*** Welcome to piglix ***

Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee
Akal Takht Sahib.jpg
Sri Akal Takht Sahib
Abbreviation SGPC
Formation 15 November 1920
Type Sikh Gurdwaras Management Organisation
Headquarters Teja Singh Samundri Hall, Sri Harmandir Sahib Complex, Sri Amritsar
Location
President
Professor Kirpal Singh Badungar
Website sgpc.net
desgpc.org

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 Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar.

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. SGPC is also referred to as Parliament of the Sikhs.

Bibi Jagir Kaur was the first woman to be elected as the president of the SGPC in September 2004. She had held the same post from March 1999 to November 2000.

In 1920 the emerging Akali leadership summoned a general assembly of the Sikhs holding all shades of opinion on November 15, 1920 in vicinity of the Akal Takht in Amritsar. The purpose of this assembly was to elect a representative committee of the Sikhs to administer the Harimandir Sahib Complex and other important historical gurdwaras. Two days before the proposed conference the British government set up its own committee consisting of 36 Sikhs to manage the Harimandir Sahib. Sikhs held their scheduled meeting and elected a bigger committee consisting of 175 members and named it as Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. The members of the government appointed committee were also included in it. Harbans Singh Attari became vice president and Sunder Singh Ramgarhia became secretary of the committee. By that time Master Tara Singh had started taking interest in Sikh religious affairs. He was one of the 175 members elected to the committee. The formation of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee provided a focal point for the movement for the reformation of Sikh religious places. The Committee began to take over management of gurdwaras one by one, and were resisted by incumbent mahants.


...
Wikipedia

...