Chandigarh: The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) will be setting up its first printing press in the US dedicated to the publishing of the saroops (scriptures) of Guru Granth Sahib.
This will also be the first centre outside India publishing the saroops of Guru Granth Sahib.
The decision was taken Tuesday during the SGPC executive committee’s meeting in Amritsar.
According to a SGPC statement, the press is being set up in the US to meet the increasing demand of the Guru Granth Sahib among the Sikh community of America and Canada.
The press will be established in Tracy city of California, where the Dharam Prachar Kendra (religious preaching centre) of the SGPC will also be set up.
In India, there are only two centres — one at the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar and another at Delhi — that can print the Guru Granth Sahib. The saroops are dispatched from Amritsar and Delhi to gurdwaras across the world. The transportation, too, has to be done following the Sikh maryada (code of conduct).
Created under the Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925, the SGPC is the sole body authorised to print and distribute the Guru Granth Sahib. Considered to be a living Guru by the Sikhs, the printing of the Guru Granth Sahib has to be done following a strict code of conduct. No private or government entity can print the Guru Granth Sahib, nor is its copying or cyclostyling allowed.
Briefing the media after the meeting, SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami said an offer was made by Sikh NRIs Gian Singh Sandhu of Canada and eminent businessman Karnail Singh Sandhu of the US, in Tracy City where a gurdwara will be set up along with the press and the religious preaching centre.
Dhami said the SGPC will soon be shipping 220 saroops to Australia as per maryada by the sea. These decisions have been taken in view of the huge demand for saroops from the Sikh community across the globe, he added.
In another significant decision, Dhami said that the historical Sri Guru Ramdas Library situated in the complex of Golden Temple will be digitised.
“The library set up in 1927 contains a treasure of Sikh literature which will be digitised and will be available for access for readers and researchers through a separate website,” he said.
Special attention will be given to the re-publishing of old important books, under which, a new edition of the book ‘Sachi Sakhi’ by Sirdar Kapur Sahib has been published and released. Along with this, the list of Punjabi books available in Sri Guru Ramdas Library has also been published.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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