Here the border is marked in white as it cuts across the historic Grand Trunk Road (GTR). The road has been closed for years now at Wagah by two metal gates, one on each country’s side. The two flag posts are located contiguous to the boundary line between the two gates.

Traditionally the flag-lowering ceremony has been a display of macho and mutual hatred by the border security forces on each side, though the animosity has been toned down in recent years. As the guards muster on each side and the crowds on both sides wave their respective flags, the air resonates with nationalistic slogans, including “Pakistan Jindabad (“Long Live Pakistan”) and “Jai Hind (“Long Live India”).On the Pakistani side, there is also the intermittent playing of Koranic verses .

Then, at the appointed time, both gates are thrown open, the border troops take giant exaggerated steps towards the flagposts and stamp the ground vigorously with their boots. Their demeanor and facial expressions signify determination, defiance, even hostility. After the flag lowering, the two gates are shut with a loud clang, as if to signify a determination that each country will remain shut to the other.

A South Korean visitor on the Pakistan side of the border last year could barely contain his amusement over what, to him, looked like a farce. In his derisory merriment he forgot that it was perhaps no more farcical than the face-off between South Korean and North Korean troops at the Panmunjom on the 38th parallel border between the two countries.

Among the Indian and Pakistani crowds the ceremony seems to arouse tangled emotions, a mix of sadness, hostility, curiosity and perhaps a yearning to connect. I observed the hostility and tragic pathos last year on the Pakistani side: an old man with a white beard was trotting up an down the thirty metres of GTR enclosed by the public stands, shouting slogans and waving a Pakistani flag. I was told he was eighty, lived nearby, had lost two sons in wars with India, and performs this demonstration everyday during the flag lowering ceremony.

But there are those who have seen enough of politics and wars and are immensely saddened by the futility of sustaining such hatred. After all, the flat landscape, the rolling brown wheat fields of April, broken by occasional clumps of trees, were identical on both sides of the border ; the people, though of different faiths are the same too; and the birds flew freely from one side to the other oblivious of the man-made barriers and the grotesque displays of physical and psychological divisions.

At the end of the ceremony each day, the crowds on both sides flock near the boundary fence and peer intently andcuriously at the other side. What unspoken emotions, what forces in the conscious and the subconscious propel them to do so?

The Indian province of Punjab, which Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong visited recently, is India’s richest province, but it is only a small fraction of the pre-partition Punjab. It was then a land of five rivers and stretched from Delhi to Peshawar on the northwest frontier of today’s Pakistan. The present Indian Punjab, with a population of about 25 million, emerged from two partitions: between Pakistan and India in 1947, and, in 1966, a partition of the Indian Punjab into the three provinces of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh as a result of Sikh demands for a Punjabi-speaking province.

In view of the thaw in relations between India and Pakistan in recent years, there are hopes that border might be opened up and there can be people-to-people and business-to-business links with Pakistani Punjab. The revival of the forces of democratization in Pakistan further encourages such hopes. When that does materialize, the absurdities of Wagah will be relegated to the dustbin of history. Common sense, together with the sense of a common Punjabi identity, could contribute to the breaking of barriers between India and Pakistan at this epicenter of the divide between the two countries.

Distance from Amritsar Golden Temple to Wagah Border
Road Distance or driving distance from Amritsar Golden Temple to Wagah Border is 30 kms (19.00 miles). For customizing your travel journey you might consider adding some stop over points or adding some night stops

Best time to visit
One can visit the Wagah Border throughout the year. However, the best time to visit the city of Amritsar is during the months of October to March, as the weather is cool and pleasant. Summers here are extremely hot and can be avoided for any outside visit like the Wagah Border.
Timing
The Wagah Border post remains open daily from 10:00 am till the flag down ceremony in the evening.

For the Wagah Border ceremony, it is advisable to arrive well before sunset to grab a proper seat in the open air theatre.

Depending upon the time of sunset, the flag down ceremony normally starts around 4:30 pm in winters and 5:30 pm in summers.

                        Wagah Border Ceremony

The Wagah border closing 'lowering of the flags' ceremony is a daily military practice that the security forces of India (Border Security Force) and Pakistan (Pakistan Rangers) have jointly followed since 1959. This ceremony takes place every evening before sunset at the Wagah border, which as part of the Grand Trunk Road was the only road link between these two countries before the opening of the Aman Setu in Kashmir in 1999. The ceremony starts with a blustering parade by the soldiers from both the sides, and ends up in the perfectly coordinated lowering of the two nations' flags.It is called the beating retreat border ceremony on the international level. One Jawan (infantryman) stands at attention on each side of the gate. As the sun sets, the iron gates at the border are opened and the two flags are lowered simultaneously. The flags are folded and the ceremony ends with a retreat that involves a brusque handshake between soldiers from either side, followed by the closing of the gates again. The spectacle of the ceremony attracts many visitors from both sides of the border, as well as international tourists.