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\u201cThey are saying your mother cannot go with you to Pakistan,\u201d said the couple\u2019s younger daughter, Sarita, 15. \u201cHow would you feel if you had to live without your mother?\u201d<\/p>\n
More than anything else, it is the border that symbolizes the history of these two nations, which, despite a vast shared heritage, are estranged and have frequently come to blows.<\/p>\n
British colonial rule ended in 1947 with the partitioning of India along largely arbitrary lines, creating Pakistan as a separate country for Muslims. Mass migration into the two new nations set off ghastly religious bloodletting, leaving up to two million people dead.<\/p>\n
The decades since have seen repeated wars, and the divisions have become rigid. Kashmir, the beautiful Himalayan region, has borne the brunt of the continued trouble between the two countries.<\/p>\n
At the time of India\u2019s partition, the Hindu ruler of Kashmir, a Muslim-majority princely state, wanted to maintain its independence. It became part of India soon afterward, in exchange for a security guarantee, as Pakistan sent militias and took over parts of the region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Kashmir has been disputed ever since. Each nation now controls a part of the region while claiming it in whole. Those living there have little say.<\/p>\n
People on both sides of the India-Pakistan divide are haunted by the ghosts of the bloodletting, by memories of loved ones left behind. Some have tried to hold on to cross-border ties, particularly through marriage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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That has become increasingly difficult over the years. Even before the latest flare-up, diplomatic relations between the countries had been largely severed, and visas were only rarely issued.<\/p>\n
For those forced to leave in recent days, the departure stings all the more because of how difficult it was to get a visa and cross the border in the first place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Even Hindus who had taken refuge in India from Pakistan\u2019s rising intolerance and persecution of religious minorities have been thrown into uncertainty.<\/p>\n
In recent years, India has billed itself as a haven for persecuted Hindus in the region. Many living in refugee camps have acquired Indian citizenship. But others are worried that they might now be forced to leave.<\/p>\n
Hanuman Prasad, a resident of a camp in Rohini in northwestern Delhi, came to India more than a decade ago from Sindh Province in Pakistan. He said his brother and sister were stuck at the border trying to enter India. He has Indian citizenship, but his wife and six children are in the country on a variety of different visas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWhat will they do to us? Put us in jail?\u201d he asked. \u201cWe will fight and protest if they try to send us back.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that governments uprooting families with the stroke of a pen did not understand the pain of migration.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven a bird hesitates before leaving its nest behind,\u201d Mr. Prasad said. \u201cWe sold off our farmland, our house, belongings, everything, to shift to India. What will we go back to and do there?\u201d<\/p>\n
As India\u2019s deadline for Pakistani citizens, with a couple of narrow exceptions, to leave the country expired on Saturday, chaos ensued on the Indian side of the Attari-Wagah land crossing in the state of Punjab.<\/p>\n
Families with suitcases tied to the roofs of their vehicles arrived hoping to cross into Pakistan, but only those holding the country\u2019s green passports were allowed to proceed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Rabika Begum, who said she was in her 40s, had tried for five years to get an Indian visa. She was finally given one to attend her mother\u2019s funeral, in the state of Uttar Pradesh.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy husband is on dialysis in Pakistan, and my mother died on this side,\u201d Ms. Begum said as she prepared to return. \u201cI could not even get a fair chance to cry at her grave or be able to hug it long enough before the government asked us to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat have I done?\u201d she said. \u201cWhat is my fault in what happened in Kashmir?\u201d<\/p>\n
Famida Sheikh, who has been living in Pakistan since 1987 and obtained a Pakistani passport through marriage, said she had received a visa to visit her siblings in India after a decade of trying. She had been there for only two weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hadn\u2019t even unpacked properly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Vajida Khan, 24, had been visiting her parents in India. She has an Indian passport, but her two children, 7 and 3, have Pakistani ones. Her Pakistani husband was waiting for them on the other side.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n