Negotiating Memory Regimes
The Pakistani State, the Sikh Diaspora, and the Kartarpur Corridor
Keywords:
collective memory; Kartarpur Corridor; Sikh diaspora; heritage politics; agonistic memoryAbstract
This article examines how transnational actors—particularly the global Sikh diaspora and international heritage organisations—reshape state-centred narratives of cultural heritage in Pakistan. Using the Kartarpur Corridor, inaugurated in 2019 to facilitate visa-free Sikh pilgrimage, as its principal case study, the article investigates how competing memory regimes are negotiated among the Pakistani state, diasporic communities, and international heritage actors. Drawing on theories of collective, antagonistic, cosmopolitan, and agonistic memory, it argues that the Pakistani state continues to privilege an antagonistic order of recollection centred on national identity and territorial sovereignty, while diasporic actors have fostered increasingly cosmopolitan forms of remembrance through transnational religious networks and cross-border pilgrimage. The study employs a qualitative design combining field observations (2019–2024), interviews with officials and pilgrims, and analysis of Pakistani print media. It argues that the Corridor functions as a negotiated space in which competing memory regimes coexist rather than replace one another. Although these negotiations have expanded cross-border engagement and recognition of plural histories, they have not yet produced an institutionalised agonistic politics of heritage. The article contributes to heritage, memory, and diaspora scholarship by showing that Pakistani heritage is increasingly shaped through negotiation between state authority and transnational actors rather than through exclusive state control.
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Data Availability Statement
This study draws on published literature, historical documents, archival sources, field observations, and semi-structured interviews conducted by the author. The published and archival sources are fully cited in the references and footnotes. Interview materials and field notes are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, subject to ethical, privacy, and confidentiality considerations.
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