had arrived for the funeral of her mother, whom she had not seen in years.
At the border where Pakistan was severed from India decades ago, they implored with anyone and everyone for a little more time: to finish the marriage that was only two days away, or to weep at a tomb that was still fresh.
India has ordered practically all Pakistani citizens to leave the country, part of the government’s response to a terrorist incident in Kashmir that it has connected to Pakistan. The government of Pakistan denies any role in last week’s incident.
Over the weekend, as individuals hurried to comply with the directives, sad scenes played out at the primary land border between the two countries.
Families with family on both sides of the border, like Takhat Singh’s, had to endure the agonizing separation. Pakistani passports are held by Mr. Singh, his son, and his younger daughter. their wife has Indian children, as does their older daughter.
They had all traveled to the Indian state of Rajasthan to attend the oldest daughter Pintu’s wedding. The family left her in her future husband’s village when India announced the cancellation of her visa, and they hurried to the border crossing in the hopes that she would reach home before it closed.
However, due to her Indian passport, Sindhu Kanwar, Mr. Singh’s wife, was not permitted to continue.
Sarita, the couple’s 15-year-old youngest daughter, stated, “They are saying your mother cannot go with you to Pakistan.” “If you had to live without your mother, how would you feel?”
More than anything else, the boundary represents the history of these two countries, which are at odds despite having a rich common past.
In 1947, India was divided along mainly arbitrary lines, ending British colonial control and establishing Pakistan as a Muslim-only nation. Up to two million people died as a result of horrific religious bloodletting sparked by mass migration into the two new countries.
There have been several conflicts in the decades that have followed, and the divides have hardened. The stunning Himalayan region of Kashmir has been worst hit by the ongoing conflict between the two nations.
The Hindu king of Kashmir, a princely state with a majority of Muslims, sought to keep Kashmir independent at the time of India’s division. Soon after, when Pakistan dispatched militias and seized sections of the area, it joined India in return for a security assurance.
Since then, there have been disputes over Kashmir. Now, each country claims the entire territory while controlling a portion of it.
The ghosts of the bloodletting and the memories of departed loved ones haunt people on both sides of the India-Pakistan border. Some have made an effort to maintain cross-border relationships, especially through marriage.
Over the years, that has been harder and harder. The nations’ diplomatic ties had been mainly broken off even prior to the most recent outburst.
