Faith unites them again and again, only to be driven apart with the next outbreak of hostilities between their nations.Forgetting the tragic Partition, three wars and accumulated bitterness of over 50 years, they have been dancing to the drumbeats and paying obeisance to the common saint, only to see that the wedge between them has widened after each war. Neither the Simla Agreement of 1971 nor the Lahore Declaration of months ago has made a difference to this sad fact. Ask the devotees of Baba Dalip Singh Manhas, who gather on either side of the international border at Saidawali and Chamliyal every year.The legend is that Baba died while fighting some criminals outside the Saidawali village. While his body fell at the murder site (now Chamliyal), his head fell in Saidawali now in Pakistan.One night, a disciple saw the Baba in his dream. The mentor told him that his skin ailment would be cured, if he applied soil and water from the land where his blood fell. The disciple did so and got cured. Theword spread and people started organising a mela at the site, which is believed to be 300 years old.However, after the Partition, village Saidawali went to Pakistan and Baba's shrine found its place on the Indian side. As people used to visit the shrine to get cured their skin ailments (Chambal), the place became known by the name of Chamliyal.Even after the Partition, Baba's devotees from both sides continued celebrating the mela with the same religious fervour. The only difference was the border line between them, with mela organised at two places - Saidawali and Chamliyal, just 600 yards apart.However, thousands of devotees from Pakistan used to visit the shrine on the Indian side to pay obeisance and carry along with them ``shakkar'' (soil) and ``sharbat'' (water). The Pakistani Rangers and the Border Security Force used to stand as guardians of this faith.The practice continued until the outbreak of the Indo-Pak war in 1965. And, after the war was over, the devotees from either side of theborder were allowed only to come up to the zero line and not to cross it.And after the 1971 Indo-Pak war, the gulf between them widened further. The devotees on either side of the border were made to stop much before the zero line and watch each other from a distance.Meanwhile, a replica of the Baba's shrine came up on the other side of the border. However, this exchange of ``shakkar-sharbat'' and ``chaddar'' continued till 1996, when tension again broke up between the two sides over the issue of fencing on the borders. With frequent exchanges of fire between the Pakistani Rangers and the BSF over the issue, the former expressed helplessness in carrying tractor trolleys of ``shakkar-sharbat'' to their side in 1997. However, they continued bringing the ``chaddar'' for Baba's shrine and accept ``prasad''.Even part of the mela on Pakistani side used to be organised ahead of the bundh raised by the Rangers until last year.The ongoing Kargil conflict has now deepened the divide further. The Rangershave shifted the entire mela to the other side of their bundh, with people on both sides of the border unable even to see each other. This year, the traditional ``chaddar'' remained elusive for the devotees on this side.Though the Rangers, at a flag meeting with their BSF counterparts, promised to bring the ``chaddar'' next day, the word was not kept. Thus has been broken the last link between the devotees of the Baba on the two sides of the border.While faith unites people, war can only destroy traditions built and ties forged through ages.
