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How top Sikh bodies SGPC & Akal Takht are taking a radical road to stay relevant in Punjab

Akali Dal and SGPC have adopted a strident tone on Sikh issues and seem to be warming up to radicals. Experts see it as attempt regain lost religious and political ground.

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Chandigarh: On the last day of the three-day Shaheedi Jor Mela in Punjab’s Fatehgarh Sahib last week, Giani Harpreet Singh, the Jathedar (head of Sikh clergy) of the Akal Takht — the highest temporal body of the Sikhs — surprised everyone with his fiery speech.

The Shaheedi Jor Mela is organised annually to commemorate the martyrdom of Baba Zorawar Singh and Baba Fateh Singh, the youngest of the four Sahibzadas — sons of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth and last Guru of the Sikhs.

Usually, the Jathedar’s speech is limited to a religious sermon. But this time, it struck a different note. 

In his speech, the Jathedar called for a complete ban on outsiders buying land in Punjab, condemned the mushrooming of churches in the state, and exhorted Sikh youth not to go abroad.

“You leave your houses and land here to work in foreign countries. People from UP and Bihar will come and take hold of your lands. Punjab will become the land of tobacco and bidis. Outsiders should not be allowed to buy land in Punjab. The government needs to work on this,” Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh said in his speech at the event, which is attended by lakhs of people.  

He also warned the crowd about the growing influence of the Pentecostal movement in Punjab, saying “churches are coming up like mushrooms across the state”. 

“If all of you go abroad, who will be left here to observe jor melas? You all need to think about this,” he said.

Unusually angry and sharp, the speech comes not only amid the waning influence of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in the state but also the growing radicalism among a section of Sikhs. 

Experts see it as part of a larger effort by the Akal Takht and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which manages Sikh places of worship in the region, to regain lost ground, both religious and political.  

“The agenda of the SGPC and the Akal Takht is clearly political — how to bring the Akali Dal out of the woods,” said Dharam Singh, a former professor of Sikh Studies at Punjabi University, Patiala, and the editor-in-chief of the Sikh Encyclopedia.

This isn’t the first time this is happening, he said. 

“This has happened in the past when these Sikh religious institutions which are supposed to have worked independently have come to the political aid of the Shiromani Akali Dal,” he said. 


Also Read: Akali Dal fends off party rebel to keep grip over SGPC. What is the Sikh body & why it matters


Efforts to regain lost ground

Both the SGPC and the Akal Takht are, in principle, autonomous bodies — while the latter is the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, the former is responsible for the management of historical gurdwaras in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Chandigarh.

However, the SAD, a party created in the 1920s as the political wing of the SGPC, has historically controlled the functioning of both, despite criticism.

The last few years have seen SAD’s political influence dwindle in the state — the party has been out of power for a decade now, with the 2022 assembly elections reducing it to three seats

In addition, the party also broke its decades-long alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2021 over protests against the Narendra Modi-led central government’s now-repealed farm bills.

Since then, ties between the BJP and the Akalis have been on a decline. Just ahead of the Shaheedi Jor Mela, the SGPC took on the Modi government for not having acceded to its demand of changing the name ‘Veer Bal Diwas’  to ‘Sahibzade Shahadat Diwas’. 

For context, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced in January last year that 26 December would be observed as Veer Bal Diwas to mark the sacrifice of the four Sahibzadas

The SGPC has since objected to the name — according to the Sikh body, the name ‘Veer Bal Diwas’ hails the bravery of children in general, thereby undermining the real significance of the day. 

This isn’t the only issue over which the former allies have been at odds  — the SGPC has also been accusing the BJP and the RSS of meddling in Sikh affairs.

Last November, when the Haryana Speaker demanded land for a separate Vidhan Sabha in Haryana and Punjab’s shared capital Chandigarh, the SGPC objected, reiterating SAD’s stand that the city belonged to Punjab.

The SGPC’s proactive stance on core Sikh issues is also being seen as a response to a growing radical sentiment among a section of the Sikhs, in particular, the rise of Amritpal Singh Sandhu, a self-proclaimed Sikh preacher.

Sandhu, who left behind his family’s transport business in Dubai to move to Punjab, has been travelling around the state with a band of armed men since October. 

In his speeches, he exhorts the Sikh youth to give up drugs, weaponise themselves, follow Sikhism in its most orthodox form by baptising themselves (called ‘amrit sanchar’), and work towards the creation of Khalistan — an autonomous Sikh state.

