The decision of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandak Committee (SGPC) to revise the Nanakshahi calendar has sparked a row. The calendar was adopted in 2003.
The decision of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandak Committee (SGPC) to revise the Nanakshahi calendar has sparked a row. The calendar was adopted in 2003. Earlier, Sikhs used to follow the Bikrami calendar to fix days of religious congregations such as ekadasi and amavasya.
Right from its day of implementation, a large number of Sikh organisations had rejected the Nanakshahi calendar. Since then, Sikhs have been organising their religious functions on two different dates. The controversy also overshadowed the celebrations of the 300th installation of Guru Granth Sahib at Nanded in Maharashtra last year.
Delhi Sikh gurdwara management committee chief Parmjit Singh Sarna has called a meeting in New Delhi on November 9 to deliberate on the issue. Besides Sikh scholars, leaders of Damdami Taksal, who have been opposing the Nanakshahi calendar, the five Sikh high priests and Pal Singh Purewal, who was instrumental in casting the calender, have also been invited to the meeting.
Besides fixing dates of various religious days, the calendar also includes some controversial new celebrations. For example, June 4 has been noted as the anniversary of the attack on the Akal Takht, and June 6 as the martyrdom of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. It also lists as martyr’s day the death of the two assassins of Indira Gandhi.
Purewal, who made the calendar, said it was part of the Sikh religious identity. The Bikrami calendar, he said, had its roots in Hinduism.
The Nanakshahi calender is based on the length of the tropical year, which is based on the gurbaani. But Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) president Simranjit Singh Mann said neither the priests nor the SGPC authorities had any right to make changes in the calendar as the old lunar calendar was against the philosophy of Guru Nanak Dev.
Mann said it was a “matter of shame” that certain vested interests, particularly orthodox saints, were trying to change the Nanakshahi calendar, knowing fully well the spirit of the Guru’s baani.
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