Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee is the supreme organization of the Sikhs which is associated with the management of Gurdwaras in Northern India. In the beginning of 20th Century, historical Gurdwaras including Darbar Sahib Amritsar were controlled by the British Government through a committee of Sikh aristocrats and a manager (Serbrah) appointed by the Deputy commissioner. When Gurdwara Reform Movement became active in 1920’s, the Gurdwaras were librated one by one. It was as a result of these movements that the British Government ultimately accepted to handover the control of Gurdwaras to Sikhs and the 1925 Gurdwara Act was passed. This act provided for a committee to be elected by Sikhs living in different parts of Punjab and the princely states. This committee, originally called, the central board, was supposed to manage the various Sikh Gurdwaras of specified categories falling within that time Punjab which was comprised of some portions of present day Pakistan, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Predesh, Haryana, Punjab and union union territory of Chandigarh. The election was to be held every 5 years for making a committee of 175 members. 80 percent of these member were to be elected and the remaining to be nominated by the elected members. The committee was to have a president, a vice president, a secretary and an executive of 35 members. The first president of SGPC was Baba Kharak Singh, vice president Captain Ram Singh and secretary Sardar Bahadur Mehtab Singh. Although constituted as a purely religious body for the management of Gurdwaras, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee with its vast resources (its annual budget now is around a thousand million rupees) performs multifarious functions. Besides propagation of religion including running of free kitchens, it runs a large number of schools, colleges and Universities, namely Sri Guru Granth Sahib World Univesity at Fatehgarh Sahib and Guru Angad Dev Veternary and Animal Sciences University (also Guru Ram Das Medical College and Dental College at Amritsar). It also manages agricultural farms on Gurdwara lands, encourages research, printing and publication of works on Sikh religion and history, and helps victims of political repression as well as of natural calamities. It arranges visits of Sikh pilgrims to Gurdwaras left in Pakistan and maintains laison with Sikh organizations in other Indian states and abroad. It takes up with the government matters of Sikh interests or grievances. The committee has published a telephone directory (last edition October 2017) in which the details of all the members, Gurdwaras under their control and school and colleges run by them with and without aid, have been given. The said directory is available from the office of the SGPC at Amritsar. Its contact numbers are 0183-2553956-57-58-59-60. Presently, the President of SGPC is S. Gobind Singh Ji Longowal and the Secretary is S. Roop Singh. Their contact numbers are 0183-2553950 and 0183-25543461 respectively.