Last month, Sandhu started the first phase of Khalsa vaheer (march), starting from the Akal Takht in Amritsar. 

During the march that ended at Anandpur Sahib 10 days ago, Sandhu and his group vandalised two gurdwaras in Kapurthala and Jalandhar, pulling out chairs and benches from inside the gurdwaras and setting them on fire. They justified these acts by saying that sitting inside a gurdwara at the same level as the Guru Granth Sahib is a violation of the Sikh moral code. 

Although it condemned the vandalism, the SGPC reiterated the need to follow the Sikh maryada, or moral code. 

“Such controversies within the Sikh community are very worrying and issues related to maryada should be resolved together by dialogue,” the SGPC said in a statement after its Dharam Parchar Committee meeting on 16 December. 

“Akal Takht has given guidance from time to time to resolve matters of maryada of sangat (congregation) within the gurdwara. However, the incident in Jalandhar has seriously hurt the sentiments of the Sikh community, and has also forced them to brainstorm further,” the statement added. 

In November, Sandhu spoke out against an upcoming Punjabi film Dastaan-E-Sirhind, a hybrid — cinematic and animated —  movie on the life of the four Sahibzadas. He said that the religion doesn’t permit the depiction of Sikh Gurus or their families in films in any form

On 30 November, as the row escalated, the SGPC asked the Punjab government to ban the release of the film. Less than a fortnight later, the Sikh body banned the portrayal of Sikh Gurus and their family members through all sorts of media, including films. 

The SGPC said the decision was taken after several Sikh bodies, student bodies held protests and submitted their written objections to SGPC. Following which, the matter was discussed in the Dharam Prachar Committee of SGPC.

However, experts say that SGPC’s decision to toe the radical line doesn’t bode well for Sikhism. 

“Whatever the SGPC and Akal Takht are doing, the final result will be that it will become almost impossible for anyone to follow the Sikh religion as they want it to be followed. There will be so many dos and don’ts,” professor Dharam Singh, quoted earlier, told ThePrint.

Similarly, the Akal Takht’s handling of a power tussle in the management board at Takht Sri Patna Sahib — one of the five temporal seats of Sikhism — was seemingly a reflection of this growing need to make its presence felt.  

Invoking his supreme authority, Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh announced a slew of decisions — including declaring a former Jathedar a ‘tankhaiya’ (religious sinner) and ordering dope tests for gurdwara employees. 

The SGPC has also been spearheading a campaign to demand the release of the “Bandi Singhs”, or Sikh prisoners still lodged in various jails across the country for almost three decades despite completing their sentences. 

The SAD, the SGPC, and the Akal Takht are all trying to regain their lost credibility, Amarjit Singh, head of Guru Nanak Studies at Amritsar’s Guru Nanak Dev University, said. 

“While they all have been proactively talking about various Sikh issues, their credibility is still very low. They are largely seen to be doing only lip service, giving statements here and there, and not following them up with concrete action,” Singh told ThePrint. 

Cosying up with the ‘radicals’

Apart from advocating such issues, the two Sikh bodies, as well as the Akali Dal, seem to be warming up to the radicals who played a role in Punjab’s militancy. 

In June, a portrait of Dilawar Singh, the assassin of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh was put up at the Central Sikh Museum inside the Golden Temple in Amritsar.  For the SGPC, Dilawar Singh is Quami Shaheed, or the community’s martyr — an “honour” also bestowed upon Sikh militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale by the Akal Takht.

In June last year, the Akalis had fielded Kamaldeep Kaur Rajoana, the sister of late Punjab chief minister Beant Singh’s assassin Balwant Singh Rajoana, for the Sangrur Lok Sabha election by-election.

In early November, senior SAD leaders, including its president Sukhbir Singh Badal, and Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh attended the wedding of Bhindranwale’s grandson.

Then Monday, Badal visited the family of Satwant Singh, one of the assassins of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Sikh scholar Gurtej Singh blamed the growing radicalism in the state on the vacuum that SAD’s declining influence has created. 

“It’s obvious that the SGPC will not want their authority wrested from them by a band of radicals. But they have no one but themselves to blame for creating this vacuum in which the so-called radicalisation is taking place,” Gurtej Singh told ThePrint. “Now the SGPC is rushing to fill that space but with a clear political motive — to reestablish the Badals on the political scene.”

(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)


Also Read: Akali Dal fends off party rebel to keep grip over SGPC. What is the Sikh body & why it matters


 

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