The re­cent res­ig­na­tion of Gi­ani Gur­bachan Singh as Jathedar Akal Takht, cou­pled with the de­mand of the Pan­thic As­sem­bly and other groups and in­di­vid­u­als that the Jathedar of this his­toric in­sti­tu­tion of the Sikhs must be ap­pointed only af­ter fol­low­ing a set of pro­ce­dures and norms. The au­thor who is an or­gan­iser of the Free Akal Takht cam­paign pre­sents the his­toric­ity of this need and the re­search-based re­port that they have pro­duced. 

The res­ig­na­tion of Gi­ani Gur­bachan Singh -the Jathedar of Akal Takht Sahib, ap­pointed by Shi­ro­mani Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee (SGPC) in al­liance with Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (Badal), is a piv­otal mo­ment for the Khalsa Panth. The Panth re­jected this cor­rupted nexus over three years ago.

What can eas­ily hap­pen now is one po­lit­i­cal group re­places the pre­vi­ous with no real in­sti­tu­tional change as to how Jathedars are se­lected. The Khalsa Panth needs to be cau­tious of this and not al­low that to hap­pen.

From the Pan­thic As­sem­bly to Di­as­pora Sikh groups, from Sikh po­lit­i­cal groups to in­di­vid­ual in­flu­encers, and other groups alike, the gen­eral con­sen­sus is that the uni­lat­eral de­ci­sions of the SGPC ex­ec­u­tive body in Jathedar ap­point­ments must stop and a more open Panth-wide de­lib­er­a­tion on Jathedar se­lec­tion process and Jathedar cri­te­ria needs to be evolved.

“From the Pan­thic As­sem­bly to Di­as­pora Sikh groups, from Sikh po­lit­i­cal groups to in­di­vid­ual in­flu­encers, and other groups alike, the gen­eral con­sen­sus is that the uni­lat­eral de­ci­sions of the SGPC ex­ec­u­tive body in Jathedar ap­point­ments must stop and a more open Panth-wide de­lib­er­a­tion on Jathedar se­lec­tion process and Jathedar cri­te­ria needs to be evolved.”

The cur­rent sit­u­a­tion pre­sents a real op­por­tu­nity for re­claim­ing our his­tor­i­cal ways, while tak­ing guid­ance from Guru Granth Sahib, and we must put our full ef­forts into do­ing so. 

These are not new chal­lenges. Sikhs need only to look at their his­tory to re­alise that they have the com­po­nent parts of a model they can use to build up.

In the early 1700s, the Khalsa was at a sim­i­lar cross­roads where the ques­tion of lead­er­ship was at the fore­front of the Sar­bat Khalsa. All ar­gued lead­er­ship ti­tles were not in line with Gur­mat and other Sikhs re­fused the po­si­tion. With no so­lu­tion in sight, guid­ance was sought from Guru Granth Sahib, which taught the one who served most is to be chief.

“The Re­port of the Free Akal Takht move­ment is a huge step to­wards Sikh self-gov­er­nance. De­tailed re­search and drafts of prin­ci­ples and processes can be found at www.freeakaltakht.org”

There was a Sikh busy fan­ning the san­gat in the lan­gar hall, not pay­ing at­ten­tion to the hotly de­bated topic. This Sikh was known to be the first to vol­un­teer for dan­ger­ous pa­trol mis­sions, clean­ing horse dung, do­ing laun­dry of the Khalsa, and work­ing in the kitchen every­day. His ethic and prin­ci­ples were grounded in Gur­bani and Shabad train­ing. Af­ter de­lib­er­a­tions it was fi­nal­ized that this Sikh is the one who serves Guru Granth Sahib and Guru Khalsa Panth most. That Sikh was then sur­rounded by san­gat do­ing Jakare and was led to Akal Takht Sahib, where he was told that the Khalsa had se­lected him to be Nawab (Chief). He only agreed to take the post if he was al­lowed to con­tinue do­ing his daily duty in the kitchen. This is how a Sikh named Ka­pur Singh be­came Nawab. 

Nawab Ka­pur Singh was eas­ily the most for­mi­da­ble leader Sikhs could have ever had. He led with hu­mil­ity, and by the will of the Khalsa as a whole, in all en­deav­ors, never uni­lat­er­ally. He or­ga­nized the Khalsa and trained next gen­er­a­tion lead­ers like Jassa Singh Ahluwalia. We need to cre­ate in­sti­tu­tions fo­cused on find­ing Sikhs, young and old, women and men, of this cal­iber again.

The Free Akal Takht team is a unique and per­haps one of its kind en­deavor to draft re­searched process and struc­ture rooted in Gur­mat. They have con­ducted the largest re­cent, con­sen­sus-based, open con­sul­ta­tion with the global Sikh Panth on mech­a­nisms sur­round­ing Akal Takht Sahib, specif­i­cally per­tain­ing to Jathedar Se­lec­tion Cri­te­ria and the Sar­bat Khalsa Process which can be used as a start­ing point for dis­cus­sion. They wish to con­sult and help fa­cil­i­tate.

Sikh groups and in­di­vid­u­als in In­dia have also done un­struc­tured ex­er­cises to this end and they too must also be taken into con­sid­er­a­tion. 

85% of Sikhs who at­tended large con­sen­sus-based events, fa­cil­i­tated by the Free Akal Takht team, agreed to a set of Jathedar cri­te­ria. The Re­port of the Free Akal Takht move­ment is a huge step to­wards Sikh self-gov­er­nance. De­tailed re­search and drafts of prin­ci­ples and processes can be found at www.freeakaltakht.org

“The cri­te­ria called for a Jathedar with only al­le­giance to Guru Granth Sahib and Guru Khalsa Panth as well as com­plete com­mit­ment to the preser­va­tion and main­tain­ing the dis­tinct and sov­er­eign iden­tity of Guru Khalsa Panth.”

The cri­te­ria called for a Jathedar with only al­le­giance to Guru Granth Sahib and Guru Khalsa Panth as well as com­plete com­mit­ment to the preser­va­tion and main­tain­ing the dis­tinct and sov­er­eign iden­tity of Guru Khalsa Panth. The cri­te­ria also called for the build­ing up of ap­pro­pri­ate con­di­tions in which this iden­tity can find full ex­pres­sion. The Jathedar must have a back­ground of demon­strated lead­er­ship which is open and trans­par­ent. The Jathedar must also have a deep knowl­edge of Gur­mat, Sikh His­tory, other Re­li­gions’ tra­di­tions, and World His­tory. Most of all, the Jathedar must rec­og­nize that they are ser­vants of the Panth, and that they do not have the au­thor­ity to make ex­ec­u­tive de­ci­sions out­side of tasks as­signed by the Panth.

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The ques­tion of who suc­ceeds Gi­ani Gur­bachan Singh is a short-term is­sue, and we need to be long-term, strate­gic thinkers once more. Es­tab­lish­ing the se­lec­tion cri­te­ria for Jathedars is only one step in a long list of strate­gic ob­jec­tives that must be pur­sued by the Sikhs as a whole in this cru­cial time.