SHIROMAṆĪ GURDWĀRĀ PARBANDHAK COMMITTEE, a statutory body comprising elected representatives of the Sikhs concerned primarily with the management of sacred Sikh shrines under its control within the territorial limits of Punjab, Haryāṇā, Himāchal Pradesh and the Union territory of Chaṇḍīgaṛh. It originated with the Gurdwārā Reform or Akālī movement of the early 1920's, which lasted until the 1925 when the Gurdwārā bill was placed on the statute book.

        On 12 October 1920, the Khālsā Barādarī, an organization of Sikhs from backward classes, held a dīvān (religious assembly) in Jalliāṅvālā Bāgh at which some teachers and students of the Khālsā College were also present. A large number of new entrants were initiated into the Khālsā Brotherhood by administering to them the rites of the Khālsā. As the ceremony concluded, the entire saṅgat went to the Golden Temple to offer kaṛāh prasād and ardās.

        The deputy commissioner, on 13 October 1920, summoned the priests, the sarbarāh, and some notable citizens for consultation. The priests did not appear at the meeting, and the deputy commissioner appointed a fresh committee under the chairmanship of the sarbarāh. The reformers on the other hand summoned, under the authority of the Akāl Takht, a general assembly of the Sikhs to meet in front of the Akāl Takht on l5 November 1920 to deliberate the question. The government held hasty consultations with the Mahārājā of Paṭiālā and, on 13 November, nominated a committee of 36 Sikh notables for the management of the Golden Temple and other gurdwārās including the Darbār Sāhib at Tarn Tāran. The Sikh assembly held on 15 and 16 November elected a committee of 175 members representing all the districts, Sikh states of the Punjab, other Indian provinces, and Sikh organizations in Burma, Malaya, China and North America. It also included the 36 government nominees in the committee which it named the Shiromaṇī Gurdwārā Parbandhak Committee, SGPC for short.

        The Majīṭhīā Sardār resigned early in1921 to join the ministry set up under the Government of India Act, 1919, and Bābā Khaṛak Siṅgh was elected in his place president of the SGPC. The Committee was registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, on 30 April 1921.

        New elections under the constitution were held in July 1921. Bābā Khaṛak Siṅgh was elected president, Captain Rām Siṅgh vice-president and Sardār Bahādur Mehtāb Siṅgh secretary. Meanwhile, more gurdwārās were brought under the Committee's control, usually through negotiation and persuasion but also sometimes by coercion or use of force. The mahants often resisted strongly with resort, at times, to violence. The first such incident took place at Tarn Tāran where a group of Akālī negotiators was attacked by the priests with lethal weapons causing death of two Akālīs and injuries to many others. A far more serious tragedy took place on 20 February 1921 at Nankāṇā Sāhib where about 200 Sikh volunteers were killed by hired assassins of Mahant Naraiṇ Dās, the custodian of Gurdwārā Janam Asthān.

        The "Board", i.e. the SGPC, originally comprised 132 elected members from the Punjab besides head ministers of Srī Darbār Sāhib and of the Takhts, at Amritsar, Paṭnā, Anandpur Sāhib and Nāndeḍ, and 25 co-opted members from Sikh residents in the rest of India. Consequent to amendments made from time to time, the present composition of the Board is 140 elected members, five head ministers and 15 co-opted members. Twenty seats are reserved for scheduled caste Sikhs. The tenure of the Board, originally 3 years, is now 5 years or until the composition of a new Board. The tenure of the executive, however, is only one year. Delimitation of constituencies and the conduct of quinquennial elections is the responsibility of the state government. Every Sikh, male or female, who is more than 21 years of age has the right to be registered as a voter provided he does not trim or shave his beard or hair (Sahajdhārī Sikhs exempted). The first meeting of a newly elected committee must be held not later than one month after the government notification regarding its constitution, and thereafter a general meeting must be held at least once in a year. The quorum will consist of 31 members. The executive to be elected in general meeting every year consists of the president, two vice-presidents (one senior and one junior) and a general secretary (all these to be known as office-bearers), and between 5 and 11 members. The executive exercises, on behalf of the committee, all powers conferred on the latter which are not expressly reserved in the Act for the general meeting. All decisions in the executive as well as in the general meeting will be decided by majority vote, the president possessing a casting vote in the case of equality of votes for and against, provided that the head; ministers are not entitled to vote during the election of the office-bearers and members of the executive committee.

        Although constituted as a purely religious body for the management of gurdwārās, the Shiromaṇī Gurdwārā Parbandhak Committee with its vast resources (its annual budget now is around a thousand million rupees) performs multifarious functions. Besides propagation of religion including running of free kitchens, it runs a large number of schools and colleges, manages agricultural farms on gurdwārā lands, encourages research, printing and publication of works on Sikh religion and history, and helps victims of political repression as well as of natural calamities. It arranges visits of Sikh pilgrims to gurdwārās left in Pakistan and maintains liaison with Sikh organizations in other Indian states and abroad. It takes up with the government matters of Sikh interests or grievances. In this it collaborates with the Shiromaṇī Akālī Dal, a political party representing the Sikh masses.

1. Teja Siṅgh, Gurdwara Reform and the Sikh Awakening. Jalandhar, 1922
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2. Harbans Singh, The Heritage of the Sikhs. Delhi, 1983
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3. Ganda Singh, "The Akālī Dal and Shiromaṇī Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee," Panjab Past and Present, Patiala, October 1967
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4. Mohinder Singh, The Akali Movement. Delhi, 1978
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5. Ashok, Shamsher Siṅgh, Shiromaṇī Gurdwārā Prabandhak Committee dā Pañjah Sālā Itihās. Patiala, 1982
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Ajīt Siṅgh Sarhadī