Faridkot village takes lead, goes for merger of gurdwaras

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, March 27

In its campaign to promote “One village, one gurdwara”, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on Tuesday announced the merger of two gurdwaras at Dhurkot village in Faridkot.

As residents of Dhurkot village unanimously decided to bury a 9-year-old hatchet which had led to division of a gurdwara building into parts and two separate gurdwaras in the village, SGPC chief Gobind Singh Longowal today announced Rs 1 lakh monetary help to the joint gurdwara committee.

Addressing residents of Dhurkot village, the SGPC chief announced that the vacant part of the building of the gurdwaras after the merging would be used as a library. “The SGPC will provide religious books for this library to provide a platform to those who want to learn and teach more about Sikhism,” said Longowal.

In February this year, the SGPC had launched “one village, one gurdwara” with the aim of eradicating the divide between Sikh sangat as most of villages across the state have multiple caste-based gurdwaras.

Residents of Dhurkot village in Faridkot district have taken the lead by merging two gurdwaras into one, said Longowal, giving a message that there was no caste division in Sikhism.

Gurdwara in Dhurkot was divided into two about nine years back when head of a gurdwara had some differences with a group in the village. After erecting a wall in the center of the gurdwara building, both groups had erected their separate gurdwaras. But now ending this split, both groups agreed to the merging of gurdwara.

Longowal said the Akal Takht has already endorsed the SGPC’s campaign to encourage the existence of a single centralised gurdwara in each village. We have chalked out a solid program to encourage Sikh masses of all villages to get united at a single Gurdwara Sahib in their villages, he said.

Many other villages have expressed their willingness to have single gurdwara with the merging of many into one and we are working on materializing their desire, he said.

The vacated buildings of these Gurdwara Sahibs would be used to establish general schools, kirtan and gurmat training center and libraries, said SGPC’s chief. The management of such gurdwaras would also be honoured, said Longowal.

There are 12,900 villages in Punjab. Barring a few, most villages have more than one gurdwaras based on caste and sect.

Earlier Punjab BJP chief Vijay Sampla had asked the SGPC to ensure that Dalit Sikhs do not face discrimination in future, after it emerged that a family from the community was allegedly not allowed to hold ‘Antim Ardaas Bhog’ (the last rituals) at a village gurdwara in Sangrur.

SGPC chief said as a gurdwara is a place of reverence, a place where anyone, irrespective of caste, colour, creed or religion could pay obeisance, so the management committees of all shrines have been asked to ensure that there is no form of discrimination or restriction on the entry of devotees.

Most villages have separate gurdwaras for Dalit Sikhs and nearly two-thirds of the villages had separate cremation grounds for upper castes and Dalits.