Kartarpur

Nanak's settlement

Nanak founded Kartarpur, the creator's town, in about 1522 after some two decades of travel, and lived there until his death in 1539. He farmed, and the community that gathered around him worked alongside him — the pattern of religious life lived through ordinary labour rather than withdrawal that became a defining Sikh principle.

It was here that the langar and the daily assembly for singing took shape, and here that he appointed Lehna his successor as Guru Angad, establishing that the office would pass on merit rather than by birth.

The two shrines

Tradition holds that at his death Hindu and Muslim followers disputed whether to cremate or bury him, and that the body was found gone, leaving only flowers, which were divided. Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur stands at the site, and a grave attributed to him stands within the same complex — a physical record of a following that crossed the boundary the story describes.

The corridor

Partition in 1947 placed Kartarpur in Pakistan, some four kilometres from the Indian border. For decades Indian pilgrims could only view the shrine from a raised platform on their side with binoculars.

In November 2019, timed to the 550th anniversary of Nanak's birth, the two governments opened the Kartarpur Corridor, allowing Indian pilgrims to cross without a visa for the day. It is a rare instance of cooperation between the two states and, for many Sikhs, the recovery of access to the tradition's founding site.