Chicago based Sikh Gur­d­waras and or­gan­i­sa­tions adopt the Mool Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar and ap­peal to Sikh San­gats to do the same to stop any fur­ther con­fu­sion re­gard­ing Gur­purabs and Sikh fes­ti­vals.

Chicago took the lead over many Sikh or­ga­ni­za­tions in the Di­as­pora and home­land Pun­jab in col­lec­tively tak­ing a de­ci­sion to adopt the orig­i­nal -Mool Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar while mak­ing a fer­vent ap­peal to all so­cial and re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tions of the Sikhs to not only im­ple­ment them­selves but make se­ri­ous at­tempts to en­sure full im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Mool Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar.

The Chicago Mool Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar Im­ple­men­ta­tion Con­fer­ence was also sup­ported by sev­eral other Mid­west Gur­d­waras from the states of Illi­nois, Ohio, Michi­gan, In­di­ana, Iowa, and Wis­con­sin. Many of these Gur­d­waras have also adopted, or are in the process of adopt­ing, res­o­lu­tions of the con­fer­ence.

“1999 was a wa­ter­shed year in the Sikh his­tory when the Sikh schol­ars and SGPC (Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee) in­tro­duced and the Akal Takht Sahib adopted the his­tor­i­cally and sci­en­tif­i­cally ac­cu­rate Mool Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar, a trop­i­cal cal­en­dar; on 300th an­niver­sary of Khal­sa’s Saa­jna, which also con­formed to Gur­bani.”

This and many other far-reach­ing res­o­lu­tions were adopted in the pres­ence of Sikh rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the US, Canada, In­dia and Aus­tralia at the Mool Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar Im­ple­men­ta­tion Con­fer­ence held last month hosted by the Sikh Re­li­gious So­ci­ety of Chicago.

While the com­mit­tee set up by the Akal Takht Sahib, ac­cepted the Nanakshahi cal­en­dar with three reser­va­tions, in 2003, the Chicago con­fer­ence has sought to rest all con­fu­sion for all times to come by adopt­ing the fixed dates for the three con­tentious days as sug­gested by Pal Singh Pure­wal, namely,

1. Guru Nanak’s Parkaash Purab on April 14th (1-Vaisaakh), Vaisaakhi
2. Bandee Chhorrd Di­vas on Feb­ru­ary 12th (1-Phag­gan)
3. Holla Muhalla on March 14th (1-Chet), Mool Nanakshahi New Year Day

The sheet an­chor of the cal­en­dar, Pal Singh Pure­wal, the chief speaker at the con­fer­ence nar­rated the years that he spent in Pun­jab to con­vince schol­ars, re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal lead­ers to cre­ate aware­ness about the need and im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Mool Nanakshahi cal­en­dar. As some­one who is well-versed in Cal­en­dar sci­ence, Pal Singh Pure­wal clearly enun­ci­ated steps to be taken by the Sikh San­gats across the whole world to en­sure smooth and uni­ver­sal im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar, which he sees as the sig­nal sov­er­eign sym­bol of the dis­tinct Sikh faith.

Speak­ers at the con­fer­ence ex­pressed con­fi­dence that the uni­ver­sal ac­cep­tance of the Mool Nanakshahi cal­en­dar would bring con­sis­tency of Gur­purab and other Sikh fes­ti­val dates all across the Sikh world.

Var­i­ous speak­ers who spoke at the con­fer­ence in­cluded Bibi Jas­bir Kaur from Ohio, Sarab­jit Singh from Sacra­mento, Ir­win Preet Singh, Prof. Ni­ran­jan Singh Dhesi and Surinder Singh of Talk­ing Pun­jab ra­dio sta­tion and Harki­rat Singh Ajnoha from Aus­tralia.

The fol­low­ing sig­nif­i­cant res­o­lu­tions were adopted at the con­fer­ence:

1. Whereas, 1999 was a wa­ter­shed year in the Sikh his­tory when the Sikh schol­ars and SGPC (Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee) in­tro­duced his­tor­i­cally and sci­en­tif­i­cally ac­cu­rate Mool Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar, a trop­i­cal cal­en­dar; on 300th an­niver­sary of Khal­sa’s Saa­jna and con­form­ing to Gur­bani.
2. Whereas, the Mool Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar for­ever fixed drift­ing Sikh his­tor­i­cal Bikrami dates and syn­chro­nized these dates in the Com­mon Era (CE) trop­i­cal cal­en­dar.
3. Whereas, ac­cu­rate re­cur­rence of these Sikh his­tor­i­cal dates and preser­va­tion of Gur­ban­i’s rel­e­vance has pro­found im­pli­ca­tion for Sikh gen­er­a­tions to come.
4. Whereas, the Mool Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar as­serts in­de­pen­dence of Sikh re­li­gious prin­ci­ples.
5. Whereas, not adopt­ing Mool Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar in en­tirety, or de­lay­ing its com­plete im­ple­men­ta­tion, would only make the con­fu­sion within the Sikhs more acute.
6. Whereas, many Sikh or­ga­ni­za­tions have al­ready been fol­low­ing Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar for many years, ex­cept for the three dates of Guru Nanak’s Gur­purab, Bandee Chorrd Di­vas, and Holla-Muhalla.

“The Sikh San­gats across the whole world need to take steps to en­sure smooth and uni­ver­sal im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar, which is the sig­nal sov­er­eign sym­bol of the dis­tinct Sikh faith.”

Pal Singh Pure­wal, ar­chi­tect, Mool Nanakshahi Cal­en­dar

The YouTube videos of the Chicago meet should dis­pel all the doubts of many in­ter­net ac­tivists who are still en­gaged in spread­ing con­fu­sion re­gard­ing lu­nar and so­lar cal­en­dars through so­cial me­dia.

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Well-mean­ing Sikh ac­tivists yearn to see the pos­si­bil­ity that be­gin­ning with the cel­e­bra­tions of Guru Gob­ind Singh Purab on Jan­u­ary 5,  the mo­men­tum catches on and what has be­gun from Chicago, spreads across to all other Sikh res­i­dence towns of the US and other coun­tries.