De­spite the claims of the SGPC whose lead­er­ship con­verged at Takht Hazur Sahib last week, the lead­er­ship of Sri Guru Singh Sabha Mum­bai de­serves ku­dos for lead­ing a re­lent­less cam­paign against the sin­is­ter at­tempt by the pre­sent Shiv Sena-BJP gov­ern­ment to take full con­trol of Takht Hazur Sahib Man­age­ment Board. The re­trac­tion of the Ma­ha­rash­tra gov­ern­ment fol­low­ing le­gal ac­tion and protests in Nanded, Mum­bai, and across the Sikh world un­der­scores the power of uni­fied com­mu­nity ac­tion and the vi­tal role of di­a­logue in pre­serv­ing re­li­gious au­ton­omy. WSN Ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh analy­ses the de­vel­op­ments.

Takht Hazur Sahib -a ma­jor tem­po­ral cen­tre of the Sikh faith at Nanded Ma­ha­rash­tra where the Tenth Mas­ter Guru Gob­ind Singh breathed his last and or­dained the Sikhs to fol­low Guru Granth Sahib for all times to come has been in the news last week as the State gov­ern­ment at­tempted to over­awe and an­tag­o­nize the Sikhs by ap­prov­ing new leg­is­la­tion in the Ma­ha­rash­tra Cab­i­net for its gov­er­nance.

The meet­ing be­tween Singh Sabha Mum­bai and the Ma­ha­rash­tra CM Ek­nath Shinde and Deputy CM De­ven­dra Fad­navis in the back­drop of the mas­sive protests against the new law in Nanded, in­clud­ing a call for the with­drawal of the new law from the pedestal of the Takht re­sulted in the Shiv Sena (Shinde) and BJP lead­er­ship tweet­ing for with­hold­ing the new Act for con­sul­ta­tions with the Sikh com­mu­nity.

Un­doubt­edly a tri­umphant vic­tory for the Sikh com­mu­nity, al­though we await the next move of the state.

The Ma­ha­rash­tra gov­ern­ment has pub­licly rolled back its con­tro­ver­sial de­ci­sion to im­ple­ment the Takht Hazur Sahib Act, of 2024. This de­ci­sion came af­ter Singh Sabha Mum­bai, a cen­tury-old lead­ing Sikh par­ent body of Sikhs of Mum­bai, led a vig­or­ous cam­paign against the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion, high­light­ing the deep-seated con­cerns of the Sikh com­mu­nity across Ma­ha­rash­tra and be­yond.

The pro­posed Act, which sought to amend the ex­ist­ing Takht Sachk­hand Sri Hazur Sahib Gu­rud­wara Act of 1956, faced wide­spread crit­i­cism for po­ten­tially un­der­min­ing the au­ton­omy of the Sikh com­mu­nity in man­ag­ing the af­fairs of the Takht Hazur Sahib, a revered Sikh shrine in Nanded, Ma­ha­rash­tra, where Guru Gob­ind Singh merged with the Almighty in 1708.

“The key point that is highly both­er­some is that the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra has ab­ro­gated the right to nom­i­nate as many as 12 mem­bers to the Takht Board out of to­tal 17 mem­bers, which is noth­ing short of tak­ing over the en­tire Takht man­age­ment.”

The mem­o­ran­dum of Singh Sabha Mum­bai said, “The key point that is highly both­er­some is that the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra has ab­ro­gated the right to nom­i­nate as many as 12 mem­bers to the Takht Board out of to­tal 17 mem­bers, which is noth­ing short of tak­ing over the en­tire Takht man­age­ment.”  This pro­vi­sion alone shows the malafide in­ten­tions of the gov­ern­ment as it amounts to es­sen­tially grant­ing the state con­trol over the gur­d­wara’s man­age­ment.

Singh Sabha Mum­bai spear­headed the op­po­si­tion, or­ga­niz­ing a united front that brought to­gether Sikh San­gat, Gur­d­wara com­mit­tees, and Sikh or­ga­ni­za­tions from Mum­bai, Navi Mum­bai, the MM re­gion, and Takht Hazur Sa­heb, Nanded. Their ef­forts cul­mi­nated in a piv­otal meet­ing with Ma­ha­rash­tra’s Chief Min­is­ter Shri Ek­nath Shinde and Deputy Chief Min­is­ter De­ven­dra Fad­navis on Feb­ru­ary 12, 2024.

