Bikrami Calendar may be back for Sikh events

Perneet Singh

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Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 8

With the recent chaos over the dates for celebration of Guru Gobind Singh’s birth anniversary reviving the Nanakshahi Calendar row, there are reports that the ruling SAD is contemplating to completely do away with the amended Nanakshahi Calendar and revert to the Bikrami Calendar so as to end the confusion once and for all.

The controversy has been casting a shadow on the events in the Sikh calendar off and on for the last four years ever since the amended Nanakshahi Calendar came into being.

Sources said the ruling SAD had taken a serious note of the turn of events and sought opinion from Sikh intellectuals and religious leaders over the issue. Sources said the Akali Dal would most probably opt for Bikrami Calendar as it was acceptable to the entire community prior to 2003 when the original Nanakshahi Calendar was implemented.

Sources said the top Akali leaders had already held deliberations with the representatives of the Sant Samaj, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar and two of the five Sikh high priests. They said most of the Sikh religious leaders had suggested that the only way to end the confusion was to either adopt the Bikrami Calendar or original Nanakshahi Calendar.

They have warned against any further tampering with original or amended Nanakshahi Calendar as they felt it would only add to the confusion. At present, the community stands divided over the issue.

On one hand are the organisations like the American Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (AGPC), Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC), SAD (Delhi) and Dal Khalsa that are advocating the need to revert to the original Nanakshahi Calendar. On the other is the Sant Samaj, which supports the Bikrami Calendar.

The challenge, therefore, before the SAD is to bridge the divide and come out with a solution that is acceptable to all.