
S.
G. P. C.
As has been explained in relation to the term
mahant, the well-endowed Sikh historical shrines were wrested from the
hands of these hereditary managers of the Sikh Gurdwaras through a Sikh
upsurge, called the Akai Movement, during the twenties of this century.
The Akali movement came to its logical conclusion in the year 1925 when
the Punjab Government agreed to pass a statute for the management of
Sikh historical shrines, called, he Sikh Gurdwaras Act. The Management
Board set up under this Act is known as the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak
Committee or S.G.P.C. for short. Since this S.G.P.C. is elected on the
adult Sikh suffrage, it has assumed the status of a nascent Sikh Parliament
and as such it has presumed to act on a number of occasions to the great
annoyance and sometimes general alarm of the Authority. During the last
seven or eight years no new elections of the S.G.P.C. have been held
and it has been publicly declared that the Government of India now contemplate
splinting up the S.G.P.C. into three or four smaller Corporations for
managing regional Sikh Gurdwaras so that the S.G.P.C. may be finally
and formally shorn of its presumptions regarding its representative
character qua the Sikh community as such.
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