In the meet­ing, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Singh Sabha Mum­bai pas­sion­ately pre­sented the com­mu­ni­ty’s stance, em­pha­siz­ing the im­por­tance of re­spect­ing Sikh tra­di­tions and the prin­ci­ple of self-gov­er­nance in re­li­gious mat­ters. They called for the im­me­di­ate with­drawal of the pro­posed Act and the con­tro­ver­sial Sec­tion 11 amend­ment to the ex­ist­ing 1956 Act, un­der which the gov­ern­ment ab­ro­gated the right to ap­point the Pres­i­dent of the Board of Takht Hazur Sahib. This pro­vi­sion passed in 2015 has been ag­i­tat­ing the Sikhs of Nanded since it was first passed as an or­di­nance and sub­se­quently when it was reg­u­larised into an amend­ment.

Singh Sabha Mum­bai pas­sion­ately pre­sented the com­mu­ni­ty’s stance, em­pha­siz­ing the im­por­tance of re­spect­ing Sikh tra­di­tions and the prin­ci­ple of self-gov­er­nance in re­li­gious mat­ters.

Re­spond­ing to the com­mu­ni­ty’s out­cry and the per­sua­sive ar­gu­ments pre­sented by Singh Sabha Mum­bai, the Ma­ha­rash­tra gov­ern­ment an­nounced the with­drawal of the pro­posed Act, un­til fur­ther no­tice. Ad­di­tion­ally, it promised to en­gage in con­sul­ta­tions with the Sikh com­mu­nity on any fu­ture leg­isla­tive changes af­fect­ing the man­age­ment of Sikh re­li­gious in­sti­tu­tions.

Ma­ha­rash­tra Cab­i­net to­day de­cided to put on hold 5th Feb 2024 de­ci­sion re­gard­ing Takht Sachk­hand Shri Huzur Sahib Gu­rud­wara, Nanded.
It was de­cided to ap­point a Cab­i­net Sub-com­mit­tee, which will dis­cuss the is­sue with all the con­cerned per­sons & ap­pro­pri­ate de­ci­sion will be taken…

— De­ven­dra Fad­navis (@De­v_­Fad­navis) Feb­ru­ary 14, 2024

This res­o­lu­tion has been hailed as a sig­nif­i­cant vic­tory for the Sikh com­mu­nity, demon­strat­ing the power of unity and peace­ful ad­vo­cacy. Singh Sabha Mum­bai, in par­tic­u­lar, has been lauded for its lead­er­ship and stead­fast com­mit­ment to safe­guard­ing the rights and tra­di­tions of Sikhs. The or­ga­ni­za­tion ex­pressed its grat­i­tude to all who sup­ported the cause, re­in­forc­ing the im­por­tance of sol­i­dar­ity in up­hold­ing the glory of the Guru Granth and the Khalsa Panth.

Plac­ing the mat­ter in per­spec­tive, Man­mo­han Singh, Pres­i­dent of the Singh Sabha Mum­bai has said, “Singh Sabha be­lieves that there should be no nom­i­na­tion what­so­ever by the gov­ern­ment of Ma­ha­rash­tra as sec­u­lar gov­ern­ments should not be in­ter­fer­ing in re­li­gious af­fairs.”

Man­mo­han Singh fur­ther em­pha­sized that “We also deem fit to say the elec­tions to the Takht Hazur Sahib Nanded Board are over­due and must be held im­me­di­ately, about which a pe­ti­tion is also pend­ing in the Au­rangabad bench of the Bom­bay High Court.”

“The elec­tions to the Takht Hazur Sahib Nanded Board are over­due and must be held im­me­di­ately.” 

Speak­ing to WSN, Man­mo­han Singh said, “If the need arises, we will go to court but will not al­low any in­ter­fer­ence in Sikh re­li­gious af­fairs.”

The po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship of Ma­ha­rash­tra, till re­cently, had al­ways held the Sikh shrine at Nanded in great re­spect and such gross sin­is­ter at­tempts were never made in the past, even though small-time in­ter­fer­ence in the af­fairs of the Takht is rou­tine.

If the need arises, we will go to court but will not al­low any in­ter­fer­ence in Sikh re­li­gious af­fairs.

Man­mo­han Singh, Pres­i­dent, Sri Guru Singh Sabha Mum­bai

In the af­ter­math of this de­ci­sion, the Sikh com­mu­nity re­mains vig­i­lant, ready to de­fend its prin­ci­ples, and par­tic­i­pate ac­tively in dis­cus­sions about the gov­er­nance of its re­li­gious in­sti­tu­tions. The Ma­ha­rash­tra gov­ern­men­t’s re­ver­sal serves as a tes­ta­ment to the strength of col­lec­tive ac­tion and the en­dur­ing value of faith-based com­mu­ni­ties in shap­ing pub­lic pol­icy.