In a shocking incident in Ferozepur, Punjab, the Gurudwara Hargobind Sahib Committee (under SGPC) allegedly refused to provide the Gurudwara’s Guru Granth Sahib to a Dalit Sikh family to perform ‘Antim Ardas’ (final prayers) of a departed family member, because of their faith in Hindu Deities. As per locals the only fault of this family is that along with going to Gurudwara, they also worship Maa Durga.

This is not the first such incident which demonstrates how due to colonial-era British manipulation, a project later taken forward by extremist religious & political leaders, including the current SGPC management, Sikh society has been gradually infused with Hindu-hate, in contravention of the original teachings and even the Guru Granth Sahib itself which has umpteen references to Hari, Ram etc.

And despite loud proclamations by the same Hindphobic elements that their society is egalitarian unlike the ‘casteist Hindus’, feudal discrimination remains rife in Sikh society of Punjab.

In 2021, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes Chairman Vijay Sampla complained that the Dalits are not being allowed in parts of Punjab to take the Guru Granth Sahib to their homes for religious programmes. He asked the Jathedar to intervene in this issue, as Sikh priests were not being allowed by gurdwara heads to visit homes of the Dalits for the recitation of the holy book.

In another incident some time back, an SGPC-run school allegedly cancelled scholarship for children of a poor Dalit Sikh man only because they saw pictures of Bhagwan Shiva in his home.

One thing is clear – all is not well with the Gurudwaras managed by the SGPC (Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee). We have seen umpteen anti-national, bigoted, and anti-social incidents in SGPC-controlled Gurudwaras, and the situation is even worse in overseas Gurdwaras. It seems the management of such Gurudwaras are in hand of those who don’t believe in the values and learnings of Sikh Dharma.