By Hitesh Singh 
In 1947, when the British left the subcontinent, an estimated ten million people crossed the new border. Nearly a million lives were lost. Among those who left their ancestral homes were Sikh families whose spiritual and cultural world had been woven into the soil of what became Pakistan.
Most of us know the great living shrines — Nankana Sahib, Panja Sahib, Kartarpur Sahib. Far fewer know that hundreds of other gurdwaras, samadhs, havelis and community halls were abandoned in remote towns and villages. Many still stand, weathered, occupied, converted, or quietly cared for by local Muslim neighbours.
Singapore-based researcher, photographer and filmmaker Amardeep Singh spent years walking those roads. His 48-minute documentary PEERING SOUL (Sikh Spiritual Remnants in Pakistan) is the visual companion to his two landmark books:
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Lost Heritage: The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
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The Quest Continues: Lost Heritage — The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan
Together they cover 126 cities and villages across West Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Balochistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Watch the film here:
Books and further work:
https://lostheritagebook.com
https://lostheritage.info
Why This Journey Matters
Amardeep did not set out to make a film. He went first to Muzaffarabad and Abbottabad — the birthplaces of his parents — carrying family memory and a question: Were our forefathers so limited that only a handful of gurdwaras remain worth remembering?
The answer, discovered street by street, was no. The Sikh footprint was far wider than the three or four sites most pilgrims visit. Architecture, frescoes, thin Ranjit-Singh-era bricks, tiled gateways, wooden palanquins for the Guru Granth Sahib, and syncretic houses of worship all survive in fragments. So do living communities of Nanakpanthis who keep the teachings without outward Sikh symbols.
The documentary is not a catalogue of ruins. It is a quiet pilgrimage through places where history still breathes.
Sites the Camera Reaches
The film takes viewers far from the usual pilgrimage circuit. Among the places Amardeep documents:
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A surviving tower in Kanda village whose symbolic opening was once understood as a protective womb.
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A Maharaja Ranjit Singh-era gurdwara near Lahore/Kasur whose fading frescoes once showed Guru Nanak and Bhai Bala.
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Streets of Hazro near the Indus that still reveal the scale of a former Sikh population.
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An abandoned gurdwara in Kala Khan where local Muslim villagers continue to light a lamp.
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Dhan Singh’s gurdwara, built with the thin bricks of the Sikh kingdom, its frescoes slowly disappearing.
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Baherwal, once a child-healthcare centre after Partition, now empty again.
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Ali Baba gurdwara, used as a prison camp during the violence of 1947; the tile work remains.
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Sanpura near Dinga, remembered as a centre of the Sewapanthi community and the site of a terrible massacre.
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Thoha Khalsa, where the first major violence of March 1947 in Punjab unfolded and where Sikh women jumped into a well on 9 March.
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Gala gurdwara of Sri Guru Singh Sabha, later used as a school, with intricate tile and a wooden structure that once held scripture.
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Sahari, where a historic gurdwara is now maintained as the shrine of Sahari Pir (linked to the fifth Guru) and still has four doors — a reminder that it was meant for all.
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Mingora and Mardan in Swat and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where Nanakpanthi and Sikh families continue to practise, some gurdwaras having been revived with original pillars kept in place.
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Mansehra gurdwara, now a municipal library, its balcony and frescoes preserved because the building is still used.
In several villages Amardeep is met with curiosity rather than hostility. Locals share bread, open locked gates, or simply watch. In others the buildings have become homes, stores or schools. The film does not flatten these realities into a single story of loss; it shows both decay and unexpected care.
What the Work Reveals
Three themes run through Peering Soul and the books:
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Scale of the legacy
Eighty per cent of the former Sikh empire’s geography now lies in Pakistan. The heritage is not only religious; it is architectural, artistic and social. -
Shared ground
Many sites show Hindu and Sikh motifs together. Some gurdwaras became Sufi shrines or libraries. Muslim neighbours sometimes protect what Sikhs left behind. The past was more plural than later politics allowed. -
Living remnants
In Swat and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, small Sikh and Nanakpanthi communities still read scripture and raise the next generation. Heritage is not only stone; it is practice.
Amardeep’s tone is neither nostalgic nor accusatory. He asks what responsibility the living have toward structures that are perishing, and he records the names and stories so they are not erased twice — first by Partition, then by forgetting.
How to Go Deeper
The documentary is an invitation, not a substitute for the books. The two volumes contain hundreds of photographs, maps and historical notes that the film can only sample.
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Order the books: lostheritagebook.com
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Explore the wider project: lostheritage.info
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Companion film on forts and martial history: Peering Warrior
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Later work on Guru Nanak’s travels: TheGuruNanak.com
Amardeep Singh and Vininder Kaur lead Lost Heritage Productions from Singapore. Their work has been recognised with the Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize (2022) for the 24-episode series Allegory: A Tapestry of Guru Nanak’s Travels.
Contact: amardeepsinghranghar@gmail.com
A Note on Credit and Use
This article is a promotional and educational summary written to direct readers to Amardeep Singh’s original documentary and books. No part of the film’s narration or unique photographic work is reproduced here. Please watch the film, support the books, and credit the author whenever this heritage is discussed.
The Sikh legacy in Pakistan is not lost so long as people still walk toward it with respect.
