ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846 Vicissitudes of Gurdwara Politics YOGESH SNEHI Vol. 49, Issue No. 34, 23 Aug, 2014 Yogesh Snehi (
[email protected]) is a fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. The demand of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee to oversee the functioning of gurdwaras represents the legitimate aspirations of the Sikhs of Haryana and more significantly, inversion against almost absolute hegemony of SAD over the management of Sikh shrines through Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. The situation over the formation of Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (HSGPC) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) dominated Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee’s (SGPC) opposition to it, has entered into a confrontational stage endangering the peace and harmony in the region. Despite the enactment of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Act 2014, the SGPC has refused to vacate the gurdwaras in Haryana for HSGPC. While Gurdwara Chhevin Patshahi at Kurukshetra becomes the centre-stage for a long-drawn battle, HSGPC has taken possession of six gurdwaras in the state (Sedhuraman 2014).[1] After clashes between the supporters of SGPC and HSGPC, the Supreme Court has ordered maintenance of status-quo and postponed the next hearing for 25 August 2014. This recent controversy has its roots both in the movement for gurdwara reforms (1920s), which sought to purge Sikhism from the polluting effects of non-Sikh practices, as well as the reorganisation of Punjab province in 1966. It also raises some fundamental issues about the residue of colonialism in the 21st century India. Historicising Gurdwara Reform More than nine decades ago in 1921, Punjab was embroiled in a controversy over misuse of the premises of Gurdwara Janam Asthan at Nankana Sahib (now in Pakistan) for narrow self-interests by the hereditary custodian Udasi Mahant Narain Das who was a Sehajdari Sikh (Yong 1995: 670).[2] Mahants had traditionally inherited the custodianship of most gurdwaras since pre-colonial Punjab[3] and had allegedly started behaving like sole proprietors.