Tourism as a tool for brotherhood between Indo-Pak  

Tourism is considered an important statecraft for any state, and in confronting relations between India and Pakistan, tourism could prove to be a tool for confidence-building measures. Despite having cultural and religious similarities, both states have failed to improve diplomatic relations. From the subcontinent’s partition to the present, bilateral relations between India and Pakistan have been on life support.  While, in the past, both states fought three major wars, And the bone of contention is the Kashmir issue. Because of the Kashmir issue, most international policy experts believed that neither bilateral nor regional connectivity in this region was possible.  Previously, governments as well as non-state actors (UN, SAARC) tried to solve the Kashmir issue.

The 1998 New Delhi talks generated some optimism and prompted Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to undertake the historic bus trip to Lahore, which culminated in the Lahore Declaration of February 21, 1999.  We are still in the process of mediating, negotiating, and facilitating bilateral relations between both states are the same. But in world politics, as they say, “there are no permanent enemies. “Similarly, some theorists thought that people-to-people contact could connect India and Pakistan. Tourism provided opportunities for people-to-people contact.  The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) defines tourism as “the activities of persons traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business, and other purposes.” As a result, states pursue diplomatic and self-interest goals through dominant cultural and religious tourism.

Also, India and Pakistan share a lot of cultural and religious similarities.  Pakistan contains much Hindu and Buddhist heritage; similarly, India also contains Muslim sites.  In contrast to India’s conquest of Buddhism’s multimillion-dollar tourism market and branding as the land of Lord Buddha, Pakistan’s participation in its Buddhist tradition has received significantly less attention despite having more Buddhist sacred sites than the land of Lord Buddha. Indeed, Buddha was born in India, but Buddhism flourished in the region of Pakistan. And India is home to 8.4 million Buddhists.  The land of Gandhara, where the celebrated faith evolved, is more or less a triangle of about 100 kilometers across from east to west and 70 kilometers from north to south, on the west of the Indus river.

It is surrounded on three sides by mountains.  It covers the vast areas of today’s Peshawar valley, the hilly tracts of Swat (Udyana), Buner, and the Taxila valley. Lok Versa in the capital city of Islamabad and Buddha University in Sharda, Kashmir, are other sites in Pakistan. On the other hand, Qutab Minar, Taj Mahal, Gol Gumbaz, etc. are in India.  Hence, without an open border, all the theoretical data is in the dustbin. When we see the trade volume between India and Pakistan, India exported to Pakistan US$502.86 million in 2021, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade, and that is less than 1% of the total.

Pakistan has failed to promote a better knowledge of its relative religious and cultural tourism strategy to tap its market potential and build good relations with India. To realize the full potential of religious tourism in Pakistan, a small step in the right direction today can translate into a quantum leap tomorrow. One can imagine the spillover effect in the Indo-Pak case.  However, David Mitrany’s functionalism gives us a way forward toward integration. Mitrany quotes, “States can create a peaceful world society through gradualist and pragmatic cooperation with one another in technical and economic sectors of activity.”

In the Indo-Pak case, tourism and trade through open borders would now spill over to conclude the resolution of major issues. Likewise, Germany and France first resolve their low-hanging issues and then conclude economic integration. Similarly, India and Pakistan hold firmly to this model, which not only benefits governments and citizens but also becomes a step forward toward economic growth for both states.