Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee

Subject: History

Section: MODERN India

Concept :

Amid a police crackdown against radical preacher Amritpal Singh and his associates, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on Monday asked the Punjab government to stop arresting “innocent” Sikh youths.

About Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (or SGPC) is an organization in India responsible for the management of gurdwaras, Sikh places of worship in three states of Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh and union territory of Chandigarh.
SGPC also administers Darbar Sahib in Amritsar.
It is also called as mini-parliament of Sikhs, is directly elected through election by the Sikh sangat i.e. Sikh male and female voters above 18 years of age who are registered as voters under the provisions of the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925.
The SGPC is governed by the chief minister of Punjab.
The SGPC manages the security, financial, facility maintenance and religious aspects of Gurdwaras as well as keeping archaeologically rare and sacred artifacts, including weapons, clothes, books and writings of the Sikh Gurus.
It was formed in 1920.
The first and the only woman and also incumbent President of SGPC is Jagir Kaur .

The Singh Sabha Movement

The Singh Sabha Movement was founded at Amritsar in 1873 with a two-fold objective, to make available modern western education to the Sikhs, and to counter the proselytising activities of Christian missionaries as well as the Brahmo Samajists, Arya Samajists and Muslim maulvis.
For the first objective, a network of Khalsa schools was established by the Sabha throughout Punjab.
In the second direction, everything that went against the Gurus’ teachings was rejected, and rites and customs considered to be consistent with Sikh doctrine were sought to be established.

Gurudwara Reform Movement

The Akali movement (also known as Gurudwara Reform Movement) was an offshoot of the Singh Sabha Movement.
It aimed at liberating the Sikh gurudwaras from the control of corrupt Udasi mahants.
The government tried its repressive policies against the non-violent non-cooperation satyagraha launched by the Akalis in 1921 but had to bow before popular demands.
The government passed the Sikh Gurudwaras Act in 1922 (amended in 1925) which gave the control of gurudwaras to the Sikh masses to be administered through Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) as the apex body.
The Akali Movement was a regional movement but not a communal one.